Adventure Magazine Cover — page 114: what you’re looking at

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

=< # ie > a 75 = FP ne “. , ce " ~~" Tt. < “ a E : = = v- om ’ ~<a TIS A) Aik 5 ARR AD Ag wR ey “ Sl Adventure others were slung across bronze backs and a _ squad in the rear were leading animals bare of riders. They milled about in the papery grass of the plaza, some dismounting and disappearing into _ the keening huts, to return almost instantly bur- dened with belts and bandoliers brassy with yel- low cartridges, the others poising the hempen’ ‘reins in one hand and looking up at the priest from beneath shocks of black hair, as if awaiting some signal from him. The eight clay-coated men came darting out of the various hovels and clustered at the edge of the plaza, their Mausers gone and white hoods shrouding their heads, the gbon eyes be- hind the narrow slits gleaming like lignite. From the oily breech-clout of each protruded two haftless knives of obsidian, one over either hip. In their hands were maquahuitl or hand- woods, clubs barbed with two rows of large sharp obsidian flakes. A well-directed blow from one of those jagged clubs would cleave the back- bone of a horse or cut a man in two from shoulder to pelvis. — “Aupal Quita de ahil” shouted the high priest to them, indicating the riderless horses. “Up and away with you! Leave your animals at the mesquite flat and join Ichcapilli and his scouts. Be able to report, Quetzal, a sound mode of attack. Vaya!” The men of the clay coats, hoods and barbar- ous clubs, who were to act under Quetzal’s lead- ership as the advance force of reconnaissance, mounted the animals in the rear of the column, leaving one broad-backed, heavy-fetlocked bay still lacking an owner. They beat a devil’s tatoo up the cow-path and out the rupture in the chrome walls. _ “Here, one of you macehualli!” the voice of the priest cracked beside me like a pistol shot. “Ride back to the corral and bring up a stout and fleet animal for this hombre, who will ride with us.” He indicated me, « A low murmur as of prompt approval arose from the cavalcade. One in the rear swung his horse’s head akout and went dashing through the pueblo toward the distant fields. In a swirling ball of dust he shot past Mari- quita as she stepped out of her hut, a cartridge belt accentuating the of her waist, thick with brass cartridges as a mouth with teeth and sagging over either hip with the weight of two leather-holstered revolvers. She looked after the speeding rider as in surprize and a deal of wonder. Then with reckless haste she spurred into the plaza. “What is afoot, Metztli, O Reflector of the Sun!” she cried, checking the stallion with a sharp wrench, her eyes sparkling glassily from the priest to me and back again. “For whom is there need of another horse?” “For this hombre!” snapped Metztli with an abrupt and very evident show of spleen. “TI have asked him to ride with the Guiacuras an Ss he has readily agreed. He says the white 3 bre and his woman are traitors and enemies = | his. Has la Caballera del Sol reason to say ME: a3 nay?” -¥ There was a challenge i in Métztli’s question It was as if, ere starting on this hazardous expe- — dition, he wanted to test once and for all the security of his own authority. My induction into the question was fortuitous and of minor ~ = import. 2% The girl sensed, with Latin perspicacity, the = delicacy of the crisis. Expressively she eee the soft-rounded shoulders beneath the bolero jacket. “Tt is as you say, O Metztli,” she cattle am with a fair show of grace. “Tt is not for me to SF question the authority and discernment of the’ Reflection of.the Sun. But remember I warn tag ee you,” she could not refrain from adding. “Just = as I had sound reason to doubt these Japanese, _ just so do I put small trust in this hombre. He is as crafty as the yellow priest himself, a vey lagarto for lies! “But y pues!” she concluded hastily as in — swift resentment the brows of the priest knotted over coldly glittering eyes. “I shall tell you — ete about it all on the ride. Now, 0. Metztli, we have not the time nor the privacy.”’ A mischievous notion leaped full-fledged and brutally into my brain. I'll admit it hurt, this distrust and contempt of me from her who had — = once been so considerate and gloriously fine. a ’ “Seforita,” I said stressing politeness, lean- ing over ‘the edge of the feocal and’ looking — brazenly down at the beautiful girl, “I desire to * serve in this punitive expedition, but observe, 1 3 am unarmed and powerless to aid. I was think- ing perhaps you would lend me one of your Six- The black dripping lashes flickered over her eyes as if I were a dust-mote in their light. ; ‘You will come along unarmed,” she returned coldly. ‘And you may deem yourself fortunate indeed, hombre, if you are not sent bundling back, once I have discussed your deceit with Metztli.” : The lashes widened sharply, ‘the great golden eyes scorching me with menace. Then turning away she swung the stallion into position at the head of the troop. CHAPTER XX | A PARTY OF WAR = "T HERE was no flourish of trumpets, no ruba- | =e dub of drums as we rode out of the box ee. cafion of Siete Fuentes. Only the primitive, = eery ulla-lulla of the women left behind, the aa spanking rat-a-tat of hoof-beats like the inces- sant, noisy clatter of machine guns, made weird ees sounds in the torpid afternoon. ESS Conical