Adventure, February 1917 — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

20 wavered. Even at that moment, she won- dered how anything that had not wings and a tail could stop itself midway in such a plunge. ‘“Hallo!”’ came Ben’s voice again. “Come up here, you chap; I can’t come down to -you. Go behind the big banyan.” Then followed a volley of shouts to the boys, directing them what to do. from a rifle accompanied the calls, and brought down one mountaineer, The carriers stopped howling, ran for their guns, bunched together, and began to shoot like old soldiers. 3 Edith, as she hurried behind cover of the - banyan, and went up the track that dis- closed itself among the myriad columns of the air-roots, was conscious of an odd, mixed feeling of surprise, in that Ben should swear as he was doing before her, and in that she was for the first time hearing the talk of men among men. She scrambled up and up, seeing the Lalang men in flight ahead of her, clutching with her small burned hands at the hot rocks on either ao and thinking, now, of nothing at all, Then she was out on a platform of dry beaten earth, cunningly hidden behind a rampart of rocks, and built over with a dozen or so of low round huts like mush- rooms without the stalks. And the Lalang men were gone, and the high sunlight of the mountains shone clear upon the all-but- empty village, with one man standing in the midst of the low huts—a tall man, a white man, a man who was lame, and leaned upon a crutch—Ben! She made two steps forward. Slade let - out a shout of “Edith!” and in a moment his arms were round her fast, so fast that it seemed as if he never would let go again. He did let go, however, and his next words were more husbandlike than loverlike: “Good God! My dear girl, are you mad?” : “It looks as if there was some method in my madness,” said Edith, laughing and crying. “‘Where’s your party?” “T’m it. What’s happened?” “Did you come up here alone?” -“T had the carriers. What have you done to your leg?” “These beggars dislocated my ankle with that pretty trick of chucking rocks. How was it you weren’t killed?” : Shots Adventure “T don’t know. Does it matter? Has your ankle been put in?” “Oh, Lord, yes, the carriers yanked it in for me with a bush rope before they desert- ed. What did you do with Murua?” “Left her to nurse Captain Page; he came in sick, Your carriers deserted? Where tor” “T don’t know where to, but they’ll wish it had been to the infernal regions when I get hold of them. They’re always liable to do it if you get under the weather in any way. The only chaps that stuck to me were the two dummies I’d recruited; they’re here yet. Only for them, I wouldn’t have had much chance. The local beggars gave me food enough—rather too much.” “Too much?” “Ves. Thought I wouldn’t get away again, you know; wanted me nice and fat.” “Oh, Ben!” “But they wouldn’t give me any carriers, though I offered a fortune in trade for six men down to the coast. They thought it was a trap. And, of course, I’d have had to be slung along in a hammock; couldn’t go alone. And those two beggars of mine—” pointing to a couple of gloomy, beetle-browed natives squatted in a corner —‘‘couldn’t have done it; it wants changes. So I stopped where I was and hoped it would occur to somebody to——”’ “Hadn’t you any firearms?” “Just the six shots in the revolver on my belt. The carriers took all the rifles with them. They’re probably in the ranges above, making a happy day in the country for any tribe they’ve got a grudge against. I kept the six shots in case of emergencies, such as any one wanting to poke my eyes out with a firestick, or tie me up and bite off my nose.” “They wouldn’t do such awful things!” “Oh, wouldn’t they? Edith, my girl, you never ought to have ventured—I'd rather they had kai-kai’d me ten times over. My brave girlie! My little Joan of Arc!” He spoke with the abruptness that—she had learned to know—covered his strongest feelings. There was, in any case, no time for more talk; one could not tell how soon the Lalang men might not return, and two of Edith’s carriers were lying injured or dead below. Slade, by signs, ordered the mutes who were with him to go and fetch them up. One they left in place, signing to say that Be Muicdoo S (E©) (E@)