Adventure Magazine, April 10, 1924 — page 23: what you’re looking at

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

The Making of the Morning Star judged from the - hoof-marks. » Abdullah started to give the stallion his head when he swerved in the saddle and reined in sharply. An arrow whistled between them, and an- other shaft grazed Robert’s ear as he urged his horse forward, Crashing into the underbrush, he drew his sword and slashed at a tamarisk bush behind which a man was crouched. The archer turned to flee, but caught his foot and fell headlong. Robert swung from his stirrups and stood over him, surprized to see that it was the lanky bowman who had. marched with the pilgrims. The man snarled up at him, unarmed—for his bow had fallen from his hand. Robert sheathed the long sword and signed to Abdullah to do the man no hurt. The bowman must have thought them strag- glers of the raiders, and Robert had no de- sire to make himself known, until he noticed a handsome pony with a Moslem saddle tethered to a near-by tree. “Which way went the raiders from Khar?” he asked in English, for Abdullah desired to avoid the path taken by the foray. “You have one of their horses, methinks.” The bowman sat up, his close-set eyes agleam with hatred and suspicion. “Aye, that have I, Saracen. And no aid wilt thou have from me to find the un- _ Shriven dogs, thy companions. Ha, by token of that long sword and high horse thou hast slain a Christian knight that did bespeak me a day agone upon the road to Jordan.” He spat on the ground in front of Robert and sprang to his feet, palpably astonished that he should have been left alive so long. His tousled red hair stood up from his freckled skin, and the shagreen hood upon his bony shoulders was rent by thorns, so it barely concealed the greasy leather jerkin beneath. His thin face was defiant. “Heave up thy hacker, Moslem, and -make an end—for Will Bunsley o’ Norih- umberland will ask no mercy from a black- aviséd knave. Had I my good long bow I'd spit me the twain of ye. Ah, that I would. This lewd Moslem bow, seest thou, carries wide o’ the mark.” He kicked contemptuously at the short Moslem bow with its looping arch and silk cord that lay near at hand. In some way he had lost his own weapon and had found him another, less satisfactory. And his fail- 21I ure to bring down the two riders seemed to irk him deeply. “Nay,” Robert smiled, “the feathers 3 your shaft tickled my ear. And that is close enough.” “Close, quotha!” the bowman sneered. “Why, lookee, my rogue—with my yew bow I’d split thee thy forehead fair and featly at fifty paces.” His jaw dropped, and he fell back a pace. ‘St. Dunstan be my aid! Thou art the knight himself in paynim garb. Aye, that yellow hair——” He scratched his head, looking from Rob- ert to Abdullah suspiciously. “And I would have slain thee in quittance of my revenge.” “Your revenge, bowman?”’ “Ah. Three lives I seek of the Saracens that fell upon our company, to wit: One for the blind priest, good Father Evagrius, that they carried off to torture; another for the maid Ellen that they seized and bound upon a horse—may they sup in purgatory, may their tongues rot out and the kites beak their eyes!” “And the third?” “T vowed to St. Dunstan to feather.me a shaft in the losel that smote me a dour ding upon the sconce.” Will Bunsley rubbed a lump on his skull ruefully, “Aye, a knavish clout it were on this my mazzard.”’ “*Tell me the story of the affray.”’ Robert sheathed his sword slowly. He had thought all the pilgrims slain, but here was news of two taken captive. “Affray, quotha!”’ The archer shook his head. “Nay, ‘twas a shambles and we the sheep.” The surprize, he explained, had been com- plete, for the pilgrims thought themselves safe on the Montserrat lands. The raiders must have been concealed in the gullies near the river, and they rode into the camp ply- ing their bows on all sides. Those who stood up to them were shot down before sword or pike could be used, and Bunsley had barely time to string his bow before he saw the patriarch and the girl snatched up and placed on one of the horses. He sent a shaft into one of the riders and ran after the captives, who were led away at once. Before he reached them he had been struck down by a club or mace from behind, and when he came to his senses the COnmiCLOoO C S (C©