Adventure Magazine Cover, October 30, 1924 — page 111: what you’re looking at

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

The Moor of Milan IOI muttered prayers, but Silvain dashed on as fast as his horse could gallop. “He rides like a man who flees from Thibaut communed with himself, ‘and like a man who has been in he looks. Pity me, where is he taking me now?” ‘For at the first crossroads Silvain struck off to the east away from Milan and still drove his horse on till Thibaut cried out— ‘“‘Have mercy, lord! We can not hold this pace.” But Silvain made him no answer, nor checked. After a while they saw Bonivard and Clarissa ahead and Bonivard looked back and when he saw who they were drew rein. But Silvain shouted at him— “Forward, forward, make your best speed, forward!’ and when he came up with them, “By my faith, you must do better than this, Louis. You should have been twenty miles away. Forward, forward!” “What now?” cried Bonivard. ‘Are they hunting us again?” “Be sure of it,” Silvain said. “Every man Lodovico can mount.” “This is mad.”’ Bonivard stared at him. “When I called for. my horse this morning they said I was a prisoner and I found a guard at my door. Then they told me we were free to go and brought our horses and opened the gates. Now you say the man means to capture us again. Why, he changes like a weathercock.” “Tt was not Lodovico who set you free. It was the Lady Beatrice of her mercy. For she is noble and gracious. But when Lodo- vico knows of it he will use all his strength to seize you. And I think by now he knows. Ride, ride!”’ “Lodovico did not know? How should he not know?” “That was a trick I played upon him, and a shameful trick. God in heaven, must we talk? Your lady is free today. See to it she is free tomorrow. That is your work.”’ Bonivard’s honest face lowered. “T do not understand!”’ he grumbled. “It was you who brought us to Lodovico. You are his man. And now, if this is true, you have betrayed him.” ““God in heaven, I know it,” Silvain cried. “T am shamed, do what I will. But you—”’ he looked at Bonivard—‘‘by my faith, it is not you who should tell me so.”’ Then Clarissa cried out— “Oh, my lord, you have no shame in this.” a. ’ “Let it be,’ Silvain said. “I do as I can.”’ So they rode on in silence, through the hot Italian noon. Bonivard had chosen the road which sirikes across the plain to the passes beyond Tyrin, the shortest way to the mountains for a man who dared not go by Milan. ‘‘When we are in the hills we are safe,” he said, but the hills were far away. 7 Having made a dozen miles from the castle, Silvain was content to ride a slower pace. ‘“‘We have something in hand, I hope. Now let us nurse the horses and keep it.” But they had ridden their horses out be- fore he would halt. It was a squalid lonely village which received them. As soon as they had found quarters, he took Messire Thibaut to seek fresh horses. The village had nothing but oxen and mules. “It.is as well as it is, lord.” Thibaut shrugged. ‘‘We could do no more this day. The woman must rest or she will die.” ‘“‘Lodovico will not rest,’ Silvain said. “‘But’his horses can do no more than our horses,”’ Thibaut protested. Silvain did not argue it. He knew what he would do if he were Lodovico, send mes- sengers to every town in his rule to set mounted men scouring all the roads to Switzerland. He looked for fresh pursuit from every side. Back to the stable he went and used his horsemaster’s skill on the weary beasts, and through the night Thibaut and he kept watch and watch, and before the dawn he roused Bonivard and Clarissa and they took the road again. In the morning twilight they saw the walls of a town and shunned it, striking away across country to join the road be- yond, and this they did safely though it was slow work over the sodden fields, and their caution was justified. For they came out upon the road again beyond a picket of horsemen who shouted a challenge. Silvain turned in the saddle and saw Lodovico’s colors. ‘“‘Peace be with you,” he cried. ‘We are the Duke of Savoy’s men. We ride to Turin.” That held the horsemen a moment who talked together and again shouted to them to halt. “Now ride, brother, ride,” Silvain said, and dashed on. comiclbooks.cO inn