Adventure, June 1911 — page 116: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

302 rand, and myself, a midget on a horse, spur- ring far behind through the bush on their trail. I had no exhilaration in my quest. I do not think I had even much hope, for some- thing had gone numb and cold in me and killed my youth. I told myself that treas- ure-hunting was an enterprise accursed by God, and that I should most likely die. That Laputa and Henriques would die I was fully certain. The three of us would leave our bones to bleach among the diamonds. andin a little while the Prester’s Collar would glow amid a little heap of human dust. I was quite convinced of all this, and quite apathetic. It really did not matter so long as I came up with Laputa and Henriques, and settled scores with them. That mat- tered everything in the world, for it was my destiny. I had no means of knowing how long I took, but it was after midnight before I passed Umvelos’, and ere I got to the Rooriand there was a fluttering of dawn in the east. I must have passed east of Ar- coll’s men, who were driving the bush towards Majinje’s. I had ridden the night down and did not feel so very tired. My horse was stumbling, but my own limbs scarcely pained me. ‘To be sure, I was stiff and nerveless as if hewn out of wood, but I had been as bad when I left Bruderstoon. I felt as if I could go on riding to the end of the world. At the brink of the bush I dismounted and turned the schimmel loose. I had brought no halter and I wanted him to graze and roll. The light was sufficient to let me see the great rock-face rising in a tower of dim purple. The sky was still picked out with stars, but the moon had long gone down and. the east was flushing. I marched up the path to the Cave, very different from the timid being who had walked the same road three nights before. ‘Then my terrors were all to come; now I had conquered the terror and seen the other side of fear. I was cen- turies older. BUT beside the path lay something Eye, | which made me pause. “= dead body, and the head was turned away from me. I did not need to see the face to know who it was. There had been only two men in my vision and one of them _ was immortal. I stopped and turned the body over. It was a - Adventure There was no joy in my heart, none of the lust of satisfied vengeance or ‘slaked hate. I had forgotten about the killing of my dog and all the rest of Henriques’ doings. It was only with curiosity that I looked down on the dead face, swollen and livid in the first light of morning. The man had been strangled. His neck, as we say in Scotland, was “thrawn,” and that was why he had lain on his back, yet with his face turned away from me. I looked closer and saw that there was blood on his shirt and hands, but no wound. It was not his blood, but some other’s. He had been dead probably since before mid- night. Then, a few feet off on the path, I found a pistol with two chambers empty. ‘What had happened was very plain. Henriques had tried to shoot Laputa at the entrance of the Cave for the sake of the Collar and the treasure within. He had wounded him—gravely, I thought, to judge from the amount of blood—but the quick- ness and marksmanship of the Portuguese had not availed to save his life from those terrible hands. After two shots Laputa had got hold of him Land choked his life out as easily as a man twists a partridge’s neck! Then he had gone in to the Cave. I saw the marks of blood on the road and hastened on. Laputa had been hours in the Cave, enough to work havoc with the treas- ure. He was wounded, too, and desperate. Probably he had come to the Rooirand, looking for sanctuary and rest for a day or two, but, if Henriques had shot straight, he might find a safer sanctuary and a longer rest. For the third time in my life I pushed up the gully between the straight high walls of rock and heard from the heart of the hills the thunder of the imprisoned river. The hidden turnstile in the right wall stood ajar. I entered and carelessly swung it behind me. ‘The gates clashed into place with a finality that told me they were firmly shut. I did not know the secret of them, so how should I get out again? These things troubled me less than the fact that I had no light at all now. I had to go on my knees to ascend the stair, and I could feel that the steps were wet. It must be Laputa’s blood. Next I was out on the gallery that skirted the chasm. ‘The sky above me was growing pale with dawn, and, far below, the tossing waters were fretted with light. A light, fragrant wind was blowing on the hills, and GO DNOOKS CO ANUC