Adventure Magazine Cover, December 18, 1919 — page 116: what you’re looking at

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

oe +, a ig bt =< = r RARUEAYA (te vty i ane eas meta Rk ic 42s Os 6A, wr, eit ox ay &” eta vmeei'. yaa dhitas as Calusa A AL ’ a," ‘ ‘ ri off if they discover us. _ cover!” 102 The horse could not be spared now. Speed was everything. They must cross that frowning ridge and find cover before the Indians should top the slope. On and up they plunged, breathless and panting. It was partly instinct, partly luck, but ‘Andres had noted a slight depression in the ridge as they ascended the slope. He felt sure that on the far side there would be a swale that could cover them, and there was. It was not much of a shelter at first, but it covered them from sight as they turned into it and fled at re- doubled speed for the bottom of the ~ ridge that was marked by a line of trees. As they went, the swale deepened and closed in on them till, as they got lower down, they found themselves im a walled cafion whose walls came down precipi- tously, walls of smooth rock crowned in places with stunted live oak and pifion pine that almost overhung the narrow path along which they fled. Andres was leading at a run when a crash and a startled exclamation from Xicotl brought him to a halt. The horse was down, struggling hard, with a foot wedged between two sharp _ rocks. Sweating and snorting, he struggled to- his feet and stood trembling, his left fore-leg swinging limp below the knee. “His leg is broken,” Andres almost sobbed. “Leave him—and quickly ! We must look for shelter and hold them Look for He seized his pistols from ‘the great holsters on the saddle and started on, passing his arm about Mercedes’ waist to help her along the rocky trail. “There! Look there, my son! high up but it can be reached!” Fray Marco pointed, calmly enough, to a tiny hole in the hillside that was almost hidden by the tip of a pifion pine that grew below it. It was poor enough but there was nothing else. Scrambling, slipping, sliding, some- how they got up that rock-face to the hole some forty feet above the cafion and saw a tiny cave open out before them. It ran straight into the hill for ten or fifteen feet. Still, it gave shelter. “Lie down, Mercedes.” Andres It is pointed to a shallow dip in the floor. “Put the water-bags by her, Xicotl, > ——— Now for our defense, if it comes to that.” He emptied the arrows from his quiver and laid both of his great bell- mouthed pistols by them, and carefully examined their fuses and the ponderous wheel-locks. g “See! eleven.” They came at a quick trot down the cafion, halted in astonishment when they saw the horse, then opened out and passed him. Their true mission lay farther on. They saw at once the trail where the party had left the bottom and had scrambled up the rock- face. A child could have told it. One of the Indians stopped to scan the rock-face, saw the cave-mouth and with a sharp cry pointed it out to his companions. As one man they surged forward and Fray Marco, who incautiously exposed himself, heard a whistling rush beside his ear and an arrow broke into two pieces against the rock by his head. The fight was on! There they come. I count XI. O show themselves at the cliff edge, to use either stones or arrows, meant instant death by Indian arrowshot. To remain quietly under cover meant that the Indians could approach unseen and rush the cave when they got ready. “Roll all the loose rocks to the edge of the cave and build a wall along the lip of the cliff,” said Andres quickly. “That will shelter us from their arrows and check any rush they may make till we can use our swords. Pile those rocks ~ up, I say.” “Here are rocks, sefior.” Xicotl stumbled forward, his arms filled with oblong stones. Andres seized them and nearly dropped them in his astonishment. “These are not rocks. They are adobe bricks,” he said quickly. “Where did you find them? How came they here?” “I know not, sewor. Across the rear of the cave there is a wall built of them. I picked up four that were loose.” “Never mind thatnow! Bring more!’’ Fray Marco and Xicotl labored fever- ishly, supplying Andres with the flat Ball wrt “ik . ee Ane eed Pe eee . 2 bs eS = a wee ee este ee ee a ;