Adventure, January 20, 1922 — page 79: what you’re looking at

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

Tides of Hate had rendered them; all these things added evidence to evidence that! the outcome was beyond the ken of his mortal vision. The band straggled on, subdued through sheer fear of the unseen and unknown. A strong force of Spanish soldiery, or even a pursuing body of king’s seamen, they would gladly and with gusto have fought to a red finish; but that night march through the murmuring forest, the memory of those swift and silent deaths that had come from the trees before the revelation of the I. Here we took the Spaniard. II. Careened here and cheated the bulldog. . "T'was here Cook fired into Swan . Hanged Badoes for stealing of a bit of leather. . Swan took his pinnace here. VI. Overhauled the galleon of dead men here. . Swan here. . San Juan. Here loth L’Escuyler. . Swan and Cook her X. Doggett and Randa Sali Goliath here. identity of the blow-pipe-wielding foe, above all the tragic end of so many of the chiefs among them—Cook, Swan, Steve Carr, black, genial Goliath—was more than men of vast superstition and small intelli- gence could stand. They muttered as they stumbled on, and some counseled following the example of those others who had deserted and re- turned to seek pardon at the fort; others whispered huskily that Ed Davies and the wench had caught the scent of the booty 77 and must needs lead their loyal followers to it all in good time. And, as Davies him- self had previously asserted to them, a sturdy rascal exclaimed now: “Do as ye’ a mind, lads. I’m f’r stickin’ to the cappen. More o’ ye as falls out, th’ bigger our shares’ll be.” Through the early hours of morning many small rivers were either waded through or marched around. It was striking off up- stream to find fordage that hindered the march so painfully that broad day surprized them while half the journey remained to be covered.- The road ahead was of a kind to induce dire ‘imaginings, so dense was ‘the jungle to the water’s edge, so tangled. the mangrove swamps through which the stream at which they halted ran: Men dropped arms and packs as they stopped, and flung themselves upon their burdens, utterly weary and heavy with sleep. Davies abruptly ordered a bivouac, com- pelling the drowsy rascals to stir themselves and make camp out of the glare of day; then, looking around for Nell, missed her. She appeared out of the forest while he was chopping brush for couches with his cutlas, and with a dancing light in her dark eyes told him in low, excited tones: “T ha’ seen the Indians, Ed! Sh! They’re for us, man. Listen. The man says we must push on. A league this side o’ the San Juan River that runs to the Caribbean he says ye shall see what ye came for. “But ’tis not for us, Ed. That he told me with sorrow in’s eyes, and as he spoke he touched his own scars and his woman’s wounded breasts. But, hist’—she glanced furtively at the sprawled seamen—‘“th’ man’s left a canoe in a thicket not fifty fathom distant from here, and you and I may steal away and even now mayhap can seize a share enough for ourselves.” “Fool’s gossip, Nell!’ growled Davies angrily. ‘How may two get what two- score shall fail at?” “Look!” Nell snatched at her belt and produced a heavy circlet of dull gold. “Such as this may be taken where an army might not spirit away gold in ass- loads! The Indian woman gave me this.” Davies strode back and forth nervously, his strong fingers clenching and unclench- ing as if loath to grasp something and as loath to let go. He arrived at his decision presently, and rejoined Nell over the fire CORMICMOOOKS (C@