Adventure, August 1917 — page 131: what you’re looking at

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

Rotorua Rex A bullet plopped through her skirts as she stood indecisive and she flopped down, gathering up her petticoats and exposing bony, black-stockinged shanks that worked like pistons as she dragged herself across the knife-edge. Serena gave up her rifle and nimbly followed. It was a desperate mo- ment, silhouetted as they were upon the fin of the ridge. Bristol crossed in safety and knelt once more to cover the two that were left. Roto- rua insisted upon being the last. The de- composed lava crumbled under Loudon’s feet and went rattling down into the gulf. while bullets hummed about his ears. The king, coppery-red with rage, handled his huge bulk like a close-trained athlete. “Now, , we run,” he said. The path was wider now though uneven and crumbly with the weather. Back of them Toruki was shouting to his men, who hung back. | “They no like come along tapu place,” ‘ panted Rotorua. “Zapu no trouble me, along me king.”’ The spur was thrust out from a circular wall of rock like the buttress to a round tower. ‘ The cliff mounted some twelve feet above them, ending in a notch through which the islanders were scrambling, urged on by the king. The last of them got through as the rear-guard came up. The sergeant made a back and Loudon jumped upon it and clawed up to the open- ing where he lay down and reached to aid Mrs. Gower, who was still apparently more disturbed by her ruffled dignity than the actual danger. He hauled her up without ceremony and then the girl swung to his wrists, helping herself to clamber to his side. The sergeant handed up the rifles before he followed. Toruki had failed to get his men to adven- ture the knife-edge and now Loudon, Serena and Bristol made such close shooting of it that they retreated from the ridge in the face of their leader’s frantic commands. Toruki knelt and fired at Rotorua who grunted as he hooked his fingers into a crevice and drew up his weight with the great muscles swelling in his back. Loudon and the sergeant each loaned him a hand and he got across, seizing a gun and joining the rest with an especial sight for Toruki. The tindalo seemed to have a charmed life. Three times Rotorua fired and grunted again at the misses. Twice Loudon beaded 129, down fruitlessly upon the wizard’s chest at less than a hundred yards while the sergeant swore cockney oaths at his own bad luck. A hand was laid upon Loudon’s shoulder. “Let me try,” said the girl. She laid her barrel as steadily as a crack marksman of the range and pulled trigger. Something had jammed in the breech mechanism and, before she got it working | again, Toruki had rejoined his men in the trees. “Rotten luck,’ said Serena. Then, catch- ing Loudon’s gaze, “He is only a mad wild beast. He would do worse than shoot us if he could.” There was excitement of some sort under the trees. Shouts came from the deeper forest and the whole force of the pursuers disappeared. The white men had arrived. The Hawks were coming up with Henderson and the supercargo, furious at the loss of their loot. As Loudon figured this out he remembered the bag of pearls in his pocket. They were still there. By this time through Toruki, the adventurers would probably know of their existence. The crew of the Manawa would be along, he thought, and they had been trained to shoot. The white men would not bother about the tapu but all the natives would and the whites would respect the crossing of the knife-edge. It could be easily commanded from the notch of the crater. But only one could cross it at a time and it was less than fifty yards range. For the present they were safe. ; The crater was a bowl that had formed its own placement upon the spur. About it the broken mountains seemed to rise sheer save for the ridge. It was tree-set about its rim and on its curving floor. A fall cascaded into it, formed a pool and dis- appeared, finding some hidden outlet to the lower strata. Here and there the uneven walls curved inward at the crest and, despite the mounting sun, the basin was in full shade, a place of shadow where the sun came for a brief hour every day and the moon merely glimpsed at night. In the cracks of the cindery walls con- torted trees clung unruffled by the trade that passed overhead. The still air was damp and cold, the faces of the leeward rocks were green with mold. There was food of sorts. They were above the coco- palm zone but there were other nuts, wild oranges and mountain apples, and the CoMmiclbooks CO S|