Adventure Magazine Cover — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

The Bushf ae A Complete Novel er S| i by Hugh Pendexter Author of “Gentlemen of The North,” “Kings of The Missouri,’ etc. CHAPTER I THE DAUGHTER OF THE ROGUE ORD LOUDOUN of peppery temper was putting the finishing touches to his plans for reducing Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and within the space of one short year the ancient town of Albany had grown from a sleepy trad- ing-post of .Dutch burghers and smugglers to one of the most important military’bases in the colonies. And this because of General Brad- dock’s defeat the year before. Albany in 1756 differed much from Albany of 1755. The same broad street led from the fort on the hill to the river, but the comirig and going of regulars and provincials had turned the grassy sward into a dirty brawn thorough- fare. The town-house and guard-house, the two churches and the market-place, still held * the middle of the main street with the same brick houses of Dutch architecture lining the sides. Dust now marred the little lawns of green, and the good zvrouws were in despair. The passing soldiery kicked up a rare mess of dirt and disorder. Soldiers were encamped on the XY Copyright, 1920, by the Ridgway Company, in the United States and Great Britain. plains above and on the meadows below the town, and soldiers were at all hours mounting and descending the hill; for Loudoun had ten thousand men strung out between the town and the head of Lake George, and had been assured by one of his subordinates that “Every wheel shall go that rum and human flesh can move.” The bulk of the provincial troops were con- tributed by New England. These volunteers, — going to fight the French for six shillings a month, with their rations including a daily gill of rum, wore blue uniforms with red facings, or coats of coarse blue cloth with red or blue breeches. Many of them, however, lacked | such finery of war, and came in their rough work- aday clothes. Nearly all of them were farmers by occupa- tion, and few displayed a soldierly bearing. Their coming and going infused new life into the town, and if they entered tap-rooms they also stood attentive while their chaplains daily preached to them from streef-corner or in camp. Silent,-lean-faced men as a rule. The preceding year had been a bloody calen- dar of events. July had brought the tremendous defeat of Braddock’s army, with the Penn- sylvania frontier pushed back to Fort Cum- berland on the Potomac. The three succeeding All rights reserved. 3 EGcomirecbook %