Adventure Magazine Cover, October 1911 — page 151: what you’re looking at

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

A Proof By Peril stone, when, out of the bosom of space some- where behind them, there grew a sound. Softly, it began, sonorous, majestic, then swelled in successive waves, grew in awful volume and beat upon them in a billowy tide. The mighty diapason of the Alps thundered forth, rocking the earth; infin- itely deep and terrifying, vast, immeasur- able; a sound to send reason reeling. They stopped upon the path, man and woman, two tiny, quivering things of life, while the sound rose to its fearful height and sank slowly into the valley. Soul to soul they were, and in its nakedness each soul looked upon the other. The color had fled from Hargood’s cheeks and he leaned limply against the gullied slope of the mountain-side. Julia stood watching him and there was neither fear nor tension in her young face. Again the surging roar began, rising in thunderous crescendo, filling the air with a mighty pulse. The world trembled. The crest of the cliff above the path seemed to nod toward them through the heavy, drift- ing wreaths of the fog. ““God!”? stammered Hargood, and his breath sucked between his teeth. ‘“‘It was —ahead of us that time.” The giri was in the grip of a curious com- posure. The appalling danger of the mo- ment left her unmoved. She kept her eyes upon Hargood, and in their fearless gaze was the dawning of a great surprise. ‘Father said the rains had made the Reisenweg unsafe,’’ she observed evenly. “The mountain has slipped twice, behind us and before us.” He seemed not to have heard her. Pal- lidly he gave ear to the booming of the landslide as it ground its way to the depths. He followed some inner train of thought that racked him with tense emotion and played strange tricks with his handsome, mobile face, always plastic to the workings of his nature. “The first must have followed that ravine—back there where the path crosses the bridge.” He spoke with difficulty. “‘And the last was between us and the hotel.” “Yes,” said Julia. Her tone was casual. She remained mentally apart, watching— watching, with incredulity that strove against bitter disappointment and disillu- sionment, the development of this unsus- pected weakness in him. 1097 The conflict in Hargood’s mind, aroused by the alternative presented in one vivid flash to his keen and sensitive understand- ing, furrowed his forehead with anguish. He listened with strained attention. Only the drip from the grasses came out of the fog. Always his glance wandered along the path behind them. ‘““Now that the ravine is filled up,” went on Julia dispassionately, “there is little chance of another slide there. Safety is probably in that direction, back the way we came. We have the overhanging cliff ahead of us.” She made the suggestion deliberately, as one approaches the crucial moment in a fateful experiment. Unconsciously she bent toward him a little. With the marks of his inner wrestling still sharp upon his brow, Hargood came to a decision, apparently urged thereto by her words. “‘Come,”’ he said abruptly, passing a limp hand over the knotted wrinkles. He turned back along the path. “It must be this way.” Julia did not move. She kept her cool gaze upon him, her graceful head poised perhaps a trifle higher, her lips in a thin, white line. “TI prefer to go on to the hotel,” she answered. Hargood shuffled nervously. “No. We must go back. We may be too late, even now,” he said jerkily. “T shall not go with you.” Hargood seemed to come out of some painful abstraction with a start. “What?” he cried. Then, impatiently, ““Come! You don’t understand. It is safe back there.” “‘T shall not go.” “But you must, Julia, you must. I ask you to come with me.” In his eagerness he caught her hand. The mere touch brought a quiver to her whole body. She stepped back quickly. “T shall not go back with you,” she repeated. Hargood’s strong, supple fingers twisted and interlocked. There was much of the Gaul in Hargood. ‘‘Good heavens, Julia!”’ he cried. “‘Why do you thwart me? What notion is this? Don’t you see I’m planning for the best? Don’t be stubborn—at such a moment—with the mountain trembling under our feet. Come!’ He started away again, but she did not move. ‘Julia!’’ he pleaded in frenzy. ‘Are you mad? I say come back with me. There is CO MICLOOKS C©