Argosy All-Story Weekly — "The Purple Limited" — page 90: what you’re looking at

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

656 .It was a moonless night, but the stars gave a faint illumination, and Ku-ro found the bridge easily. All about lay silent save for the breathing wind; empty the vast glacier, save for the sleeping camp behind; dark-gray the ice and snow, tinged with blue from the vault above; and heavy and black the shadows—blackest of all that fearful gash which lay before. At the edge of the crevasse Ku-ro’s cour- age broke; shuddering, sick, his head reel- ing, he sank down, the vivid memory of Tu-sen flashing before his eyes, Tu-sen’s screams ringing in his ears. Faint and sick, he rested on the ice, hiding his face in his hands, moaning: “T cannot! spare me!”’ Then rose before him the memory of Then-ai, and again he heard the words: = Need of you lies heavy on the tribes- men. Serve faithfully; so aan your, re- ward be great!”’ And Ku-ro gathered himself together. Rising to his feet he prayed: ‘“‘O-Ma-Ken, Great Father, grant me, I pray, strength to do Thy will!” And though his knees still shook, though his very soul shuddered, he strode forward to the task: he was in the hands of the Great - Father—were it His will that the messenger win through, well and good. Otherwise— so much the sooner with the Lance of Dawn! But as he stepped on the bridge Ku-ro realized that he could not cross upright; the snow-combs which met to form the pas- sage rose in the center to form a crown— also, they were crowned transversely, so that a slip meant death; one could not re- cover. Ku-ro slung the pack on his shoulders, thrust the dagger in his girdle, took the lance in his right hand, and dropped on his knees, crawling slowly out on the peril- ous journey. The bridge was narrow; not the height ef a man in width, and the space whereon one might creep was scarce four hands’- breadths wide; at the sides the slope fell away sharply, so that a slip—and as this thought crossed his mind Ku-ro, now mid- way of the passage, glanced sidewise. I cannot! Great Father, La ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Instantly he fell prone on his face, clutch- ing at the smooth snow, closing his eyes to shut out that frightful vision of depth, guessed, not seen! And as he lay there came once more the memory of Tu-sen. Tu-sen had trusted to a bridge far larger than this—and it had failed! And as this thought struck him Ku-ro felt the snow be- neath him shudder, slip—and drop! ‘“Then-ai!” he gasped, and clenched his fists for the long, appalling, ghastly, down- ward rush, the awful shock—death! But the expected fall did not come; Ku-ro opened his eyes and saw that the bridge had but sagged a few feet and then had caught. Instantly he scrambted to his hands and knees and, shaking from head to foot, gasp- ing, panting hke a hunted deer, lips and mouth parched with terror, a sickening ter- ror far worse than the fear of death, he crept onward toward the nem 3 ice two. lances? lengths away. Reaching the farther edge of the abyss, Ku-ro sank helpless, shuddering, on the ice, trembling in every fiber of his being; outraged nature took her revenge, and he was deathly sick, vomiting furiously, choking noises that he feared might rouse the sleepers of the Sur, a hundred paces distant. But at long last he grew quiet, and lay for a time resting; gradually his trembling became less and less, till presently he saw by the stars that he had lain there more “than an hour—yes, more than two hours— and rousing himself, he set to work to break down the bridge whereby he had crossed. This proved more of a task than he had expected; the snow, packed by repeated freezing and thawing, was almost as hard as ice, and though the bridge had slipped under his weight its fall had but jammed it between the sheer walls of ice. . Hour after hour Ku-ro labored, chipping furiously at the hard snow with his lance, working madly to finish the task ere dawn should betray him. Hour after hour, a chip at a time, he dug, the sweat running from him in streams despite the cold, so that he felt the salt taste of it in his mouth and blinked and shook it from his eyes. Now the task was well-nigh done, and comiicBooke.co