Adventure Magazine Cover — page 68: what you’re looking at

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

58 man, though sometimes they came on dere- lict plowlands and towns of crumbling brick charred and glazed by fire. In sweltering days they struggled through flats, where the grass was often higher than the horses’ withers, and forded the tawny streams which brought down the snows of the hills. Now and then they would pass wandering herdsmen, who fled to some earth-burrow. at their appearance. The constable had bidden them make for the rising sun, saying that sooner or later they would feregather with the Khakan’s scouts. But days passed into weeks and weeks into months, and still they moved through a tenantless waste. They hus- banded jealously the food they had brought, _but the store ran low and there were days of empty stomachs and light heads. Un- less, like the King of Babylon, they were to eat grass in the fashion of beasts, it seemed they must soon famish. But late in Summertime they saw be- fore them a wall of mountain and in three days climbed by its defiles to a pleasant land, where once more they found the dwellings of man. It appeared that they were in a country where the Tatars had been for some time settled and which had for years been free of the ravages of war. The folks were hunters and shepherds, who took the strangers for immortal beings and offered food on bent knees like oblations to a god. They knew where the Ilkhan dwelt and furnished guides for each day’s journey. Aimery, who had been sick of a low fever in the plains, and had stumbled on in a stupor torn by flashes of homesickness, found his spirits reviving. He had cursed many times the futility of his errand. While the Franciscans were busied with their punctual offices and asked nothing of each fresh day but that it should be as prayerful as the last, he found a rebellious unbelief rising in his heart. He was traveling roads no Christian had ever trod on a wild-goose errand, while his comrades were winning” fame in the battle-front. Alas, that a bright sword should rust in these barrens! But with the uplands peace crept into his soul and some of the mystery of his journey. It was a brave venture, whether it failed or no, for he had already gone be- yond the pale even of men’s dreams. The face of Louis hovered before him. It needed a great king ever to conceive such a mission. , Adventure He had been sent on a king’s errand, too. He stood alone for France and the cross in the heart of a dark world. Alone, as kings © should stand, for to take all the burden was the mark of kingship. His heart bounded at the thought, for he was young. His father had told him of that old Flanders grandam, who had sworn that his bleod came from proud kings. But chiefly he thought of Louis with a fresh warmth of love. Surely the king loved him, or he would net have chosen him out of many for this fateful werk. He had asked of him the ultimate service, as a friend should. Aimery reconstructed in his inner vision all his memories of the king. The close fair hair now thinning about the temples; the small face still contoured like a boy’s; the figure strung like a bow; the quick eager gestures; the blue deve’s eyes, kindly and humble, as became one whese preudest title was to be a “‘sergeant of the Crucified.” But those same eyes could also steel and blaze, for his father had been called ‘‘the Lion,” his mother “Semiramis” and his grandsire ‘‘Augustus.” In these wilds Aim- ery was his vicegerent and bore himself proudly as the proxy of such a monarch. The hour came when they met the Tatar. outposts. A cloud of horse swept dewn on them, each man riding leese with his hand on a taut bowstring. In silence they sur- rounded the little party, and their leader made signs to Aimery to dismount. The constable had precured fer him a letter in Tatar script, setting out the purpose of his mission. ‘This the outpest ceuld not read, but they recegnized seme werd among the characters and peinted it eut to one another with uncouth murmurings. strange folk, with eyes like pebbles and squat frames and shert bread faces, but each horse and man moved in unison like a centaur. With gestures of respect the Tatars sig- naled to the Christians to follow and led them for a day and a night southward down a broad valley, where vines and fruit-trees grew. and peace dwelt in villages. They passed encampments of riders like them- selves, and little scurries of horsemen would ride athwart their road and exchange greet- ings. , On the second morning they reached a city, populous in men but not in houses. For miles stretched lines of skin tents, and _ COPMIC OOO K<S They were (E@) 5} G