Adventure Magazine Cover — page 39: what you’re looking at

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

The Web of the Sun cliff at the tiny ant-like figure toiling at the bundles far below them. But although he refused to look, Lassiter saw the little orange-striped man distinctly. The men on the cliff avoided each other’s eyes. Nunes rolled himself a shuck cigaret, then sat tapping and tapping it on his thumb nai]. Lassiter drew out his pigskin case, and his fingers automatically went through the performance of choosing and applying a cigar to his lips, and lighting it. High overhead,;-about two-thirds of the height of the mountains, circled three or four black specks inspecting the motionless forms of the mules, and the equally motionless men. The flavor of Lassiter’s cigar reminded him of Birdsong’s remark in Bryant Park that God did not like the odor of tobacco, that Hé preferred lilac, because Ezekiel and Mollie had been married under a lilac bush in Arkansas. How anthropomorphic! The promoter visioned that marriage— the circuit rider in rusty black; the bride and groom with rustic finery concealing their vital bodies, while above and behind them glowed the lilac—a certain sense of futility, of emptiness, that comes at times to all unwed men, fell over the promoter. Here he was, thirty-nine, sitting on this vast infernal lava drift, and there was not a person in the world to whom he could send letters, if he meditated plunging to destruc- tion, except his resignation to M. L. N. Morrow. Perhaps he ought to have married one of the stenographers—— And he was soft, with a core- reaching softness that comes of thirteen years at . paper work. He was so soft that he was allowing a fanatical colporteur to scramble down alone into an extinct volcano, along sinister ropes, toward a murderous agency that inflicted death in the most mysteri- “ous manner, that dragged dead mules and vanished down enormous cliffs at midnight —and this colporteur was a kind of friend, too; crude and annoying, but still a friend— so this was the knight errant, the adven- turer, who, thirteen years ago had entered ° the Stendill offices seeking romance! This deserter. | Lassiter tossed away his cigar and arose. “Balthasar,” he said briskly, “I think I’ve made a business mistake. I’ve really got to go down—” he flipped his thumb toward the chasm—“‘after all. Pure busi- ness with me—”’ The promoter hesitated. The saddle- ce 29 colored green jacket sat appraising him. After a moment Lassiter went on: “T’m going to tell you why I came out here—I’m looking for locations to open supply depots for airships.” Balthasar nodded casually— _ “Airships “Yes, did you think I was a muleteer?” “No, absolutemente—I wondered " “Well, that’s it, and it just struck me that this crater would make a wonderful hangar and tourist depot. No heavy winds can strike a ship down there. The place is large enough to maneuver in. It is one of the most magnificent scenes to be found on earth Balthasar nodded soberly: “$1, sefior, 1 have been thinking about Sefior Birdsong, too. Iam like you, sefor; never before did Dom Pedro Balthasar Nunes desert his camarado for man or devil.”’ The promoter was faintly piqued when he saw the Colombian placed no credence in his account of the aviation project. However that was of no moment;. Lassiter set about getting certain belongings of his down the rope; then he would rejoin his fellow adventurer. He shouted this news down to Birdsong. From far below he heard an indistinet— “Praise the Lord.” NUNES contrived a sort of ship’s ladder made out of harness to get the Stendill agent over the lip of the precipice to the rope. Then the Colom- bian put loops around Lassiter’s chest and knees and looped him to the line as if he had been another bundle. He fixed leather guards for Lassiter’s hands and showed him how to hold the rope. Lassiter backed down to the ladder, and by looking carefully at the pat of glue, kept his head. Then he loosed the little companionway, 3 and the glue and cliff rushed upward pull- ing a.long silky rope through his hands. It seemed to Lassiter he was descending with the speed of a free fall. The little ledge sprung at him and struck him a jarring blow. He sat there, tied to his rope, jolted and somewhat stunned until Birdsong loosed him. Nunes sailed down as gracefully as a swallow. He held the rope with his legs and one hand while he waved his sombrero with the other. Birdsong took occasion to DOOLK C©