Adventure Magazine Cover — page 149: what you’re looking at

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

The Road exploring the recesses of the marsh and lake? Let me put myself at the signorina’s service.” Agnew wheeled to face Katrine, and for the first time since her arrival she saw in his regard a slackening of the rigidity with which he had continued to meet her. She looked at Uiko. The fisherman grinned cheerfully back. “Speak to the signorina,’ he said to Agnew. ‘‘Let her hear my proposal.” Briefly Agnew translated. ‘“‘Wouldsyou care to go for a row?”’ he asked. : For a moment astonishment kept her silent, for she had not grasped his meaning as referring to Uiko. Was this the first - sign of relenting? ‘“Aren’t you too busy?” she returned. “T should enjoy it immensely, but my father has just been asking for you. Per- haps, if it is still light, when you have finished your talk is This time it was he who showed surprise. No, it certainly had not been in his mind that ke was to spend an hour’s leisure in poling Katrine from lagoon to lagoon in Uiko’s dilapidated ark. And then, on the heels of that thought came another. Why not? Was he afraid? A sense of irritation stung him. Of course he was not afraid! He had had his lesson—he had thoroughly | benefited by it. He would proveit. “Very well,” he said quietly. “If you can wait, I will borrow this apology for a boat and take you across to the Albanian shore. Your father is not likely to detain me long.” She looked at him gratefully. “Thank you,” she said. ‘T’ll wait.” For the first time he had not shunned her— the outer wall, at any rate, of his antipathy . was down. She sat down upon a block be- side the edge of the wharf to meditate the possibilities of an hour’s companionship. Her meditations had no time to crystal- lize into purpose. She looked up at the sound of a step to see Jovan approaching. The Albanian saluted her respectfully and immediately plunged into conversation with Uiko. ‘The latter had watched Ag- new’s departure with an inquiring and somewhat discomfited glance. ‘“T asked the Excellency to persuade the signorina to enter my boat,” he explained _ to Jovan. “They spoke together and then the Excellency merely bade me wait.” Jovan looked at Katrine. “Will you . signorina,” he said dryly. 905 not accept his offer to go for a little voy- age?’’ he asked in Italian. ‘‘Did not the Signor Agnew pass it on to you?” She understood at once. She flushed and then the sudden sense of humiliation died. No, Agnew had not relented. She had misunderstood him. But the results of the misunderstanding were still hers to make use of. Had she not set herself dog- gedly to follow Jovan’s advice? This expe- dition could be made to fit in with it. “T am waiting for Signor Agnew,”’ she said quietly. “It is he who is going to take me on the lake.” Ee bow of comprehension. ‘‘It is this - child of dirt who did not get the Signor Agnew’s meaning,” he deprecated. “The Signor fAgnew will return immedi- ately.” He grew thoughtful. “There is no time, then, to lose,’”’ he added suddenly. “Could the signorina oblige me by the temporary loan of her handkerchief? ”’ For a moment her surprise kept her hesi- tating. Then, ‘‘Here,” shesaid. ‘But after all, you are a little startling, are you not?”’ The Albanian bowed again. “If the signorina will condescend to wait a bare five minutes—or less?”’ He walked steadily away to the row of huts that ringed the mud piazza. halted at Gessi’s door. She saw him knock and enter. Two minutes later he returned with a complacent air. He handed her back the handkerchief with a courtly gesture. “The handkerchief is undoubtedly yours, “The Signorina Gessi does not claim it. I informed her that Signor Agnew had picked it up and sent me with it and his compliments. I was able to inform her, thus, that Signor Agnew was shortly to be found upon the embankment. She is on the point of com- ing to thank him for his consideration.” -Katrine’s eyes had grown wider and wider during this short but amazing reve- lation. A twinkle of enjoyment shone in Jovan’s usually somber eyes. “T thought it as well that the Signorina Gessi should be present to watch your em- barkation with Signor Agnew,” he said. “I do not think that, up to the present, she has taken seriously the possibilities in your presence here.” Katrine was nearly hysterical with laugh- THE Albanian made her a little Comicbook He . (©