Adventure, August 1917 — page 144: what you’re looking at

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

142 The wizard was bedecked in his wiggery of beards and girdled with the long black tresses. As he showed distinctly, Loudon shifted his rifle. Rotorua laid a big hand upon the barrel. _ “No,” he said with gruff emphasis. “Toruki, he mine.” Suddenly he rose to his feet and roared out his one word of command in Melanesian. “Kall.” ae THE RIFLES spat and Toruki’s “ag warriors whirled about in a mob. ; Three or four of them sprawled on the ground, clutching convulsively at the soil. Toruki broke his way to their center, shouting, and the mob became a circle of defense, the brown bodies hidden behind great shields of wicker, topped with heads whose lips were stretched in the fighting grin and hands that flourished glittering spears. Little jets of rifle fire broke out from between the shields as the king’s men leaped down to the attack. Loudon turned to Serena, lying stretched on her stomach at his side, reloading. “No use firing any more yet,” he said. “Pay.” The native shooters caught his meaning and held their fire. They were as likely to kill their own side as the other. With a shower of javelins, Rotorua’s men had rushed the circle, forcing a breach here and there through which tore the groups bearing the great raking spears. The fight was a mélée of uptossed arms, shouts and the steady. glitter of blades. The clubmen swung their maces and through the riot Rotorua raged, swinging his staff in his left hand while the steel ax rose and fell on skulls and shoulders until its shining surface was dulled with blood. Into the circle the king’s men surged, turned and fought their way out again. Once the ring was broken, the shields were an incumbrance and the bows and arrows useless. The circle was split into quadrants, two of which wavered and fled before the fury of the surprise, clambering the sides of the ravine to be picked off by rifle fire. Loudon found himself shouting as a panting savage went down before his bullet. He was itching to rush down to close quarters but he had no weapon and he doubted himself a match in a hand-to-hand combat. The girl’s lips were pressed close together, her hands were Adventure tremorless as she sighted and pulled trigger. A group of four warriors came charging up toward them, three of them with rifles, intent upon gaining the heights. It was impossible for them to tell foe from friend, except by their attitude, and Loudon won- dered how the natives, once a united tribe, distinguished their enemies. But these were plainly Toruki’s men. The islanders lying beyond Serena fired and missed, wasting precious cartridges. Loudon hit one man in the shoulder and smashed it. The native dropped his rifle but came on, tossing a spear with his left. It struck the brush between Loudon and the girl as he fired again and hit the man in the chest. Another had fallen from Serena’s shot and a third was spinning wildly down hill trying to hold his balance. The last, his face ferocious with its daubs of paint and tossing plumes, reached the other side of the clump behind which Loudon and the girl lay. His arm whirled up above them. Loudon could see the straining muscles, the clenched fist that grasped a wide-bladed spear. He rose on one knee, warding off the blow from Serena. He had just fired the last shot in his breech and the girl seemed unable to get in position to fire. There was a crack just behind him, a spurt of flame that seared the top of his skull'and the warrior’s spear dropped harm- less into the brush while his features wid- ened in a look of utter surprise. Loudon saw a tiny blur between his eyes before he toppled to his knees and fell with his body downhill. Loudon heard a sniff followed by a short ““Ha!”? Mrs. Gower stood behind him with her tiny pistol in her hand. At anything less than powder range it was no more ef- fective than a popgun, but the little pellet had found its mark. “The beast,” she said. beginning to run.” It was true. Rotorua’s men had formed a close cordon across the ravine and were slowly but surely herding Toruki’s men backward to the cliff. They had thrown aside their clumsier, more ancient weapons and armed themselves with those of the fallen, pressing hard upon the fugitives to prevent the latter getting their bows into action. Ammunition generally appeared short, but few shots were being fired on either side. ‘“‘Look, they are cComiclook CO 5}