Adventure Magazine Cover — page 34: what you’re looking at

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

al ‘Bay ees, Gali. of ee vr ye ~ . s ¥, ‘ RN ARM Raat | adh i Tn. ‘ LET We ee ect ak ah ¢ ‘ ah ¥ pi OF ay uA A. Fe ’, y ) ‘ ra ¥ f Ly SS WY “Th Ae Aye (ie / " eng Ah i . Yee ve Lt bg hd ‘ "VY SA j 1.9 Wy vs! Pep ee ls eb -. ils . tay we? hin th Weel” *F 3 at , .. ,, i, *) ‘ ate “t a” I ik 4 7, 24 “English!” panted the boy, who was not over fourteen years of age. “Look at his French shirt. If he is English he is a renegade. My Mohawks shall roast and eat him. “You cold-blooded young devil,” gasped Wil- lis, astounded at such a speech from one he con- sidered to be a child. “Wait till I get this hole in my leg tied up to suit and Ill give you the spanking of your life.” “Enough of that, Willis,” Putnam sternly commanded. “Keep your mouth shut till you can speak with decency.” Then to the boy, who struggled anew at the ranger’s humiliating threat— “Does a Mohawk warrior squirm like a cat when he knows he can not escape?” Instantly the boy remembered his etiquette and stood with folded arms, glaring death at Willis, his thin chest rising and falling spas- modically; ; and this not from physical exhaustion but because of the shame the ranger’s words had put upon him. Putnam released him, picked up the knife from the mud, wiped it clean and handed it to him, and gravely explained: “This man is no renegade, hunting-shirt of our rangers far south. Heisa friend of Sir William Johnson’s. He came here from the Ohio, where you were born when your father and mother went hunting there. He has fought the Shawnees and Delawares and the Indians from above the big lakes. He comes to help Sir William Johnson whip the French.” “He struck me and choked me,” was the - guttural reminder. “Well, your hide, did you do my leg any good?” roared Willis, holding up his blood- stained fingers and then pointing to his tightly tied queue ribbon. A glint of satisfaction shone in young Brant’s eyes. After all he had inflicted a worse injury than he had received. Beyond the slap at his pride he was uninjured. “Willis, shut up,” growled Putnam. ‘“Jos- eph Brant took his first war-path last Summer when he went with General Johnson to Lake George. He wouldn’t have jumped you if he hadn’t believed you was French. He knows all of Rogers’ men, and you was a stranger.” Willis hung his head and confessed: “Well, mebbe the cub had some excuse. I was in the top of a big pitch-pine, watching the different openings in the bush. I saw a small band hustling along, one a white man. I put after them and found this youngster’s tracks. Thinking he was one of the band, and wanting» to take him off his guard, I asked on coming up to him — ** ‘Out étes vous?” “Oui étes vous?’”’ shrilly repeated young Brant, pointing an accusing finger. ‘“‘My father was of the Wolf clan. I heard the man’s French. I jumped. The Wolf does not wait all day before making his kill.” Adventure He wears the \ come there. “Tt’s all very plain. It’s all a mistake,” soothed Putnam, with a side wink at Willis. “Your using French lingo made him think you was French. No, keepers of the eastern door will .ount more coups than he will by the time he has finished.” “Tf I’d known you was a English Mohawk, Brant, I’d never spoke that cursed French, ” mumbled Willis. “Not English!” hissed Brant. hawk of the Extended Lodge. “T am a Mo- My home is at the Canajoharie Castle in the Mohawk Valley.. No nation in the Long House has fought like mine. At one and the same time my people have carried on war with the Abnaki on the east, with the Conestoga in the south, with the Huron dogs and many Algonquin tribes in the west and north. We conquered the Delawares and made them say they were women and not fit to carry arms.” “But if the Dutch hadn’t come along and given you guns you'd ’a’ been wiped out,” re- minded Willis. “Enough of that, Willis, or you go back to Albany town,” thundered Putnam, whose one desire was to remove any possible cause for a quarrel between the loyal Mohawks and the English. Then to the angry youth: “You were following our enemies. They were running from me. I killed four of them last night. They were wild Potawatomi men.” “Good. You are a brave man,” softly cried Brant, his eyes glittering with admiration, his . hand flashing out his knife and raising it in salute. “T overturned their medicine-lodge. I killed their sorcerer and threw his scalp in the face of his warriors.” “Good! Sometime I will do the same, and the women will make up songs about my name!’ exclaimed Brant, again saluting. ““Ask him if he’s seen the girl,” Willis re- quested. “You were following our enemies. see a white girl dressed as a man with them?” “There was no white girl with them.” “Have you seen a white girl in the woods any- where? One dressed as a ranger?” Young Brant folded his arms and stared blankly at the towering pines. “Which means he has, I guess,’”” mused Put- nam. ‘And also means he’ll say nothing. She has been to Canajoharie Castle and was wel- No use wasting any time on him.” ‘Not a bit,” agreed Willis. “I know enough of their natur’ to see that. Anyway he has an- swered us by his silence.” The boy understood all this but gave no sign, his face remaining stolid almost to the degree of stupidity. Putnam said to him: Did you | “You must be friends with my friend, with - Gomichbooks (E@)