Adventure Magazine Cover — page 63: what you’re looking at

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

The Witch of Aleppo “Even so, what if Lali whispers one word to Sidi Ahmad “She could not go back to her people. The girl has a spirit of flame, there is nothing she will not dare. Besides, she has a longing to go back to her tribe. We will see.”’ And Demid, in a a ea told Michael what he must do to aid him. At first the cavalier said stubbornly that he would not leave him, but the Cossack pointed out that Michael’s presence would be of small use if he failed in the Wolf’s Ear, whereas if he won clear he would need Michael and the men, to escape from the city. Besides, if nO messenger were sent to the warriors, they and Ayub would remain on the hill outside the wall until they were discovered and slain. “*They had an order,’’ he added gravely. “Egad,” thought Michael, ‘and so have I.” *‘Keep Hassan by you until the last; so long as you have him the Arab will not hft his voice against us.” XI AYUB ISSUES A CHALLENGE AFIER sunset when the heat began to pass from the baked streets of Aleppo, the light and tumult of the festival arose and swelled through all the quarters of the guilds, even to the gate, e} Nasr, for- merly the Gate of the Jews but named otherwise by Saladin the Great. The flickering lamp against the iron fret- work of the portal—the lamp kept lighted since the day of the prophet Elisha—vied with the colored lanterns of a puppet show before which lean Arabs and stout Osmanlis stood gravely, bubbling, however, with inward mirth. A party of saddlers assembled in the faya, the cleared space just within the gate, sweating under their sugar-loaf hats and tiger skins and the burden of a float manned by several agile buffoons, who cracked jokes with the half-dozen janizaries on guard at the post. Other lamps appeared on the balconies of the nearest houses, where veiled women sat, and occasionally a shrill voice rose over the monotonous tinkling of a guitar. - Nimble-footed urchins scurried about in the throng, wielding pig bladders inflated 57 and tied to sticks, casting wary glances when a silence fell at the bulk of the Wolf’s Ear, which, apart from the merry-making, showed black as a bat’s wing against the glowing sky over the hills. But Hassan, the Arab was not among them. Hassan came limping toward the gate in bedraggled garments, snuffling and tearing at his hair. Behind him staggered a slender figure, veiled. The throng gave back as the two neared the gate and the child’s cry could be heard. “‘ ‘Way for him who goes to the mercy of Allah! Riwan hath opened the gate of mercy to this one. A7-al”’ He tugged vahantly at the rope which seemed to drag the figure of the leper along. Shrewdly enough, Hassan, on seeing that the faya was alight and crowded, had aban- doned the idea of secrecy and made outcry sufficient for a half-dozen deaths. More- over he did not make the mistake of asking that the portal be opened. But he edged closer to the janizaries who drew back with oaths. “Child of misfortune. Cover the fire of disease with the water of solitude.” ‘‘At-al Iam hts son!” “A lie escaped thy tongue.” They s Nevall to curse the weeping boy and his il-omened familiar. “You are the son of all stupidity.” “IT know not where to go.” “Allah!” One of the maskers spoke up feelingly. “Instruct the boy in what he should do. The leper is far gone: let him go out to the burial place of the unclean.” Here Hassan began to wail the louder, and the crowd began to revile the guards who did not open the gate. “Tt is forbidden!’ growled the one in command. ‘‘So also is a dying leper forbidden within the city.” ‘“This may be the Frank on whose capture is the price of ten slave girls.” ‘“O pack-saddle of an ass! The warrior Frank was tall as a spear; this one is like an ape.” The janizary hesitated, and for a moment Michael feared that Hassan might betray him; but the boy remembered very well that the cavalier had a simitar under his cloak, and, besides he had heard his real father swear an oath on the Koran. That © was binding on Hassan as well. “He can not speak,’’ Hassan forestalled the soldier’s intention of questioning the oO COMmicloo S (©