Adventure Magazine Cover, June 20, 1925 — page 193: what you’re looking at

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

‘and of came on alone; advanced to within twenty feet of where Isaacs squatted then stopped and peered uneasily before him. “They’ve got our scent,” Isaacs muttered. “We’re beat if something doesn’t turn ’em.”’ “Look, master! There goes one who has a plan!” The gray beard pointed to a tiny figure running swiftly across the open. He passed perilously near to the main body of the herd but the elephants seemed unconscious - of his presence. They were too absorbed in the hidden menace before them. Isaacs watched the man gain the high ground opposite and there busy himself, running about in an apparently aimless, ant-like fashion. Presently a tiny spark of flame appeared. The gray beard chuckled, ‘He lights a fire,’ he said. “He is very wise. Watch now, master, and listen.” The flame grew larger. A faint shout echoed across the valley. A shout and the banging of wood on tin. It was a sacrile- gious noise; the voice of a puny mortal de- riding the gods. The elephants turned about. The man was dancing fantastically about the fire— shouting insults, beating the tin can which hung from his neck. The bull elephants moved forward, took their position at the head of the herd —went forward again — quicker — quicker — broke into their pace-deceiving shuffle, trumpeted loudly and charged at the fire, at the sound, at the dancing figure. They flowed over and around the fire then passed on into the bush beyond. The menace had passed, the fire was out, the noise ceased, the dancing figure had dis- appeared. They forgot the other menace, the scent which had first aroused their suspicions. Ahead were sweet, hunger- satisfying mealie crops. Belly hunger as- serted itself. Isaacs and his thin line of beaters surged triumphantly forward, over the muddy pool, up into the bush beyond. “That one was a man—his name, his deed, must not be forgotten,” Isaacs said. “Tt will not be,” the gray beard chuckled. ‘He will never weary of telling the story, but we shall weary of its telling.” “He is dead—it is not well to jest of such a brave one, old man.” “He lives, master. See!” Aman stepped out from behind a large tree Gideon!’ 175 infrontofthem. Hehadrun to itand hidden behind its thick trunk when the elephants had charged. They had poured past him, to the right and to the left, a gray, ponder- ous flood of death. But not one had turned toward him, not one had seen him. “Tm a hunter,’’ he boasted. “When the hunt is over—then talk,” the gray beard said curtly THEY went on in silence, keep- p ing close to the herd. The ele- 7a) phants were moving leisurely : now, yet the men had to run to keep up with them, At times only the noise ahead told them of the herd’s proxim- ity; at times they got so close that by stretching out a hand they could have touched the hindmost, yet, because of the thick bush growth which the moon’s ray could not pierce, were unable to see them. Again, where the bush was thin, they saw the beasts moving forward with effortless grace and ease—silent shadows of a night of shadows; and once, after topping a slight rise, they came suddenly face to face with the herd. For a full minute men and mammoths seemed frozen into statues carved from the bush—then the elephants wheeled ponderously and continued their journey. With the cunning of sheep dogs driving a flock of sheep, silently, not pressing too hard for fear the herd would break back or stampede and lose its cohesion, Isaacs and his men followed; and so clever was their hunting crait that the herd’s suspicions were being continually aroused—and al- Jayed—auntil it was evident that any overt demonstration would turn their food-seek- ing march into a devastating stampede. And so, in due course, they came to the mealie patches which were before Misongwe. “TI SHALL make you pay some- |. time for the way you have treated } me, Senhor Gonzales,’ D’Andra said slowly. The two men were seated outside their tent. The moon was high, there was an atmosphere of peace about the place. From the long trench to the right of the tent came happy snatches of song and _ boisterous laughter. It drowned the groans which came from within the tent. Gonzales, his eyes inflamed, his hands unsteady, gulped down another drink. COMIGDIOOKSEEO