Adventure Magazine, April 10, 1924 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

i8 7 Adventure against steel. The Lombard’s sword flashed in a circle that ended high above his own head. Robert, by moving his arms quickly, had deflected the heavy blade so that it passed harmlessly over his helmet. Piculph recovered and smote again, straight down at the Englishman’s head. Robert planted his feet and whirled up his blade, turning the other’s aside and into the sand. “Thy purse likes me well, Sir Curthose,” cried the Hospitaler. ‘Ha—treachery!”’ Near at hand his quick eye had dis- tinguished one of the Lombards kneeling with a short battle mace drawn back to throw. In that elusive light the iron club might have been cast unseen, and at such short range it could not fail to reach the Longsword. Drawing his sword, the young knight ran at the front of the circle of men- at-arms; midway in a stride he faltered and flung up his arm. A dagger, wielded by one he had passed, had struck fair into the side of his throat, and gasping, he sank on his knees, choking out his life. The quick movement had caught the eye of Robert, who cried out and sprang aside from Piculph. ““A deed most foul!” he grated through set teeth. “Montserrat Picking out the man who had stabbed the knight and who was trying to work back into the throng, he slashed him full between neck and shoulder and used his point on the henchman who still balanced the mace. = , Montserrat; since when have you plied the trade of cutthroat? Ah, Piculph!” Whirling to meet a fresh onset from the seneschal, Robert gave back the Lombard blow for blow, until the clashing of steel drowned the shouts of the aroused liege- men. Sweat gleamed on the Lombard’s broad cheeks, and his breath labored as he exerted all his strength, fearing now for his life. Robert whipped his sword over the other’s guard, and the edge of the blade thudded against Piculph’s neck under the ear. It struck upon the fold of the mail coif and glanced up, biting through the chain mail and stripped the end of the jaw-bone and the ear from the side of the man’s head. The Lombard plunged down upon the sand, and Robert ran to his horse. The bay, trained to stand where he had been left, was in motion before the warrior had settled in the saddle. An arrow whistled through the air, and Robert put his horse to a trot, making the round of the circle once, seeking Guiblo, the Venetian. But Guiblo had withdrawn far into the ranks of his men, and Sir Curthose and many of..the older liegemen stood their ground, unwilling to draw weap- on against the man who had once been castellan of Antioch... “What, my lord,” Robert gibed, ‘‘do you lack of murderers? . Then summon up your hunters and the hounds and so—fare well!’ He had reached one.end of the irregular cleared space; now he wheeled the bay and raked its flanks with rowels. The charger leaped forward, gained pace, and the throng gave way in haste before horse and rider, permitting Longsword ‘to. pass through. He headed for the nearest gully amid the foot-hills, and the voice of the marquis roared after him... “After him! A. cap. full of gold to the wight who brings him.down.” The bay charger, wise and swift of foot, swung clear of the.running men and gained the shadows of the rocks before the riders could draw near him. . Guiblo, his swarthy cheeks pallid, stared down at the lifeless eyes of the young knight whose white cross was slowly obscured :by a dark tide. Be- side him was the hawking-gauntlet. ‘““A good plan,” murmured the Venetian. ““Aye—but three lie slain and a fourth maimed and another hunted by the liege- men, for so slight a. cn as a ribald’s glove.” 3 . CHAPTER IV A fai hound does not hunt well. —Chinese Proverbs. RR OBERT had hunted; a fleeing foeman too often not to know that a fugitive who rides blindly is soon. overtaken or cut off. So he galloped up the twisting gully, scanning the ground on either hand and when he was barely: within the shadow of the hills turned sharply to the left. The bay pricked up its ears, braced its forefeet and half slid on its haunches down into the rocky bed of.a dry watercourse. Here a stand of gnarled cedars hid them from view, and Robert was out of the sad- dle and holding the horse’s muzzle before the last pebbles had stopped rolling. His forehead was bleeding and his head - was ringing from a glancing blow of the two-handed sword that had ripped off his helmet. And black bitterness clouded his COMmMICLOOCkKS.GO©