Adventure Magazine, March 1916 — page 200: what you’re looking at

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

198 - grass that we realized we had neared that rise of jungled ground. For a little distance _ahead of us then, rolled up a jungle of lush growths, and ferns, creepers, and gigantic trees. . We faced about, therefore, toward the Avenue of Palms to our right. Leaving the waste of tall cogon grass, and skirting the edge of that jungle, we sloshed almost knee- deep through a soggy rice-paddy, and then through a thicket of low sago palms, and opium poppies. We came out at last near the head of the Avenue of Palms. As we did a myriad of shouts crashed up- on our ears. They were the bellowing shouts of men angered by being outwitted. Looking back, down that moon-bathed stretch of avenue, a fleeting glance showed us the Poonan sweeping out of either en- trance of the Elephant Stone, dashing down the stairs, and surging and swirling around the base of that stone like so many hounds that had lost the scent of the quarry. They were aware now that we were not at bay in that Elephant Cave. In another moment, I knew, they would become aware that we were making a desperate attempt to reach that tunnel in the crater wall. And if we would win to that tunnel and the outside with the Green, Green God and with our lives, of a surety, there was no time to lose. “Here,” I said quickly to my wife. “Take this basket and give me the revolver. They may overtake us before we can reach that tunnel. If so I’ll need the re- volver.” She gave me the revolver without a word, and I gave her the rattan basket to carry. It was burdening her heavily, true; but at that tragic time it seemed necessary, well- nigh compulsory. I must have my hands free so that, if the need arose, I could fight for her; and of a certainty, both as a gun _and as a club, there was much that I could do with the .38. I snatched her free hand. Then up the avenue toward that rise of overgrown earth and that sunken lava path I led the way at a terrific pace. And with all her strength, all her will, and her bravery, Golden Feather of Flame followed, breathing hard, but ever close at my side. 5 We darted in a trice into that lava path between its shoulder-high walls of earth. And all in that trice, from that mob of Poonan behind, rose a mad yell. - a Re Fe | Adventure “Tung moolong!’’ it resounded through the crater. “To the tunnel, to the tunnel!” CHAPTER XXIX AND HOW HYDE AT LAST CAME TO CLOSE QUARTERS WITH THAT WHICH WAS — ABROAD IN THE NIGHT OW, whether it was from the terror in- spired by that inevitable discovery of the Poonan, or from the weight of the Green, Green God she carried, I do not know. But on the sudden, as we turned a bend in that scooped-out path, and in so doing shut out all sight of that pursuing mob, Golden Feather of Flame slipped weakly to her knees. I stopped and lifted her to her feet. With the action—just that quickly—I changed my mind about allowing her to burden her- self with the Green, Green God. “Give me the god!” I said hurriedly. “Give me the god, and I’ll carry both it and the gun.” “‘Nda, nda!’ she cried bravely, and as bravely started on again. ‘I wish to carry the god. Ihaveareason, Raj. Let only me carry the god.” It was no time to question her about her motives. I could hear that mob of Poonan, far behind, but coming nearer; their sharp cries, their eager cries; their cries so like the baying of hounds at the kill. We ran hand in hand along that deep-sunken lava path. And yet the feeling was mine, as my wife struggled courageously to keep up with me, that willingly she was carrying that heavy basket in order to help conserve my strength for that final struggle with the Poonan which, she must have thought, inevitably would come. It was a noble, self-sacrificing motive, surely; and yet, had I but known it, how even more noble, how supremely more sacrificial was her real motive! But I did not know that then, of course. I only knew that with the cries of those Poonan winging louder to our ears, we were running, madly running, along that lava To either side of our shoulders atop the banks of that lava path loomed, as we ran along, that tangled labyrinth of trees and lush growths which I had noted when first I had entered'the Jallan Batoe. And now, - just as I had noted when first I had entered the Jallan Batoe, just so I noted quite Gomichbooks (E(@)