Adventure Magazine Cover — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

Forward “Health to your Honor,” I poimted out, “In that case we can throw the luggage in the wagon and use the pack aninals as spare mounts for the servant and Tatars. Then, perhaps. Pavel—Paul Jones can sleep in it when we halt.” In this way our progress would be swifter and I was glad when the American ordered the packs thrown into the farantass, and we set out with three extra mounts, leaving the equerry standing at salute. Ekh, I was glad to ride for the last time through the muddy streets in the pale dawn and hear for the last time that clamoring, invisible ringing of the bells. Il When the net is. invisible the fish thinks. the water is clear. That is how the fish ts caught. FOR a time that day I watched John Paul, to see how he would bear au himself. Ekh, he was at home in the saddle, that chap, and he forced the pace faster than the Englishman, Edwards, wanted to press on. Because it was the sea- son of the raspuiitsa, the flood during the spring thaw, the roads were no better than fords across the treacherous swamps. The carriage would slip from the crown of the road and sink into the mire up to the hubs. After John Paul had dismounted once and put logs under the wheels, to force the carriage back to the road, I made. the pos- tilions change places with the Tatars. I was angry because we had to drag along the tarantass, but if I had known what evil was stored up for us within it, I would have unhitched the horses and left it lke a stranded ship in the great pools of the flooded country. If it had not been for John Paul we should not have reached the first of the zamoras —the post stations along the highroad to Moscow—that night. The sun had gone down behind a cloud bank when we drew up at the inn and a score of slouching rogues came out tostareat us. They showed their teeth but nothing more when I elbowed them aside and shouted to the pig of a2 tavern keeper to make ready a leg of mutton and brandy spirits and bread for their excel- lencies, the officers, who had chosen to quarter themselves in the carriage after looking once at the inn. They sat on the shaft and ate the dinner when it was brought, but I went to the II stables before eating to make certain that the Tatars had watered the horses and given them oats. I found all as it should be, the beasts bedded down and the Tatars not yet drunk on chirkhir, and I was turning away to seek out my dinner when one of them touched my knee. ‘Horses!’ he said, and after a moment, ‘Nine riders on the road, Ivak Khan.” Now Tatars have ears like weasels, and it was quite a while before I heard the hoof beats coming nearer. The Tatar who had spoken peered up at me and pulled his forefinger across his throat, then touched the hilt of my saber. He meant that men were around who would cut my throat and warned me to be on guard. Just as he did so a screaming began in front of the inn, a shrill screaming that was horrible to hear. I took off my kalpack and crossed myself, for it sounded like a woman vampire calling from the forest, but the cries were coming from the wagon. ““Aid—aid! Who will hear the prayer of a Christian maid?” John Paul and the Englishman were on their feet, staring at the ¢éarantass in as= tonishment, because all the day that wagon had given out no cries and now there was either a woman or a vampire inside it. A body of horsemen came clattering up to the fire, and the leader dismounted and strode over to the wagon. He was an en- sign of the Guards with a long mustache and a long saber and a red face. The six troopers with him kept lo their saddles and worked their horses around so as to hem us in. “Let us see what is boiling in this pot!” growled the ensign, jerking open the doors. He began to haul at something and presently pulled out—for he was a strong man—a girl who was bound with belts at the wrists and ankles. She was slender, with tangled dark hair, and she wore a silk cloak lined with hare’s fur. All the time the ensign was unbuckling the straps she leaned on his shoulder and wept, chattering like a squirrel. Servants of the American, she said, had overtaken her in the street of Petersburg and had gagged her. Then she had been carried to John Paul’s house and placed in the wagon. She said—and this was quite true—that she had had nothing to eat all day, and had been shaken up and down like wheat at threshing. CO DOOLK C©