Argosy All-Story Weekly — "The Purple Limited" — page 86: what you’re looking at

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

652 Often in battle the blow which slays is not felt; often, too, a mortal wound so numbs the senses that no pain accompanies the shock. So also when a man is dying ‘of disease or exhaustion nature ofttimes administers an anodyne, sparing the victim the pangs of dissolution. Thus was it with Ku-ro; he had suffered bitterly, it is true, but now that the end was at hand all pain left him. He no longer felt hunger; the pain of his torn and lacer- ated hands and knees had passed; the mis- ery of frost-bite was no longer with him. Instead, a delicious languor spread over him, accompanied by a feeling of warmth, a glow of happiness—his sole discomfort a faint sense of wonder that the Great Father had saved him from the abyss to let him die thus, alone. Soon this, too, passed, and Ku-ro gave himself over to utter relaxation, to rest, and the feeling of languor grew flooding over him in most heavenly peace. Fainter and fainter grew his sensations—fainter still— fainter—fainter— Presently Ku-ro was aware of a bitter pain, of agony unbearable. His first thought was that he had died and gone to the place of evil—his next, that some one was thrusting red-hot needles of fiint into — his hands and feet. He struggled feebly to get away, but was held firm, and the pain continued. At length he opened his eyes to see men bending over him, doing seme- thing to him, and as consciousness flooded back he found that they were rubbing his hands and feet with snow. And still the pain grew ever fiercer— agonizing, frightful—and Ku-ro writhed and screamed, fighting for freedom, but the rubbing continued, and by and by the pain grew less, then ceased altogether. One came forward and placed a steaming bowl to Ku-ro’s lips and he drank eagerly of a rich broth, then relaxed once more. Dimly he felt himself being wrapped in furs, but nothing mattered; he was sleepy, rescue had found him, the Great Father had not de- serted him after all! And so Ku-ro slept, his last thought that a party of hunters from the Ta-an had stumbled across him and had brought him back from the journey into the long dark. ARGOSY- ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Long Ku-ro slept, waking at intervals to take food, and then sleeping once more, till finally nature felt herself restored, and Vitality came again to the exhausted frame. Then Ku-ro, waking, roused himself and began to take'an interest in his surround- ings, learning to his utter amazement that his rescuers were not of the Ta-an. ~ Two watched him by day and night, and through questions he found that these were men of the Sur, a tribe akin to the Ta-an, living in the Great Hills far toward the rising sun, whence had come the Ta-an gen- erations before, m the time--ef Snorr the Great Chieftain and Na-t’san, the Son of the Red God. ~ The tongue they spoke was not unlike -that of the People of the Mountain Caves— near enough, at least, so that Ku-ro could after a day or two converse freely with them —and he learned that tales of the rich Val- ley of the Ta-an had drifted back to their former home, filling the Sur with desire for such rich hunting and for such an easy and pleasant life. So the chieftain of the Sur, a warrior named Tho, had gathered a party of fight- ing men, had left the tribe in charge of his son, and with his party had set out in search of the Valley of the Ta-an, meaning to wipe out the People of the Mountain Caves and bring the rest of his people to that fair and lovely place. The Ta-an themselves, when journeying to the Land of the Dying Sun, had taken a southern route, skirting the shores of the Great Blue Water, but Tho and his men had failed to find this way, and striking inland, had undertaken to cross the snow- crowned peaks into which his long hunt had led Ku-ro. Finding the latter, Tho had realized that if one of the Ta-an—or even if not—he might prove a useful guide, so had given orders that the youth’s life be saved if such might be. The Sur, before starting the long and terrible ascent, had got to- gether—wise foresight! —food and firewood, so that it was possible for them to camp without too great discomfort on the Great River of Ice, and here they stayed for the few days required for Ku-ro to regain his strength. COMICLOO Cc S CO