Adventure Magazine Cover — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

THE PENNSYLVANIA LINE 5 Pennsylvania will do more for Wayne than they would for Washington. Sure, he might work on ’em to grant us our pay, at least. ’Tis eleven months since I’ve seen the color of their greenbacks, and there’s money coming due on my’farm in March.” “Vill you be able to pay it vid dose paper dollars dey pay us in?” inquired Holtzburg. “Curse the dirty Tory who holds the deed!”’ said Barstow ominously. ‘“T’ll see him tarred and feathered, if he refuses the payment.” The sentry shouldered his rifle and pre- pared to resume his post. : ‘“‘Well,” he said, “‘take my word or leave it, as ye please, but I tell ye true, you'll only raise Anthony’s dander with a depu- tation right now. And he can’t do nothing more than he has done, nohow.”’ “Dot’s vhat Fallen says, too,” said Holtzburg, in his heavy German drawl. The sentry looked at Riddle, nodded. ‘Says the only thing for us to do now is to go over Anthony’s head and appeal to the Congress direct.”’ The sentry again grounded his rifle and whistled softly. “Glory be, but that would set Wayne wild!” “Reckon it would,” said Barstow. ‘So we voted to try a deputation to him first.”’ “But what else are we to do,” argued Riddle, “if he don’t grant us nothing to- night?” “Fallen ’ll tell you,” said the guard sourly. “What call has he to be speaking in meet- ing at all? He takes a deal on himself, con- sidering the small time he’s served with the Line, and his being a rank foreigner to boot!” ‘“‘He’s a smart man, is Fallen,” said Bar- stow, peering intently down the road. “Dot’s true,” said Holtzburg. “With book learning back of him as well as good sense,” said Riddle. “And what he’s backing now is main good politics.” ‘Well, he don’t get no vote from me,”’ stated the sentry, prognathous. ‘“‘He’s the mouthiest lawyer in camp, everlastingly letting out his voice over one thing or an- other! But ye’ll notice there’s one topic he’s mighty danged quiet on—that’s himself.” “Oh, he’s all right!” reiterated Barstow impatiently. ‘‘Ain’t Wayne ever going to come?” who “T ain’t denying that he’s a brave man and a smart soldier,’”’ the sentry pursued the theme of Fallen. ‘‘But I do say Id listen to him a deal easier in my mind, if I knowed more about him, and less of what he says he thinks.”’ ‘Well, there’s worse talk than he’s giving us going ’round camp already,”’ said Riddle. “Dot’s true,”’ said‘Holtzburg. “Treason—nothing short of it,” said Riddle. ‘And things is so bad that some- thing’s got to break soon, for flesh and blood can’t endure the way we go on at present! And I’ve come to the point where I’m for following Fallen, if Wayne won’t give us no satisfaction.” ‘Well, the way I see it is this,”’ said the sentry: ‘What Fallen is urging has a mighty ugly ring to it, and is likely to end by getting somebody hung high as Haman—”’ “Tt can’t possibly,” denied Riddle. ‘Not the way he’s got it planned out. For it stands to reason that they won’t hang the whole of the Pennsylvania Line, seeing as how they'll need us some other time for cannon fodder.” “Stands to reason, too,’’ rejoined the sentry, “that it'll set all them as is in power against us forever after. Wayne’s our friend now, but how long’ll he be that, if this foreigner oes over his head to Congress? Ye know what An- thony’s like, when his dander’s raised. They don’t call him ‘mad’ for just his crazy boldness.” ‘I’m past worrying,’ said Barstow, his eyes belying the words. “All we got to do now is to deliver the message from the meeting when Wayne comes back. Is that him, now?” “Naw!” said Riddle, squinting through the thin light from a crescent that slipped between the light clouds overhead. ‘‘That’s only Jemmy, the ‘Commodore,’ with a new bandage ’round his cracked head. Wonder where he’s been roving this time? I haven’t seen him hereabouts for nigh three weeks.” It was a grotesque figure that was bearing down upon them. A breathing scarecrow of a man, long, and as loosely hung, as a jumping-jack, clad in such rags that the others’ uniforms appeared whole and re- spectable by comparison. The lantern jaw was blue, and curiously clean, save for a smear of dried blood leading from the bandage; and the one dark eye gleamed 99 COMmMiCcloo S CO