Adventure Magazine Cover — page 119: what you’re looking at

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

According to the Law We dismounted about fifty yards from the kloof, approached quietly and, seeing no one, went in with a rush.through the narrow opening. Red Jake heard us com- ing and, throwing up his: revolver, fired twice as we came into view. I heard Um- pomba gasp and, turning my head as I ran, saw him down on the ground with the blood flowing from a wound in his thigh. ' We were on to Jake before he could fire again. All three of us went down in a tearing, cursing, fighting, scratching bunch. Then another man, whom Umpomba evi- dently had not seen, must have run out from one of the huts, for I got a kick in the ribs which made me fairly gasp. I rolled clear of Mercer and Jake and sprang to my feet facing this new antagonist. He was a short, thick-set fellow, strongly built and with terribly long arms. He held a knife in his right hand, but, luckily for me, had forgotten his gun in ‘his anxiety to see what all the row was about. _. He came at me with a rush, but I’d dealt with knife-armed toughs before that day. As he threw back his arm to strike I kicked upward with all my might and caught him fairly on the elbow with the toe of my boot, so that the knife flew from his para- lyzed fingers. Then we closed. Gad, but that was a fight. This way and that we tugged and struggled, but neither of us could make much headway with the other, and all the time I could hear Mercer and Red Jake snarling, struggling and cursing on the ground. I fe!: the sweat soaking through my clothing and running down from under my hat int~ my eyes. If the natives who were standing round watching had liked to lend a hand they could have finished us quick enough, but I fancy the treatment they had received from Red Jake and his mates hadn’t made them any too anxious to interfere. We should have stood there and strug- gled until the Day of Judgment, I believe, if my foot hadn’t hit against a stone. I felt the rock turn under my boot and down I went with my opponent on top of me. As we lay on the ground hugging each other, he suddenly loosened his hold and reached out over my shoulder. Next time I saw his hand it held the rock that had tripped me. He held it high for a second and then bashed it down onto the side of Ene head. I didn’t know anything, else after that 109 till I woke up to fend Mercer splashing ~ water in my face. Jake, looking pretty sick and shaky, was roped to a tree-trunk close by. Umpomba, who had managed to crawl up, was covering the hole in his leg with one hand and keeping the natives still with Mercer’s revolver, which he held in the other. Mercer didn’t mean letting those boys go. He wanted them as evidence at Red Jake’s trial. As soon as I was fit to sit up Mercer went off and fetched the horses. I rode one and Umpomba the other. Mercer drove the natives before him with his revolver held ready. Jake was roped to my stirrup. We didn’t lose any time in setting out, for we didn’t want my antagonist, who had got away, to find us there when he got back with his pals. A fortnight later we reached Victoria. There was a pretty big celebration in the ‘“‘Thatched House” that night after Jake and his boys were safely jugged. Next morning Jake was brought Before the magistrate, who committed him to the assizes, which were to be held a fortnight later. mee EVERY one living within a thirty- we five-mile radius was liable for jury =~ service and every one was already summoned. It wouldn’t have made any difference whether they were summoned or _ not, they’d all have been there, just the same; for, apart from the fact that a murder trial was not by any means a usual occurrence with us, the assizes were our annual festival when the _ twenty-odd traders, farmers and transport riders came into town from the outlying stations for a great reunion. I think I told you that we . did things collectively in Victoria in those days? The judge, who came down for the assizes, used to complain that he couldn’t sleep for the noise; you can’t wonder at that, because his room was in a Sort of addition to the Thatched House. But he was the only man in the town who wanted to go to - bed, so it didn’t much matter. On the afternoon before the trial half a dozen strangers rode into the town. Rough- looking customers they were, but they didn’t make any trouble and kept sober through the evening—which was more than we expected of them. In fact, their very DOOK (C@