Adventure Magazine Cover — page 54: what you’re looking at

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

48 Kirdy nodded. “TI will take two of the steppe-breds. Yours is the stallion.” “T shall give him to Nada.” Again Omelko sighed. He was aware that Nada was fond of the White Falcon, because he knew the wayward moods of the young girl. “Do you draw your rein east?” cc Aye.” They went out to the stable and here Omelko bade Kirdy take two of the black kabardas, saying that they were equal to a sultan’s steeds, and would fare for them- selves. In darkness, Kirdy saddled one, and strapped on the goatskin bags. On the led horse he placed the sack of barley, and a bow and arrows that he had bought of Toghrul. “Well, you must go!”’ said Omelko. “But the road to the east has not been traveled before; they say only the ghosts of the dead camp beyond the Nogais. Go with God, my Falcon!” Kirdy mounted, after drawing his girdle tighter and putting on the wolfskin cap that Nada had made for him. He wheeled the pony, but reined in and came back, to lean close to the lame man. “Eh, it is not easy to part from friends. I would like to have a cross from Nada, that she had kissed. Yet it isin my mind that if I bade her farewell, she would seek to ride a way, to show me the trail. And it is best otherwise, in this night of the wolves and the Tatars. Guard her, Omelko, for—for she is a dove and a brave heart. God knows I owe my life to her. Out in the steppe there is death as well as life. If I ride back, I will come to the Wolky Gorlo. S’ Bohun!”’ He did not urge the eager horses into a gallop, as usual, but reined them in, walking out of the choutar so as not to dis- turb the sleeping girl. And after he had disappeared into the darkness without a sound, no tidings of him reached the river, or the Wolky Gorlo. No tidings, except for the tale of a Nogai orda that had drifted in from the uplands of the Chelkar, scenting plunder. The tale was told at the kibitka on the Volga to the khan of the Nogais, who was in great anger at that time because the emperor who had come out of Moscow and taken shelter in his tents had left him without warning or leave-taking. “O shield of the faithful, Lord and com- HAROLD LAMB panion of Ali—master of Tur—master of our herds, protector of our lives—Lion of the plain and the rivers, in this wise was the happening.” So the Chelkar tribesmen declared, sitting in the tent of the khan. ‘And lo, it is a thing difficult of under- standing, and a mystery beyond thought! ‘Allah had caused the morning to dawn, and the mists were not yet gone when we saw riding toward us a man with a wolfskin cap and a sable khalat, as far distant as you could hear a loud shout. Now, on either hand of this rider ran wolves, more numer- ous than a flock of our wild sheep. “‘The wolves did not attack the two black horses of the rider, though their bellies were drawn. The leader of the wolves was a great gray beast. And it is not a lie, but the truth that our eyes beheld—the leader of the pack ran back to the horses, and for the time that milk takes to boil, trotted be- side the man, doing him no hurt. Nor did the man strike the beast. ‘“‘We said, ‘God is one!’ And the rider passed from sight into the mists. Surely he was a ghil of the waste lands, a spirit of the dead that lacked a grave. Otherwise we would have slain him, for the horses were greatly to be desired. ‘“‘Now, the sun was not on our faces that day, when we met a Nazarene khanym, mounted on a bay stallion. Our young men rode about her, and she whipped them, say- ing that she was the daughter of the khan of the wolves and we would eat woe if we hin- dered her. Among our hunters were some who said that this thing was true. “Lest the curse of the wolves be laid upon us, we did her no harm, only asking whither she held her way. It is likewise true that she said she sought the warrior with the two kabardas. When we released her, she went forward upon the trail of the man and the wolves. ‘“‘Now, in the next hour we beheld a fat Shiite on a white horse, riding as if a fiend sat on the crupper. We had drawn our arrows to the strings when this son of many fathers cried out thy name! “Wallaht He showed us a khalat, a gift from thee. And to one who under- stood his words he explained that he had been taken captive into the Wolf’s Throat. Though he had escaped, his soul was sick from fear. We let him pass. ‘“‘We did no harm to the three, remember- ing the Wolf’s Throat where aforetime COMICOooks C© S|