Adventure Magazine Cover, June 20, 1925 — page 117: what you’re looking at

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

Pards Not only meat was awaiting him but so half a pot of strong coffee. When Ellis had eaten and drank and dried his clothes he felt like a new man. But he felt ashamed when he observed how he had lowered the kettle and had exhausted the coffee. He stepped to the door but could see no signs of his kind host. As a slight appreciation he left a dollar on the table before taking to the road. Clouds were gathering over the Sawatch Range. Reinvigorated, Ellis traveled rap- idly. ‘The valley was nearly level, cut only by shallow gullies. On his left was the spur that separated the Arkansas from the heads of the South Platte. This was the barrier he must cross. It was a low range and sparsely timbered, and yet repelling be- cause of the slopes of bare and broken rock. Two miles of brisk walking brought him to a stout bridge of logs. The Arkansas at this-point was the width of a Maine river near its head. The current however was swift and foaming, and he rejoiced he was not compelled to ford it. Once on the east side of the river he sensed an unwarranted security, as if the bridge were an insurmountable barrier to all pursuit. The road also was more pleas- ing, at least for the next two miles; for it passed through grassy meadows and along scattered groves. Foliage was painted for the last mad dance with the fierce winds. The clouds over the western range re- frained from advancing. Somehow Ellis felt an uplift of spirit, but he glanced around guiltily on discovering he was humming a song. Goss had warned at their parting that if he were ever identified as the man wanted in California Gulch it would be by his singing voice and not by name. The way left the gracious meadows be- hind and gradually mounted the slopes. From bench to bench he plodded along, and then found the trail abruptly entering what proved to be a narrow, winding gulch.. To the southeast was the beginning of the Great Cafion of the Arkansas. With the first turn in the gulch road the valley van- ished as if some mountain god had drawn a curtain behind the traveler. And as abruptly the scenery changed. A land of gnomes replaced the pleasing meadows and groves. On each side were enormous pyramids. ‘The hills were masses of dark red boulders. Many of these were grotesquely arranged as if cyclopean chil- 99 dren had played at building castles and had commenced innumerable gigantic struc- tures, and, tiring of the game, had finished none. Blocks of red stone, twenty or forty feet thick, were balanced on fantastic piles of similar blocks. Some of the tremendous architecture suggested a budding military genius, for Ellis frequently saw what looked to be forts with mountains for bastions and ranges for broken ramparts. Wherever the lonely traveler directed his gaze there was the same gigantic, eccentric arrangement of monstrous ruins. Occasional clumps of small pines were all that varied this chaos until the cactus began to appear. The whole effect on Ellis was that of savagery. He began to be afraid of Nature as he plodded along mile after mile. He stared furtively behind him and to each side as if fearing to behold the an- cient triceratops, the last of the dinosaurs, stalking him from behind some of the weird formations. After entering the hills he traveled eight miles without discovering any suggestion of a dividing range. He no longer feared pur- suit by mortals. California Gulch and the menace he had fled from were as remote as the moon. But he did fear he might die of exposure and starvation in this desolate, unreal land. He sank deeper in despair as he came to yet another ridge, higher than any he had mounted. He plunged through the thin timber at its base and climbed the slope. He ex- pected to behold another barrier, once he gained the naked crest. Nearly exhausted by his efforts he halted on the bare top and muttered aloud in relief on seeing that the road sloped downward as far as the eye could reach. Then he ventured to look back, and for several minutes was held motionless by the wonderful panorama stretched below him. In the immediate foreground were tops of hills and the innumerable turrets and pyra- mids he had conquered. Defects in archi- tecture were erased; the illusion was perfect. And beyond and below these was the world of men. All that the first bend in the gulch had snatched from his view was now re- stored, softened and beautified. The val- ley of the Arkansas, several miles in width, appeared to be as smooth as a floor. There were no shallow gullies, no raw earth dis- cords. The stretches of sage plains were a COMIGDIOOKSEEO