Adventure Magazine Cover — page 77: what you’re looking at

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

LHE WOLF MASTER 71 Otrépiev meet his fate, wherever he has gone. He will not return. I fear, for us.” “Nada,” he said slowly, “there is no fear in you. Your beauty is such that you com- mand and men obey, like slaves. It burns, this fever.”’ His hands clenched, and his arms flung out so that bones and sinews cracked. “That is the way of it! Your thoughts are bent on this traitor, because he has played the part of a king. What thought have you for the Falcon, the Cossack? He serves to protect you—to groom your horse—to bring wood for your fire. When the wolves howl, the borzoi is caressed by his mistress; when the sun shines, the Cossack is good enough for your jests. The Cossack is bloody—the Cossack is revengeful—and in your dreams you cling to the man who has slain multi- tudes for a whim—”’ Springing to her feet, Nada faced him with blazing eyes. “Stop! I have given my love to no man.” “Nay, only you can know if Otrépiev be man or fiend.” <jT”? Nada caught her breath, and the sound of it was surely asob. The next instant she had grasped the hilt of the yataghan and drawn the weapon with a thin slither of steel. With all the strength of shoulders and arm she struck at Kirdy, and the twisted blade stopped over her head as if bound by chains. The Cossack, laughing wildly, had caught her wrist with one hand and when she sought to snatch the sword in her left hand he drew her forward and turned her about so that her head pressed back against his shoulder and his left hand grasped her girdle, holding her helpless. Her sheepskin hat fell off, and the loosened tangle of silk- like hair swept against his throat. “Look!” he said between his teeth. And Nada ceased futile struggling to stare up at the heights. In the maw of blackness between two of the peaks a red eye of light was visible. “It is in the pass,” Kirdy went on grimly, ‘far above the tayga, where no Tatars ven- ture. That is the fire of Otrépiev, and when you beheld it you said to me, ‘Turn back! You would have led me from the trail.” ““As God lives, that is a lie. see the light.” T did not But Kirdy merely laughed between his teeth, and released the girl, turning his back upon her as if the yataghan and her anger, and his, did not exist. “A, Arslan! Make ready the packs. will go upon the road.”’ Nada stood utterly still, one arm pressed against her heart, and presently she sheathed the sword, and came to Kirdy but did not touch him. ‘You are wild with the fever,” she said quietly. ‘Pour water on your head, walk about, and then sleep. Then in the morn- ing go whither you will. I—I have no place to go, except to the Tatars, and would you have me do that?” “Nay, you shall not leave my side until the end of the road.” She waited while Kirdy and the Tatar made up the packs and saddled the ponies with experienced hands in the darkness. Arslan, after a glance into the Cossack’s face and another at the gleam of light above them, made no objection to entering the forest on horses that had not slept. The three mounted and moved off in silence, leaving the glen with its starlight at once. And when they entered the gloom of the forest, they were no longer three. Arslan turned aside and made off toward the valley. “Teh,” he said, a week later, at the yurta of his clan, ‘I saw the light. It was the eye of Shaitan, looking out from the gate in the rampart.” We CHAPTER XVIII In elder days the wise men foregathered and said: Thus and so shall be the Law. And a woman, fair to see, came and spurned the Law, dancing upon it with light feet. And thereupon the youth of the land came and made an oath, saying: Thus and so shall be the Faith between us. When they had parted, a girl-child with flowers in her hair, laughed at the Faith. Yet when the old men and the youths girded on their armor and went with their chariots to a distant battle, the women kept the Law and abode by the Faith. And who shall say why this was done? eae] ADA could besurprizingly patient. "> Qtai Her father had taught her that thereis anend toeverything. She aeane) talked, low-voiced, to the big bay clancer that pricked up his ears and surged forward gallantly when she noticed him; she crooned at the eagles that flickered past the cCoOmiclbooks C©