Adventure Magazine Cover, October 1911 — page 193: what you’re looking at

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

The Woman With the Wclves Morant. I lured him—lured him—until he was certain that I would marry him. It was not easy for me—yow did not understand; but 1 remembered poor Boy Lovell and I was firm. ‘Last Monday came—last Monday— when I had promised to give him an answer. Oh, but he was very confident, he was very sure of me, sure of himself! I did not wait for him to come to the house. I walked out and met him—with my wolves. I had not taken them out for several days. Besides, I knew that Stark was cruel—perhaps he would try to be cruel when I had given him his answer. But he would not be violent— my wolves would see to that!” I swear the brutes knew she was talking of them. They watched her like jealous dogs. “He came riding up, confident, assured, certain. He slipped from his horse, putting his arm through the bridle, smiling. ‘Ihave come to learn my fate, Princess,’ he said, and suddenly the smile left his lips. He was looking at my eyes and his confidence was all gone—in that one short second. ‘Then I told him who I was, and I told him what he was. I spoke of poor Boy Lovell, and told him how he had died. He saw that it was hopeless for him, and sneered. I became angry then—that was wrong, for my wolves were getting angry, too. I did not notice. All the unhappiness of the past ten years came back to me then—I was thinking of Boy Lovell, of my father, ban- ished from his hut in the forest, of our life in the airless, dreadful town, the squalor of the caravans. To this hour I remember the smell of the snakes I used to perform with. All, all, all came back to me in anger, in bitterness, and I charged him with all I— we—had suffered. “What I said I can not say again to you or to any one. And he stood at his horse’s head with a pale, wicked smile on his lips, repenting nothing, grieving for nothing, re- gretting nothing but the rich marriage he had lost. When I spoke of my agents and showed him that I had known him to be a ruined fortune-hunter from the first call he had paid me, he only laughed. Ah, but he was without heart and without honor! So in the end I gave him his answer. I had the locket in my hands. “You ask me for myself,’ I cried; ‘I give you this!’ and threw the locket in his cold, bitter face. And my wolves were at him—ah, 1139 I had not meant that!’”’ The Princess shud- dered. “I had forgotten them. They thought when I threw out my hand with the locket I set them at him. But I meant no more than to humiliate him, to reject him so contemptuously as to make him suffer. In spite of all that he had done,I could notdo more than that. The rest was for God. ‘““The wolves were mad with rage—I had ~ cried, I think, and they understood—and before I could do anything he was dead. The horse had galloped away wild with fear. I flogged the wolves off with his riding-whip. But he was dead,—torn, and the wolves kept edging in and in. ‘‘T was stunned for a few minutes. Then I saw Lovellacross the heather and beckoned to him. He is a brother of Boy Lovell. I met him by chance in the forest when I first came here and I saw how like he was. I told him the story of his brother and Stark. He wanted to serve me and I made him keeper of my wolves. It was what he asked. “TI beckoned Lovell and he came. He saw the body at my feet—and I told him. He was not sorry. “Take the wolves home,’ he said, ‘and I will bury the body. The bog will take him —and keep its secret!’ Baw “AND that is how it ended. I re- ( y turned to the house and Loveli— =~ took Stark. Next morning he came to me, puzzled and uneasy and told me that he had gone to the spot early, very early, that morning and he had found the turf newly removed from the spot where Stark had been killed. ‘“‘He did not know who had done it. -But I guessed. I remembered you had told me that from your window the view extends for miles in that direction and it came to me that you had seen. That night Lovell came to your house and searched. He found a turf-spade in Gregg’s room—Gregg slept soundly and Lovell moves like a cat. And I. knew who had cut the turf, because it was torn and blood-stained, and I feared, ‘as I fear now, that you had believed I 54 Torrance spoke suddenly. “Yes, I saw it all, from my window, Princess. I saw your hand go up, and how the wolves followed it. But I did not see the locket thrown—how could I at such dis- tance? I hated having seen—and I would not believe what I thought I had seen. Any C© CloOOOLKS C©