Adventure Magazine Cover, April 3, 1918 — page 163: what you’re looking at

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

The Man Who Whipped a City waiting to ask her father’s permission, she hastened for a wrap and went toward the garage, which stood just behind the house. Three minutes later she was at the wheel of the big touring-car and driving at a rapid rate toward Westover’s jail. The glare of the headlights showed her that the rain had ceased. At the jail she demanded entrance in her father’s name. The jailer had found a candle; he opened the strong front door and held the flickering light above his head. “Oh, Ae She interrupted sharply: “I’m going to take Peter Huntley to the dam to straighten out things there—release him, and hurry!” She stepped freide the door to wait. The keeper of the keys telephoned to the Urhart residence, and after a considerable wait Farnsworth Alden answered. It would be all right, said Alden, to send Huntley to the power-plant, but a guard should accom- pany him. The jailer hastened to the basement and unlocked the door of the solitary cell. “Come out,” he began; “they want you 99 He broke off short because the light of his candle showed him that the prisoner was gone! Huntley’s bed, he noted, had been demolished; then he saw: Huntley had used one of its strong railings as a means of prying out two of the narrow window’s rusted bars. Marian was not disappointed when she heard of it. Rather, she was pleased. “He’s gone to the dam,” she declared. “Y’d bet all I’ve got that he hasn’t,” replied the jailer. Marian ignored that. ‘“There’s a good road all the way up there; I’m going up to see if I can help him in any way—please phone Mr. Alden, and ask him to tell father.’ With that she almost ran from the jail, and soon she was driving at a twenty-mile clip along the smooth pike that led up the river. The plant was lighted when she caught sight of it. But that came from storage batteries, of course. She drew up beside the road, sprang from the machine and hurried across the few rods that lay between it and the big brick building. t’s you, Miss Marian! Is any- 161 _ ON THE main floor she found Peter Huntley working like mad over one of the old generators. He was grimy, and his clothing was soiled and untidy, and his face was thin and almost black with beard; except for the fine, brave glow in his eyes, he had the appearance of a tramp. Marian suppressed a sob of pity when she saw him. For a long half-hour she stood there and watched him while he wrestled with dis- connected field wires and worn-out bearings. He was too intent upon his task to see anything else. Finally he finished the work, and then he gave a signal to the sawmill engineer who called himself an electrical engineer because he had taken a short correspondence course in electricity. “Ready, Wildman!” he said. The sallow little man put the big machine in motion, and a steady humming sound came from it. Then he ran to the breaker and threw the current on—and the stricken town below had light! “Peter!” cried Marian. Huntley looked around and saw her. She was radiant with perfect health again, prouder than ever of him, heart-broken with sympathy for him. He went toward her with a happy light on his bearded face; then he stopped because he felt himself unfit to touch her. She understood; she took one of his grimy hands, and pressed it to her breast. “Poor old Peter!’ she sobbed. “I—I didn’t know. They told me you had gone. Then father sent me to a mountain resort to recuperate. I’m so very sorry, Peter!” “Listen, Marian,” said Huntley, his voice grave and hollow. ‘The river has been three feet higher than it is now, and the dam held; but the river is now rising again, from heavy rains on its headwaters, and if it gets higher than it was before I believe the dam will break. Let me look at the gage again He turned and ran. A minute later he was back, and he was excited. “It’s almost as high as it was before!” he told her. “I want you to tell that fool town down there about it. They wouldn’t believe me. Telephone—tell central to warn the people to take their sick ones and get clean out of the valley! And have central instruct them to leave all lights on, and when the dam breaks we'll flash the lights three times as a warning. That will COnniclooolkxs (C@