Adventure Magazine Cover — page 182: what you’re looking at

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

172 ceased to pour forth a storm of raving. It was horrible. Severn found himself shaken to the very soul, as if passing through some brain-searing nightmare of terror. He was not made for such work as this. A violent nausea seized upon him. The shrieks of the maddened creature had now become low, shuddering groans. Each one of them went through Severn like a knife. He fell to his knees, sick with horror in both soul and body. At this instant the sound of an eraleion roared through the cavern. CHAPTER XV “a HUNTED TIGER WILL LEAP THE WALL.’ —Proverb. | Segre cay, finding himself alone in his prison chamber, investigated his be- longings. Since all weapons had been removed, with everything that might serve as a weap- on, he had small hope of finding the thing he sought. It was something he-had pre- pared before the expedition started, in the vague anticipation of emergencies. Presently, as he searched, an exclamation broke from him. With trembling fingers he brought forth from his pack a bundle of bamboo segments, tied together and wrapped in red paper marked with large ideographs. These characters proclaimed that the bundle held temple candles. Such candles, made of very soft wax or animal fat, and painted, can not be touched without smearing the hands with color. Accordingly, they are carried in bamboo segments, split asunder and joined about the candle, the bamboo, joint at each end holding the prongs of the candles. ishly Kilgore tore open the bundle to let the individual candles come loose. These candles were remarkable for one thing. The ordinary temple candle melts with heat. These had crossed the Gobi, yet they had not melted. Kilgore laid them down and rose. “By gad, I don’t dare chance it!’ he ex- claimed, taking a cigaret and lighting it. “Tf there’s no other way I'll try it—but it’s madness. Let’s have a look at that grill.” He went to the iron grating that enclosed his end of the chamber. It was out of the question for him to break away, as Day Fever-, Adventure had done, although he found one point where the iron was badly eaten by rust. The idea came to him, however, that he could slide the grill upward again, He fell to work. Lifting the iron grating was beyond his power. He attempted to pry it with what- ever he found to hand. After working an hour, he had it up two inches from the floor, resting now upon two fragments of a great water-jar that he smashed. This jar was neither of pottery nor of porcelain; it was of the intermediate period partaking of the qualities of each material and was extremely hard. Another hour passed—an hour of minute and incessant labor. At the end of this period, the grating had been raised to a height of four inches. Kilgore was setting pieces of the jar in place to hold it up, when the props gave way suddenly. The grat- ing clanged again on the floor. — Kilgore sank down, exhausted. “No go,” he said calmly. “T’ll have to take the chance after all!” When he was rested, he went to the bundle of bamboo segments and sat down. He worked loose the fastenings of the first segment. When the bamboo fell apart, he took out the temple candle, gaudily painted in red and gold and black. Under his hands a miracle took place; what had seemed a candle, became a stick of dyna- mite. Kilgore was cool now, cold as death, absolutely deliberate. He opened the other bamboo segments. He stuffed the front of his shirt with sticks of dynamite, fuse, caps. Everything was here with which to work. He fitted a broken stick with cap and fuse. “The stuff works downward—I must make it work otherwise,’ he murmured. “Tf it doesn’t kill me, it'll bring down the roof. If it doesn’t bring down the roof, it will close up the entrance.~If it fails to close the entrance, it will blow aside the grill. Andif it does that—I have a chance. At least, Vl enjoy a last cigaret.” He lighted the cigaret. His fingers were steady now. He was _ perfectly calm. Going to the center of the caging grill, where the. two sections came together, he worked with such materials as he could find to build up a platform that might direct the force of the explosive against the iron EO LMIC TOO KS EO mn