Adventure Magazine Cover — page 29: what you’re looking at

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

The Web of the Sun | remained staring downward. Birdsong came up with him and fell into the same trans- fixed gaze. Lassiter hurried forward and a moment later joined their amazement. Oe dropped away into a vast chasm. “amé*e The abyss was as unheralded as the Grand Cafion, and appeared more prodi- gious. How deep it was, Lassiter could form no idea because night already had curtained its profundity. Its width, he was equally unable to gauge because the yellow haze of sunset veiled its eastward reach. Although Lassiter was twenty feet from the brink, a sense of vertigo caused him to back away. After a long gaze, Nunes ‘said— “Senores, this is the end of the trail.” And Birdsong replied— “Tf we are forced to stop here, brothers, it is because I have just proved myself an unworthy vessel.” A faint mirth stirred in Lassiter’s brain. “Tf fancy this chasm would have been here, Birdsong, if you hadn’t danced.” “That may be true, Brother Lassiter, but God in His foreknowledge must have fore- seen that I would fall from grace just where I did, and He prepared this huge holler as a signal of His divine displeasure.” ~ “Preparedness,” said the Stendill agent soberly. “Tf He don’t show me the way across this bottomless pit tomorrow,” said the Arkan- san somberly, “I’ll know my name ain’t recorded in the Book of Life.” At that moment from far down in the darkness of the abyss there shot up into the eyes of the travelers a beam of scarlet light. It looked as if it were shining out of immense depth. It stared out of the very bowels of the earth. Balthasar gasped and crossed himself. A shivery sensation went over even Lassiter himself. Only Birdsong entirely kept his courage. He advanced to the margin of the abyss calling on God to burn the filth and wickedness out of his heart. At that moment the light winked out as abruptly as it had sprung into view. It gave Lassiter the impression that the bowels of the earth had closed over it. The pro- moter stood looking down into the black- ness. “How deep is it?” he asked of nobody. A thought came to him. He drew out his BEFORE the trio, the plateau watch and marked the second hand in the yellow light. ‘‘Heave over a stone, Bal- thasar, I’ll measure its depth by seconds.” The Colombian shook his head. ‘‘No, sefior, I’d heave over a stone and crush a, man’s head at once, but when the King of the Jivaros stares up at me—that’s dif- ferent.” “Chuck something in, Birdsong.” The man from Yell picked up a ten- pound boulder and flung it into the abyss. Balthasar backed away as if expecting some monster to emerge from the emptiness. The two Americans stood listening ten—fifteen— twenty seconds—but no sound ever returned from their plummet. Lassiter slowly re- stored his watch to his pocket. si | don’t guess it’s got no bottom, Brother Lassiter,” a phenomenon quite simply. The trio set about pitching camp. With | this friendly task, the Stendill agent shook off somewhat his feeling of the abnormous. | He and Birdsong put up the tent, unrolled the bedding and picked up wood for a camp- fire while Nunes tethered the mules and gathered grass for their provender. By the time the three men got down to their own supper, the last touch of carmine burned on the peaks and a few pale stars glittered over the shoulders of the mountains. After supper the men sat speculating on the light they had seen in the profound. The beam had not suggested fire. The financial agent ran over a list of possibili- ties, a phosphorescent display, a searchlight, a signal fire, even a vent in the volcano. Nunes was convinced that he had looked into the baleful eye of the King of the Jiv- aros. Even to Lassiter, Chombo Meone’s story did not seem so improbable now as it did in Bujeo. Birdsong was the gloomiest of the three companions. He had seen the gates of hell gaping at him as a reproof because he had driven another spear into the side of Christ by his wicked dancing. From what the agent could gather, Bird- song believed that the abyss and the mys- terious light were created by the Supreme Being for the single and particular purpose of rebuking his ungainly antics. Such vast and unconscious egotism amazed Lassiter. the infinite disparity between a man’s ephemeral tenure of life and the ageless foundations of the earth. - MICLOOOK said the Arkansan, who took such He tried to show the colporteur | (C@