Adventure Magazine Cover, October 1911 — page 160: what you’re looking at

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

1106 Hargood sensed the meaning and the strain that would fall upon them, the start- ing of hope, the slowly dragging minutes of suspense after their calm resignation. “Steady, girl, steady!”’ hewarned. ‘‘ Don’t answer till you catch a full breath.” It was timely aid. With desperate effort of muscle and will Julia regained mastery of herself, aching eyes fixed upon the frail point where the rope clung, numb lips re- peating his command. She raised a quaver- ing hail in answer. Quick shouts showed that she was heard. She repeated her cry. Deep-throated re- sponse in another key came back. She glanced once from the rope to the upper sur- faces. If it should slip again—now! Hours had passed, it seemed to her, be- fore Otto, high above, caught sight of her and bellowed. He worked nearer and leaned out. Swiftly, in three emphatic phrases, she explained the imminent danger. ‘Then, after another long interval, a blessed line wriggled in tantalizing spirals down the cliff. She watched it dully, exhausted, in- capable of further emotion after the last terrific revulsion. Like a live thing it snaked and whirled and looped, dropping too far to the right, then too far to the left. It coiled over the edge. Then she saw it tighten with a pull from below and she knew that Hargood had caught it. The world went blank SAFE on the upper ice-field, with the couple they had all but given up, the rescuers indulged ina very credit- able imitation of a Sioux war-dance, a strange, yelping group amid the white, cold reaches of the Brughorn. Major Ripley AR Adventure whooped and jigged about on his thin old legs, stopping ever and anon to pat Julia’s pale cheek foolishly. Evart hugged her and Hargood indiscriminately, footing clumsy, intricate steps the while. Otto rejoiced vigorously in his own guttural tongue. He halted sharply to break out, with notable emphasis, ‘‘Jener verdammte, Jergens!”’ Probably no tribal humorist of the Ale- manni ever achieved the success that came to Otto for that unpremeditated sally. It was the relief they needed and laughter restored them to sanity. Then Hargood told what he had to tell, omitting certain important details for an effective climax. But Julia, half in mis- chief, wholly in love, robbed him of it. “You see,” he was saying, to the breath- less audience, “through some wonderful chance, Julia slid to a safe hold. Even if the rope had slipped she could have let go her belt, which she had loosened. So she was entirely out of danger de “But I hadn’t!” interrupted Julia, and her eyes were turned on Hargood with a look that sent red ripples through his blood. She gave a little toss of her tam-o’-shanter. “I hadn’t loasened my belt. I hadn’t touched my belt. I was holding to the rope with both hands!” He blinked at her. cried. “‘ You mean—— “That’s just what I mean,” she nodded vigorously. ‘‘I couldn’t have saved you, dear, but I shouldn’t have let you go— alone!” Evart fell upon him bodily. “What for a dopester am I, Collis?” he chortled. “What for a dopester? She wouldn’t let you go! Four francs, please!” “Why—Julia!” he 9) — a Sr cComicbook C©