Argosy, Vol. 147, No. 1 — page 108: what you’re looking at

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

ah oe eo m0 longer a menace? my reasoning in the boat n the bayou, Of course, Tao no reason to attack the Light y by Pearce of arms until he was sure Fee: mda among the people had 7 argument was sound enough, but the upidity of what we had done now wned on Mercer with overwhelming e. Tao would await the results of his aries’ work, of course. And here we F and sent them straight back to , to report their efforts a fail- | 3 rs anything were needed to precipi- an invasion from Tao, this very thing xr had just finished doing was it. He panel and me fervently as he t what fools we had been. a it occurred to him perhaps it was 9 late to repair the damage. Not ethan half an hour had passed since . had ge the men free on the shore of Twiligh ht Country. He must go back Under no circumstances must they red to reach Tao and tell him what leaned over the edge of the platform | ne her, but the wind of their for- he ght and the noise of the girls’ wings nz eal Come up here with me. Sit E want to talk to you. It’s impar- y don’t need you flying now.’ edien tly the girl sat where he indi- 1, close beside him. And then as he = yu t to begin telling her what was in xine atc suddenly remembered that were still heading toward the Light Ys every moment getting farther a as m Tao’s men, whose homeward y hi Epoust head off some way. e must go back, Anina—back where 2 : ef Sn-at once. Tell them—now! el you w git’ ’s eyes ‘widened, but she did as ci os ag the platform, making a , Si zy turn, headed back toward light ht Country shore. ayo ee 10's city from ~ ARGOSY- ALLSTORY WEEKLY. “But they won't go fast, will ‘eae some of them are pretty badly hurt.” “Two days for them,” the girl agreed. _ Mercer then told her what an error we had made. She listened quietly, but he knew she understood, not only his words, but the whole situation as he viewed it then. ‘Most bad,” she said solemnly when he paused. “That’s what I want to tell you; it’s bad,” he declared. ‘“ We’ve got to head them off some way; stop them somehow. I don’t see how we're going to capture them again—ten of them against me. But we've got to do something.” Then he asked her about the lay of the country between the shore of the sea and the Lone City. Anina’s English was put to severe test by her explanation; but she knew far many more words than she had ever used, and now, with the interest of what she had to say, she lost much of the diffidence which before had restrained her. She told him that the trail led back through the forest for some distance, and then ran parallel with a swift flowing river, This river, she explained, emptied into the Narrow Sea a few miles below the end of the trail. It was the direct water route to the Lone City. The trail, striking the river bank, fol- lowed it up into a mountainous country— a metallic waste where few trees grew. There was a place still farther up in a very wild, broken country, where the river ran through a deep, narrow gorge, and the trail followed a narrow ledge part way up one of its precipitous sides. Anina’s eyes sparkled with eagerness as she told of it. “There, my friend Ollie, we stop them. Many loose stones there are, and the path is very narrow.” Mercer saw her plan at once. They could bar the men’s passage somewhere along this rocky trail, and with stones drive them back, He realized with satisfaction thé he could throw a stone fully twice as large and twice as far as any of the ee