Adventure Magazine Cover, March 20, 1925 — page 61: what you’re looking at

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

The Snow Driver chilled imbs while the hunter roasted wild fowl on a spit over the flames, and the two Samoyeds crouched at the edge of the circle of light, watching the actions of the white- skinned strangers, afraid to come nearer. Afterward, Joan slept soundly in Kyrger’s diminutive tent of heavy felt stretched over a frame of small birch poles, while Thorne and Peter took turn at mount- ing guard by the fire, both in good spirits at being again upon the mainland. The hours passed, and the light did not grow stronger. - Instead, the surface of the snow, broken by the dark patches of bare earth under the trees, seemed to glow with a radiance of its own. Not a breath of air stirred; the tips of the firs hung lifeless. It was as if a curtain had been drawn over the sun. Joan awakened, and they prepared food in silence, and before they had done Thorne uttered an exclamation, pointing out to sea. During the night, the Samoyeds, aroused by something unperceived by the Englishmen, had gone down to the shore and launched the lugger. Now it could be seen half way out to the blur of the islands, tossing on a restless sweil. Clearly there was wind out there and overhead a shrill whining was to be heard from a vast height. Peter cocked his head and listened attentively, becoming more and more uneasy without being able to put his foreboding in words; but Kyrger who had come up with a pair of reindeer, cast one glance at the white-capped swell, and fell to work taking down the tent. He threw away the birch frame and cut heavy stakes from the pile of firewood. These he drove into the ground in a circle about the edge of the felt, which he clewed down, using twisted strands of hemp. “Aye, aye shipmate,” cried Peter, bear- ing a hand at the task as soon as he saw what the hunter wanted done. ‘“Here’s all taut and snug. But what’s the lay?” Working swiftly and moving about silent- ly in his fur footsacks, Kyrger pounded in all the stakes but two until, save at that one point, his circular felt was tamped down to the ground. Then, with broad leather thongs, he bound up his supply of dried meat, with the be- longings of his companions, and lashed the bundle fast in the crotch of a big fir. The bag of biscuit and cheese he thrust under the felt. 43 ‘Tis little he will suffer us to take with. us when we set out,” grumbled the boat- swain. , “Nay, I think he intends to bide here,” said Thorne. ‘Look at the harts.” The reindeer were behaving strangely. They were short-legged gray beasts with heavy hair and longer antlers than the men had ever seen before. As soon as Kyrger hac. turned them loose they had gone to a hollow between the trees and stretched out on the ground, their muzzles pointing toward the sea. The hunter trotted past Thorne, his arms filled with moss that he had grubbed up from bare patches of earth. This moss. he piled under the nostrils of the beasts. He ran off and reappeared with three fur robes, one having a buff lining. This he gave to Peter, sharing one of the others with Thorne. : His own he wrapped around him quickly, covering his head completely, and, walking to the hollow where the reindeer lay, stretched himself at full length close to one of the beasts. Springing up and throwing off his robe, he motioned to Peter to fol- low his example. ‘“Kyrger says,” Joan explained, “that we must wrap our heads in the coverings and lie down with our heads toward the sea. A khylden is coming out of the Ice Sea.” “What is that?” Thorne asked. “A snow driver. I do not know what it is. Kyrger says we must do as his rein- deer.”” The hunter spoke to her again, and she added. ‘You and I are to creep under the felt—’twill not hold Peter’s bulk.” ‘‘A snow driver? Faith, man or beast or elemental, let it come,” growled Peter. ““‘Who fears a starm on the mainland? I'll not lie battened under hatches.” He went back to the fire and sat down, while Thorne went to see if the skiff was still visible. By now it must have reached the harbor at the Wardhouse, and before long Tuon and his men would be returning, he reflected. BUT Tuon and his men did not YZ come that day. The sky overhead darkened to a black pall; only along the edges of the horizon a half light played, like fen fires or phosphorescence at sea. The shrill and invisible voice in the heights deepened to a howl that was almost human, punctuated by the roaring of the surf. comiclboolk (©