Argosy All-Story Weekly, 4 February 1922 — page 57: what you’re looking at

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

~~ at a =a Nae * = ye Se ee = = miley seg ay eS — J — - - man counts for nothing. pounds apiece, and the promise of protec- It would be supposed some of the miners had killed you. Some gold was to be stolen, that ist might give color to the tion. scheme.” Dean whistled. out little game!” he said. you, Lois—how did you meet Tietjens?” “ After our escape my father and I hid in the bush on the Mashonaland side of the Limpopo. We returned later, after the police had gone. We were afraid you had been killed. When we could not find you we were sure you had been taken. Then there was nothing to do but to go on toa hiding-place in the mountains. “When we got there my father collapsed. I resolved to go to Santa Maria to try to find a doctor. There used to be a good doctor there, a good man who, I believed, would come with me and not betray us. But when JI got there I found that he had gone down- I was afraid he was dying. country. “ T was in despair. I did not know what to go—and then I met Tietjens yesterday evening. He warned me of the plot. He But he could not have reached the mine in time, so I sent him to my father, telling him to take care of him. He knows our hiding- place and worked for my father once. He That’s all, Dean. But I must hurry back to my father. I am afraid he will die while I am gone. And I am afraid some evil may be planned My horse is tied*to the barbed wire. I'll go had been on his way to warn you. will defend him with his life. against him. Come with me, Dean! for it. You'll come, Dean?” * Yes, I’ll come,” answered Dean grimly. “Stay here, Lois—not here, but in this other room. I'll bring your horse and ride And afterward I shall go back and settle accounts with Mr. with you to your father. Wimborne and his hired murderers.” He led the girl into the living-room .and closed the bedroom door upon what lay within. He carried out his saddle and bridle, got the bit into his horse’s mouth, and slipped the headstall on. He saddled, pulling in the 3 i seers _—- went for pure: | —— -” —- pe ee et ee ee a “ “ = i a _ 5,5 ~ ge Foe oe ’ —_ “ A neat, well-thought- ** But how about - A . 7 a “ar ys) ee a we THE BANDIT OF BATAKALAND. Five hundred oe , horse, and soon came upon it, fastened to. ; _the wire fence of the native compound. — He led it back to where Lois stood waiting - for him in the doorway. The clouds had rolled back, and it was =. a little lighter now, though lightning still flashed along the horizon, and there came the low growl of distant ‘thunder. A sec- ond storm was beating up out of the east. Dean held his hand for the girl to TAs ** How far is it?” he asked. “There is a track across the veldt = - _* take us there in four or five hours,” she an- swered, springing lightly into the saddle. “But that is not the place where we had — _ planned to go. If we could reach the strong- = hold in the mountains, which my father — discovered long ago, before any other white — men had entered this country, we should - be safe against pursuit. But we had to 2 at an abandoned kraal, because he was ill to go further: That is why I am afraid he will be found, and—” She shuddered, and took the reins. horses started. = The river is in flood,” said Dean. “ The crossing may be difficult. ~ The “We do not have to cross the Fulani, m she answered. “ The place is on this ae of the stream, toward the mountains.” a oe EMT is. 4 RT ae »* — a They found the track and turned their : horses along it. Presently Dean asked: *“ You did not hear the murderers?” *'No, Dean.” She knew what he was thinking of. She - ~ * —* was afraid that Smit and Van Leenen aes taken the same road; afraid for Dean’s — sake, and even more for her father’s. Dean — was exulting in the hope of squaring the — account. —7 They rode for a long time in silence. _ = Now and again there came a renewed down- pour, drenching them to the skin immedi- — ~ C' ately. The horses picked their way along ground which gradually grew rougher as i 4 they ascended the foothills of the great granite plateau of the interior, with its ranges of kopjes tossed everywhere, as if a — aS giant hand had raked the face of the land, The trail was a Kaffir track, one of the old — paths that intersect the interior of the = Continent; no wagon had traversed it, and _ often it was discernible only to the hor ors ime ee ns i ~ . - a weg ( Yo — @)| (e1 0