Adventure Magazine Cover — page 151: what you’re looking at

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

Jaguar chief of all the tribe, and finally we seized our chance and escaped. And though we had been among those people only a short time, quite a number of their faces stayed dimly in my memory, and it seemed to-me that the girl murdered by the big brutal Peccary had been among them. So now, when I heard this talk of a woman-stealing raid, I became sure that the tribe these men were about to attack was the same one which had held me pris- oner. And though those Indians meant noth- ing to me, the knowledge of what these beasts were scheming to do made my hatred for them all the more bitter; for it brought back to me burning memories of a time when J had a girl for whom I cared much, and lost her when she was carried away by a fiend even worse than the Peccary leader. And, brooding ove? this, and the deaths of my men, and the brutality from which I myself had suffered, I resolved that from _ this journey either El Amarillo or I would not come back. . We reached the river, and took the canoes up-stream, and resumed our march through the jungle. The Yellow One walked near me several times leering at me and calling me beast and dog, and taunting me with the fact that I should soon look upon the torn remnants of my brave com- rades who had died fighting. I bit my tongue and kept silence. But from the corner of my eye I studied his weapons, as I had done a number of times before. He carried a rifle in one hand, a machete and dagger at. his left side, and a revolver at his right. The thought of snatching one of these ‘grew in -my mind. I wanted one of the knives, which would do its work quickly and surely if I once got a grip on it; but _somehow he always walked at my left, in such a way that the knives were on the other side of him and out of my reach. The rifle; too, he carried usually in his left hand, and I knew that if I seized it there would be a struggle, and that prob- ably one of the other Peccaries would kill me before I could wrench it from his grasp. Thus the revolver would be best, for I could get it more easily, and perhaps kill the other robbers with it as well as their leader. Whether the Indian carriers would attack me I did not know, nor care. _ Then came my chance. The yellow man NangS eor en . ie At ae came up beside me once more—on the left, ae: _ as before—and jeered at me, and stepped _ ahead. Ina flash I swooped at the revolver, caught its butt, yanked it from his belt. He whirled like a cat. As he faced me I pointed at his body and pulled. The hammer snapped down, but no ex- — plosion came. I pulled trigger again—and again and yet again. The weapon only clicked. It was empty. Then, swift as a striking snake, the Yel- low One’s rifle-barrel hit my hand and knocked the revolver from it. And the Yellow One burst into a shrill, screeching , laugh, and I saw I had been tricked. I sprang at him. But he jammed his rifle into my stomach, stopping me in my tracks and knocking out my wind. Four men seized me and held me powerless. illustrious -pack-animal!’” he mocked me. “I have been testing you, waiting to see if you would not seize that unloaded weapon which I brought near your hand. You were so slow about it that I began to think you could be trusted to be- come a Peccary—but you bit at the bait, es! ‘“‘And now do you remember what I told you, sevior—that if you tried treachery you “SO AT last you have come to life, my should scream for death long before it came. to your? Isee youdo. And since my con- science is so tender that I could not rest if I failed to keep a promise, Iam compelled to see that you receive what I pledged you.” Though I wrestled and kicked and bit, the men holding me dragged me to a big tree and held me there while their leader went into the bush seeking something. When he came back he carried a double handful of long thorns, as hard and sharp as nails. At sight of these the other Peccaries chuckled as if they had seen them used be- fore and knew what was to be done with me. More of them grasped me and held me against the tree so that I could not move at all. They twisted my hands up behind me and around the tree-trunk, and the Yellow One picked up the revolver he had knocked from my fist and held it by the barrel like a hammer. Then he stepped around the tree behind me. A moment later a sharp pain pierced one of my hands. - Yes, senhores, that is how I received these ugly scars on my hands and arms, at which My, aA rele ae Ave at hg eae) ‘ MAP cary. . Ne det Kolsb J : ae) Me et Tees LD = ee Pee