Adventure Magazine Cover, August 18, 1921 — page 23: what you’re looking at

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

Murkwood Spears arm under the inert form and drew the armor off. The physician drew his knife down the cloth of tunic and shirt and bared the still breast. “A great wound,” he breathed in a sigh- ing whisper, “yet not so perilous as this.” He pointed to an ugly hole in the white throat, edged and caked with blood. ‘He has bied terribly.” The servant, accustomed to his duty, brought the basin to the bedside, opened the chest and laid it down beside the sur- geon. Drenching a towel in warm water, the latter washed away the blood, bathing throat and chest as clean as possible. A little blood still oozed from the hurts. He picked up one limp hand and felt the pulse; then drawing from his pouch a small steel mirror, he polished it and held it to Geoffrey’s lips. Again he sighed, and his eyes met Gislac’s. : “T find no trace of life,” he said. ‘Yet he should be colder. Rigor has not begun to appear. There seems no hope; but I must work upon him yet a little. A wo- man’s hand would help me more than yours, Sir Giles.”’ “Fetch Arlotta,”’ Gislac commanded, and the servant disappeared. ' The two men looked at each other by the bedside—the eyes of one sad with the sad- ness of the good physician, the other’s deso- late. They still stood thus when the wo- man came in. Sir Giles had sent for her in the wish of sparing Margaret, who still slept, knowing nothing of what had happened. She must know soon; there was no need to thrust her grief upon her prematurely. Arlotta entered, rubbing her eyes, clad only in her nightrobe. Gislac went up to her. “Here is one dead or dying, girl,’’ he told her. ‘We need your help.” Until now his great bulk had stood. be- tween her and the head of the cot; now he stood aside and would have led her to the bedside. But as he withdrew, she saw the face of him who lay there. She dashed the loose hair from her eyes, stared a moment at the dead, white face and grew rigid. Her eyeballs rolled terribly; the color left her smooth cheeks; a ghastly shriek rang from her lips. Sir Giles sprang to support her, but she strove to thrust him off. “Mother of God!” she cried, her voice hoarse and choked. “Oh, Christ have mercy! I did not know they would kill him!’ 2 17 She fell suddenly in a huddled heap, moaning with fear and horror. The hpy- sician moved to her help. From the door- way. the servant, who had returned with her, gaped in dumb surprize. But Sir Giles gazed down upon her with a smoldering flame in his fierce eyes. “Take her away,” he ordered. “Let old Martha tend her, and bid Thomas post a man outside her door. She knows more than she should.” Arlotta was half-dragged, half-carried from the room. Gislac turned again to the bedside. | ‘A man’s hand must serve your turn,” he said. “I will not wake my daughter to such a sight.” At the physician’s direction, Sir Giles wet fresh cloths in the basin, which had been filled anew, and now trembled in the ex- cited servant’s hands, he laid the cloths across the wounds and wound them close. Meantime the old man selected from the box two vials, one filled with a vermilion fluid, the other colorless. “What is it, father? shrieked?”’ Gislac looked up with a start, to see his daughter Margaret standing beside him. He made to get between her and that which lay on the bed; but even as he moved, she saw. Her face paled, her lovely hands ffut- tered at her breast; but she bent down steadily to the pillow. For a moment she stared at Geoffrey’s face, then her hands went to his cheeks, tenderly, hesitatingly, and stroked them with trembling fingers. Her father’s throat choked, and the tears trembled in his eyes. , The physician approached and would have drawn her gently aside, the unstopped vial with the deep-hued liquor in his hand. But she would not move. Instead she took the vial from him and made to carry it to the colorless lips of Geoffrey. His mouth was set, so that she had to part it with all the strength of her fingers and pour the medicine through his teeth. After a moment’s pause, while the hearts of all three watchers stood still, the physi- clan raised the lids of Geoffrey’s eyes and made a sign for the lamp. The light closer, he gazed at the pupils. Then he shook his head. Was it Arlotta “It is no use,” he pronounced. ‘He is dead.” COMmicOokks.COm