Argosy All-Story Weekly — "The Purple Limited" — page 94: what you’re looking at

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

\ 660 back, while round him rushed and whirled and spun full twoscore wolves, leaping in, dashing out, their jaws snapping, their sharp teeth slashing in frantic effort to cut through the vast beast’s tough skin and bring him down. | As Ku-ro watched the mammoth stooped with lightning motion— incredible in so huge a beast!—and a wolf, reckless, trusting his lightness of foot, was impaled on one of the long and pointed tusks; through and through the sharp tusk pierced, and the Gray Slayer, howling and writhing horribly, was whirled aloft; a toss of that giant head, and the wolf was hurled twenty paces away, smashing against a tree and falling dead. A sweep of the great trunk, and another wolf was sent to join the first—less fortu- nate, this one died not instantly, but with jaws to the sky, howling in agony, dragged himself frantically about in circles, his spine broken, his hind legs useless. But still the ravening beasts circled about the trumpeting mammoth, darting in, slash- ing, springing out once more. Again and again the great trunk swept as the mam- moth whirled to meet his tormentors and with each sweep a wolf died, some instantly, smashed and broken, others more slowly. . One, venturing too near, was caught be- neath a forefoot and squirmed, clawing and biting, as his life was crushed slowly out by that ponderous weight; the mammoth . paid no heed, but pinned him down till his struggles ended. The snow was littered with dark gray bodies, some still, others writhing and twist-. ing in agony; red spots marked its white surface, and where Do-m’rai stood it was trampled to a horrible red slush, for the mammoth bled from a thousand wounds. The leader of the pack, a great brute stand- ing higher than a man’s waist, leaped, slash- ing, at.the mammoth’s trunk, uplifted high; his forepaws caught and for an instant clung on a tusk as his bloody jaws snapped vainly upward, and in that instant the trunk lashed down and curled about his neck. Up, up it swung—swooped down—and like a stone from a sling the wolf spun whirling through the air, to strike with a ghastly crunching sound against the very “ee where Ku-ro was hid; limp, shattered, ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. life utterly smashed out, he fell at the young man’s feet, and Ku-ro wiped from his face the blood that had splashed from the bedy. And now the attack grew weaker; mere and more bodies lay motionless on the snow of the little glade; fainter and fainter rose the howls and snarls, till but one of the wolves was left. Do-m’rai, weak from less of blood, swayed on his feet as this last enemy circled about seeking an opening, yet ever he fronted the flying beast. Abeut, around, in and out, sprang Menzono, yet ever those deadly tusks, that fatal trunk confronted him. At last, mad with lust of blood, frenzied with excitement, he leaped—and died in mid air! ‘The great head dipped, the tusks thrust forward, and the last of the wolves, caught fairly in the belly, impaled himself by the force of his own spring. The mam- moth shook him off, looked about, saw 20 more‘ foes, trumpeted his triumph, and Started away. Half-way to the edge of the forest he. staggered, swayed, stood a moment with feet braced wide apart and swinging head, trumpeted again, this time more faintly, and slowly, slewly, like some great tree falling, dropped to his knees, tried vainly to rise, struggled a moment, and then rolled over on his side and lay sti Ku-ro watched for a time, then cast a glance. about the little glade littered with dead and dying, slayers and slain, noted the trampled snow, blotched red, and turned away, heaving a deep breath—never had he , dreamed of such a fight! As Ku-ro resumed his journey his mind was full of the fight he had just seen; the thronging pictures for a time forced all other thoughts away, but presently he came back once more to the problem that had offered; recurring, insistent, this question forced itself upon him—how to walk on the snow? The twigs had failed him; too flexible, their ends swept about and hindered his walk—could he but fasten the ends! Then, like a flash, the answer came; he would make two hoops, like those used for shields, and bind the ends of the branches to them —no, that would take too long—why not two shields, covered with ‘hide? CGOMIIGoOO S CO