Adventure Magazine Cover — page 158: what you’re looking at

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144 beneath loose stones. But, in such dark- ness, he could not hope to eradicate all marks of the fall from the sharp eyes that would surely be seeking for them as soon as light permitted. ‘There would be spatters of blood and, in the meantime, there were other things to do—hopes to work on. Remsden was one of these latter. McNEILL tackled his employer without formality. “Remsden, we are in bad shape. They’ve got us cornered. The Hoang Lung crowd has just filed along the cliff across the way. ‘They are suspicious of this place and they’ll hang around till morning. ‘There are only two horses fit to travel.” “How do you know they are the Hoang Lung crowd? They may be just a band of robbers with whom Ling was in league.”’ “T’ll bet you know it is the Hoang Lung outfit better than I do, Remsden. In point of fact, it doesn’t matter who they are, so long as they are hostile. If they get us— well what they do to us two men don’t count so much. I'll take good care they don’t get Miss Helen alive, but they are nasty devils and their sort of vengeance don’t stop at death. Now I am pretty certain you’ve got us in this scrape— something you’ve done at the temple. [If it was sacrilege we can’t help it now. If you’ve stolen something, you and that sleek rat of a Fung-Ti, perhaps they’ll make terms with us if you give it up. And it’s up to you to do it.” Remsden’s beefy face was rigid with obstinacy. . “T’ve done nothing that can be undone,” he said. McNeill, keeping the ray shaded from without, suddenly threw the light on Remsden’s face and surveyed him keenly. The pop-eyes showed only a sullen dogged- ness. “Tt was all right for you to risk your own life for whatever you were after,’’ went on McNeill, ‘but, though you told me and told your stepdaughter you only wanted to wit- ness the ritual, I don’t believe you. But now you are risking her life and mine for that matter. You’ve fooled both of us. It’s two lives against yours and both of them younger ones. Ling somehow slid off this cliff a little while ago,” he went on moodily. ‘You might do the same thing.” Adventure “You mean you would kill me?” “Tf I were sure you had something on you that would save the girl’s life by giving it up, I would, without compunction.” Remsden gulped. “You can search me if you like, McNeill. I’ve got nothing on me. You can search my baggage, destroy it if you like. You'll find nothing. I wanted to see the ritual. I may have offended them, but you’re on the wrong track. There must be some way out of this. It isn’t just a question of money, McNeill. I told you I’d give you a bonus if the trip was satisfactory. Ill double that. Ill triple it if you get me safe into Peking. That was in the contract —to guard as well as guide. Get me safe into Peking, McNeill, and Ill give youa thousand dollars. Tl give you five.” ““T wouldn’t accept five cents for trying to save your skin,” said McNeill. ‘“‘D’ll do the best I can for you as per contract. Now you get back to the end of the cave. I'll need you presently.” “Vou think we can get away?’ asked Remsden persistently. “T said for you to get inside,” said McNeill so grimly that the stout man crept obediently away. Presently McNeill followed him. The girl was still sleeping. He switched his ray into the rift above his head and clambered up the slanting way. It was some four feet wide and the sides were damp with moisture. It narrowed, but he wormed his way on and then backed down again. “Tt goes through,” he said to himself. “And it’s all soft earth, I’m fairly certain— just a landslide. There’s a chance—for her. And, by the Eternal, we’ll open it up if I work those Chinks’ fingers to slivers of bone. He kicked up the drowsy Mongols, prod- ding them with a knife in one hand, threat- ening them with his pistol in the other, explaining to them what he wanted. Soon they were at work with stirrup- irons, with pots and metal cups, with jagged cans, one above the other in a living ladder, digging at the soft soil, passing it down in improvised sacks and panniers from the pack animals, working desperately under McNeill’s supervision. They labored in the dark, save for occasional spurts of the torch, but they made good progress. Remsden watched without speaking to McNeill who had no time to spare for him, and then the girl awoke and came feeling = GComicbooks.co