Adventure Magazine Cover — page 139: what you’re looking at

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

The Spider very soul of hospitality and it had cost him an unpleasant struggle to do what he had to do. The Spider went out into the bush a few times alone and returned and talked of various things he had seen. Then one morning he and Senhor Affonso went out together, to look at something or other this black-hearted man said he had found. I watched them go and I became more uneasy than ever before. I wanted to follow, but my leg was not yet good enough to let me travel easily and noiselessly; so I looked about, and my eye fell on young Pedro, the droll fellow who used to pretend to devour spiders. I beckoned to him and whispered to him to follow the pair and keep out of sight. He did so at once. ~ TIME passed, and a sort of drowsi- ) had crept upon me, when AY there came a sound—a sound like a shot, some distance away and muffled by the bush. I sprang awake and listened. Suddenly I remembered that Pedro had not taken his rifle—only the machete he always carried at his belt. Senhor Affonso, though, had a gun with him and he might be shooting at some animal. Before long there came two other shots. These were nearer than the first and sounded like the spiteful crack of the Luger. I got up and went to my quarters to get my rifle. Senhorita Flora who had heard the shots too, come out and called to me— “Lourenco, what is it?” But I made no answer and went on as fast as a lame man could. I was just coming out with the gun when Flora’s name was called from the edge of the forest. There stood the Spider. “Come quickly, semnhorita,’ he said. “Affonso has met with an accident.” She started running toward him. I called— “Do not go, senhorita! Wait!” But she kept on, and I began to run too. Then the Spider stopped us both. He fired at me. The bullet missed me so narrowly that IT felt it pass my face. I dodged, my clumsy stiff leg twisted, and I fell sprawling. When [I looked up the girl had whirled and was running back to the house. The Spider, who thought he had killed me, was running after her with all his spidery speed. My rifle had fallen from my hand, and while I was getting it he 125 He dragged her back toward She struggled to escape, and caught her. the jungle. he struck her so hard that he dazed her.. Then he picked her up and ran, but I had my rifle now. I fired from where I lay, aiming low, trying to hit his crooked legs and so avoid injuring Flora. But I shot hurriedly and missed him. Still, my shooting stopped him, for when he saw I was alive he swung the girl toward me and, using her as a shield, fired at me again. As you perhaps know, a man lying down is hard to hit, but his bullet ripped across my shoulders and tore the shirt from my back and burned my skin. I could not shoot again without striking the senhortia, so I did not try. Then came a burst of fire from the house, where the coronel had seized weapons. Now he came bounding out like a jaguar, with a pistol in each hand spitting flame and lead, as he ran. Somewhere behind me, too, a rifle barked, fired by some man about the place. Of course, both the coronel and the work- man shot high, lest they kill Flora. But the Spider, thinking only of himself, had no time to realize this. Finding himself under fire from two directions and hearing yells of rage as other men ran for their guns, he suddenly dropped the girl and ran, diving into the bush. I shot at him again as he fled, but again I missed. Then we all hastened to Flora, whom the coronel had caught up in his arms. For the moment we forgot every- thing but her. Then, still stunned by the blow of the Spider, she moaned— ‘Affonso!’ We all started and looked at one another, and I said— “Ves, Senhor Affonso must have been shot—and Pedro, too.”’ I explained how I had sent Pedro to follow. The coronel snapped: “Go, men, and find them! And find that—that Schwartz, too!” We growled. The Spider would not come back alive if we found:him. But we did not find him, for he had vanished. We pressed on to find our own people. I could not keep up with the others, but I was not far behind when they met Pedro. He came staggering down an old estrada, his face twisted with pain, and he bore ue body of Senhor Affonso. GEomicbooks. co m