Adventure Magazine Cover, October 30, 1924 — page 105: what you’re looking at

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

The Moor of Milan Bonivard whistled a scrap of a tune. Silvain recognized an old folk song: When at night I lie in bed I bethink me of my love. It was lost in the murmur of the river. But one of the lights in the tower moved, it was hidden, something white waved from a window. “She is there,” Bonivard said. “She is waiting. And I—I can not tell what to do.”’ 3 “Go and sleep, Louis. I watch,” said Silvain. “Watch here? You must not be seen. That would destroy us all.” Silvain laughed. “I was never yet seen unless I chose. Go, child, go. Tell my brother Thibaut I do not need him this night.” IN THE morning he came reeling into the tavern like a man who had spent the night in a debauch and while he slept Messire Thibaut complained to the landlord that he was a sad fellow, a weak fellow, a drunken dog. When he waked, he had nothing to tell the anxious Bonivard but that he would watch another night. | When he came back on the second day, weak in the leg again and confused in the head, Messire Thibaut swore to the land- lord that he had had enough of it and there was no holding the fellow in a town and they must take the road again. So, as soon as Silvain could be waked, he was set on his horse and led away. Out of Pavia they went and beyond the town Louis Bonivard caught them up. “What device is this, sir?’”’ he asked eagerly. ‘You do not trust me, though I have trusted in you.” “T shall trust you with my life tonight, child,” Silvain said. ‘“‘Be patient. If we have not our horses safe beyond the town there is no safety.”’ Bonivard stared and saw that Thibaut had a led-horse with a bundle on its back. ‘Yes, lord, here is your lady’s horse and here is her saddle,” said Thibaut. ‘‘That I have found for you. Go find the lady; that is your part.” They left Messire Thibaut with all the horses and came back to the town afoot and stole in in the dusk by another gate and in 95 another tavern Louis Bonivard wrote his lady a letter thus: Do not sleep but be ready. When it was dark they walked on the ramparts, and coming near the tower Silvain took from under his cloak an orange and tossed it up into the barred window from which the lady had waved. ‘“‘Please God she is alone,”’ Bonivard mut- tered. “They keep her alone,” said Silvain placidly. ‘She could never have come to the window else. Do not begin to fear, brother.” Alone she was, for in a while she came to the window again and waved her scarf. “The letter is read,” said Silvain. ‘‘We have no more to do here this long while.”’ And he took Bonivard to supper at the other end of the town. ~ When honest folk were abed, they came to the riverside again and at the steps by the bridge Silvain stayed a moment and counted the boats tied there and stole down and looked at their fastenings. Then he climbed back to the ramparts and they drew into the shadow of the battlements and waited. All the clocks of Pavia had struck twelve. The officer of the night was going his rounds. They saw him coming back from the bridge gate on the farther bank, lighted by a lantern that his sergeant carried. Ser- geant and officer climbed to the ramparts. As they came by Silvain rose and struck at their heads. Both men went down before they knew it and the only sound was the thud of the falling bodies. Then Silvain and Bonivard lashed them up together in their own girdles and gagged them with their own dagger hilts and took their cloaks from them and their lantern and went on lo the tower. Muffled in the officer’s cloak, Silvain knocked and when he was challenged made answer as he had heard answer given on other nights, that he was the officer of the rounds. The door was opened. A sleepy sergeant of the guard grinned and asked if the captain would drink a cup of wine. Silvain strode into a dimly lighted entry. Out of it a winding stair climbed up the tower. A door stood open from it toa guardroom beyond where three men sprawled at their ease. The sergeant turned away to fetch the micloool (CO inn