Adventure Magazine Cover — page 87: what you’re looking at

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

THE WOLF MASTER 81 A fire kindled and fed to roaring flames, he shook the stupor of sleep from his brain and hacked down young firs, working incessant- ly until he put together the framework of a low hut, and covered three sides with branches. Then he took the saddle from the stallion and the packs from the two ponies that had followed patiently, to be un- loaded. He watched them go down at once toward the muttering rush of a stream. Then he hurried back to listen to the girl’s even breathing. And the glare of exhaus- tion and anger left his dark eyes. ‘She sleeps, the little Nada,” he smiled. “Eh, there is faith in her, in all things. When the Muscovites would have taken her captive, she met them with the sword. With the dawn she will open her eyes.”’ He glanced up, at the whirling sparks. The hut wasin a grove of gigantic deodars, whose branches rose beyond the firelight, whose tips threshed under the wind gusts that could not move the massive trunks. A light flurry of snow came down on the Cossack—snow that powdered the hut without melting. He looked out at it thoughtfully. ‘“‘Aye, the pass through the Earth Girdle is closed. And here there is no road of any kind.” He was in a new world, where the sun rises. And Nada had given him her love. What matter the way, if they could ride forth together with no shadow of doubt between them and all the unknown ahead? And yet, if Nada’s eyes were closed, never to look up at him again, he would have no heart to fare forth or to live longer. the ax-man, came to the yurta of old Tevakel Khan, and squatted down at the edge of the white horseskin, announcing that he came as a bearer of tidings. “Upon thee, O Khan of the Altyn Juz, Lord of the Lesser Horde, master of the plain, mirror of the faith, tree of the fruit of understanding—the salute! “The words of caravan men from Cathay have reached my ears, and this is the tale: ‘“‘Where the forest meets the desert, far— far—these men beheld a pair of the tengr1 6 lr WAS the next summer that Arslan, that come down at seasons from the heights and are visible to mortal eyes, as is well known. The tale was that one of these spirits was a man, wearing a silver helmet and bearing a sword as long as a spear. The other was a woman with hair like gold, glittering in the sun. Their faces were dark, yet in their voices was no sorrow. They asked, ‘What land is this?’ And the men of the caravan, being fearful, kneeled at a distance. ‘Because, O Khan this twain spoke in pride and had the bearing of kings. So the caravan men went away swiftly, leaving gifts, thinking that they had seen the tengrz that come down from the high places. ‘“‘And my thought is this—that the two are they I led up to the Earth Girdle in the month of the Ox. They followed thine enemy the Panga nialma and surely they have overcome him, since they carry his sword and helmet. They have set at naught his magic. And now, being spirits, they wander without fear. That is my word, O Khan, my master.” With the tranquillity of the very old Tevakel Khan considered this, looking into the fire. “Tt is evident,” he said at length, ‘‘that this youth and maiden have crossed the Earth Girdle and passed through the city of the dead. It is known to me that in former days this city was built by our an- cestors. And treachery arose in it as a viper lifts its head. The Khan of all the Hordes was slain, and his warriors, and brother fought with brother, until no more than a few families lived to flee. So, it is ac- cursed and the unburied dead ride about it at night.” ‘“‘And the youth and the maiden?” Arslan demanded, for his curiosity was very great. Tevakel Khan smiled. “Surely they are living mortals, or the caravan men would have seen them at night, not during the hours of the day.” He meditated upon this for a moment and came to a conclusion. “In this twain there was great faith and little fear. Kai, the wolves harmed them not and the dead passed them by. To such as they, God hath given the keys of the unseen!” COmiclboooks.c©