Adventure Magazine Cover — page 89: what you’re looking at

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

The Torch-Bearers 9 “Let it be so! cried @ickridge. This left the next move up to me and for my life I could not rally my benumbed wits. If Tickridge would leave his post by the door we two could slip through the window and make a run for it. I was sull groping for some expedient when there came a Heaven-sent diversion in the shape of a scattering volley down the road, followed by the rumbling of many horses in flight. They were coming down upon us from the creek. Tickridge ran back to his men in the grove and began yelling orders. Elsie whispered: “Thank God! They'll be M'Cottry’s Rifles, sent by Marion to sweep the country of the vermin who would have whipped me! Yes, yes. Thank God, indeed! Oh, can’t you hear them yelling? They’re M’Cot- try’s Rifles with never a doubt! They flushed the game down by the creek!” “Even so, but who are they chasing?” I cried. ‘“‘We have a scant minute! Through the window with you! We'll take to the woods.”’ I'll go with her!’ “T’ll stay! They'll rescue me,” she cried. But already the road was becoming filled with galloping horsemen. Tickridge, with a glimmer of sense, had thrown his men across the way to check the rout. “T am Captain Benjamin Tickridge, loval tto his Majesty, King George. Who are you?” bawled Tickridge to‘an officer, who was using the flat of his sword to halt his men. “Fall in! Fall in! We'll form behind you, captain. I am Captain Harrison. Major Wemyss, of the Sixty-third, is com- ing close behind me. Ambushed by those cussed hackwoodsmen. There comes Ma- jor Wemyss now. Fall in, you fools! Cap- tain, send your men forward to clear the bushes on each side of the road.” Tickriuge stood as if stunned. He be- gan turning his head toward the cabin as his brain resumed functioning. I slammed the door and picking up the girl, shot her feet first through the window and leaped after her, just as a loud howl of rage pro- claimed that Tickridge was seeing through the intposition practised upon him. Seiz- ing the girl’s hand, I led her deeper into the cover, while behind rose cheers and oaths and hoarse commands, but not entirely upon our account, for the wholesome pop- 79 ping of M’Cottry’s Rifles was sounding nearer and evidencing that it was some- thing more serious than an ambush. I located my horse and urged her to take him and ride for it. But she would not listen, saying: “The horse I lost was a sorry brute. I'll circle back to the rear of M’Cottry’s men and soon find another. Many a horse is running wild back there. Hark! The firing is beyond the cabin! M’Cottry’s men are driving them down the road. There'll be no danger in my making for the creek— You've played the part of a good Whig this day!” “T saved a young woman from a disa- greeable situation. I would have done the same if I had carried the king’s commis- sion.” “You ride for Charleston?” “Ves. Are you sure you will be all right? If not, I will see you home.” She smiled a bit sadly and said: “T’m thinking our welcome to you wasn’t overcordial. You have scant call ‘to visit us again. I go to see General Marion and report on Tickridge’s force. I am perfectly safe even now in taking to the road.” ‘Then it’s good-by,” I said, climbing heavily into the saddle. ‘I must make a wide detour to get beyond those fellows.” “Wait. You’re forgetting your pass,” she said, pulling it from the bosom of her leather coat. and handing it to me. I put it away and for a bit allowed my gaze to rest on the dimple close to the corner of her mouth. Then with a jerk I threw up my head and said— “Now it’s good-by.”’ ‘‘4 moment!” She detained me in a voice curiously low and soft. And she stood at my stirrup, plaiting the horse’s mane. : “After all, it is custom even though we be distant cousins,” I heard her murmur. At first I did not understand what she meant. Then her small face was tilted up and the color was suffusing her cheeks, and there was a hint of moisture in her brown eyes. And, God forgive me, I was so blind as not to note until I had completed her embarrassment that she was standing on tiptoe and waiting for a cousinly kiss, such as she had denied to me at our first meeting. I leaned low and placed my arm about her shoulders to cradle her head, and CO MICLOOKS ©