Adventure Magazine Cover, June 18, 1921 — page 111: what you’re looking at

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

The Champion his voice. - “Gone! You mean—you mean, she’s gone away? She won’t be back?” “No, she won’t be back,” said Roper. “She went last night. So did Stort. Now shut up and go to sleep.” “So did Stort? Not—not together?” exclaimed Bruce. “Yes,” was Roper’s short answer. Bruce lay quiet a time, trying to_digest the amazing information. It was too good almost to be true. He was conscious of a lightness of heart he had not felt since—not since the moment when the purser of the Island Queen had handed him Mazie’s « book. It was .a thought that gripped him. He appealed again to Roper. “Will you hand me that black book; the one over there on the table?” he asked. IOI “No, no, I don’t want to read it; just to hold it. Ill go to sleep, I know.” Roper got it for him, and he held it to his breast with one weak, uncertain arm. It warmed his heart; he drew strength from it, and courage. He felt as if he had escaped from ugly darkness into light, from night- mare into reality. Mazie’s book, Mazie’s love, between him and harm. What an idiot he had been to think that anything could come between him and Mazie! What a fool to fear a naked brown woman! Now he was clear-headed, he could see the absurdity of the thing. Marua—and Stort —gone away together! Suddenly Bruce laughed. ‘She went with Stort! Now, wasn’t that just like native woman?” “Yes. Shut up,” answered Roper. THE CHAMPION (Suggested by a story of Jack London’s) by Berton Braley T AIN’T the kid that’s sittin’ over there Who has me scared. He’s young and strong all right, But all I gotta do is box with care And I can come out winner in this fight. No, it ain’t him I’m worryin’ about; It’s something in his corner that I see; Something I know—an’ know beyond a doubt Is lurkin’ there an’ waitin’ there for me. Why, ever since the day I won the belt— That’s five years, now—I’ve seen it every time That I have fought; an’ though at first I felt Like sneerin’ at it—bein’ in my prime— Each bout I see it clearer than it’s been, An’ some dav some young feller’s gonna crawl Between the ropes—an’ he’ll be It—an’ then There’ll be another champion, that’s all! What is it that I see? Why, bo, it’s Youth! Youth with the punch, the vigor an’ the zest. It’s bound to come; I gotta face the truth. An’ when it does, though I may fight my best, Use all mv skill an’ cunnin’, clinch an’ hold, It’s gonna rock me, close my swimmin’ lamps, An’ then, the knock-out; me a-lyin’ cold An’ Youth announced the champ of all the champs. For I was Youth when I jumped into fame An’ put the other champion on the shelf, An’ this I know, because I know the game, It’s Youth will slip the same thing to myself! COmicloo \ ) C©