Adventure Magazine Cover, April 1916 — page 30: what you’re looking at

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

28 D’Ogeron’s face darkened at this. Draw- ing back a chair, he curtly motioned her to be seated. | “Enough, Mademoiselle! You mock the honor I would pay you. Better the Gov- ernor’s lady than a courtesan on the streets of Paris.” The girl’s whole body quivered at this indignity, as if she had felt the lash of a whip across her face, and when the French- man threw his arm about her waist and tried to draw her to him, she squirmed out of his grasp, and bending suddenly, gave him a sharp blow behind the knees that sent him sprawling, so astonished that he was speech- less. He lay there blinking at her, the room in silence, save for Nancy’s heavy breathing, the monk with a chicken-wing half-way to his mouth, when there came suddenly a loud knock at the door. Scrambling to his feet with the assistance of the slave who had grasped him by the shoulders, d’Ogeron bade the black man see who might be there. And so they wait- ed, each trying to solve in his own way the cause of the interruption. Presently, when they had heard the door creak and then the fall of the bar into its sockets, the inner door swung open, and Yellow Eyes was there upon the threshold, rubbing his hands and leering at them with those twin orbs like melted gold. “Diablel” cried the Governor. ‘ ’Tis the dumb man. What want you here, rogue? Did I not tell you upon the beach to get thee gone? By the Virgin! How he gib- bers. Curses on your impudence, fellow, be off with you before I have my servants throw you out.” Yellow Eyes stood looking from one to the other, an inarticulate gurgle in his empty throat, his toothless gums opening and shutting. “‘Canst hear what I say, knave?” shouted the Governor. Yellow Eyes fleshless skull. “Then out with it! Out with it, I say? You torture me with my inability to under- stand what those great eyes of yours are saying; though, by the Holy Virgin! I be- lieve he doth try to speak of the English dogs in the dungeon.” A great wagging of Yellow Eyes’s head, his molten eyes turning red with a strange, new light which flamed into them. nodded his Adventure ““Sacrel Itis the prisoners. Is that right, rogue?” Another nod from Yellow Eyes. “Mother of Mary! What is it, then. Speak, I tell you—speak!”’ roared the Gov- ernor in a very rage by this time. “Hein! He can not speak better for your yells, though you shouted yourself as dumb as he is,” broke in the monk. He poured a great goblet of wine, and drained it, and smacked his lips. ‘‘Mon dieu! Maybe the fellow can write if he can not talk.” “Curse my soul, monk, but thou art the very devil for ideas,” cried d’Ogeron. *‘Canst write, knave?”’ Yellow Eyes shook his head that he could not. ‘Curse thee for the blockhead that thou art!’ “Let me try him,” interrupted the monk, putting down his chicken-bones and licking his fingers, while Nancy threw at him a glance of alarm. “It is about the English- men you would speak?” A nod of assent from Yellow Eyes. “Something the Governor wants to know?” Another nod, more vigorous than the previous one. “Important?” Still another nod. “Ah! We are getting at something. Now, what next?” He wrinkled his fore- head and licked his greasy fingers reflective- ly. ‘“‘Nice Englishmen?” he queried, while a silly smile overspread his shiny face at his own question. ‘Nice grandmother!” snorted the Gov- ernor, but Yellow Eyes shaking his head so violently in disapproval of the suggestion that the English prisoners were nice, both d’Ogeron and the monk looked at him in amazement as he leveled his bony finger full at Nancy. She had been standing at the table, on the side nearest the fireplace, and d’Ogeron, moving excitedly from her side toward Yel- low Eyes, she sprang at this to the fire- place, seized the musket, and presented it full at the Governor’s head in such a way that the muzzle commanded Yellow Eyes as well. “If anybody in this room moves a step without my permission I will kill him!’’ she said. “Stir a step, and I will blow the top of your head off.” Without turning her head to look at him, CoOMmMichoooks (CO