Adventure Magazine Cover — page 134: what you’re looking at

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

126 promised to do with us, which evidently he had every intention of carrying out. ‘There is a faint chance,” I added, “‘that Sabah may somehow pry this other guy out of the sultan job and do something for us; but personally I reckon I wouldn’t waste a dime on the betting. We aim to get in with the bunch and find out whether thev really are set on carrying out the crucifying stunt. If that’s so, all we can do is to save them from torture by shooting them ourselves and then—good night, nursie! Get me?” Doc Seeger gazed at me searchingly. “You really think it’s as bad as that, Tromp?” “Sure I do! I know ’em. Don’t forget that!” “That’s true.” He rose. “All right,” he added. sec.” “Say,” said Billy, “af you can, you’d best get another robe from some one. Like ours if you can.” “All right; Vl borrow my boy’s. He'll sleep peacefully for an hour or more. I say, d’you want anything to eat before we start?” But neither Billy nor I felt any need. Within a few minutes he returned in the rough jelab of his servant. I looked him over. Fortunately, Seeger was dark and his beard was fairly long and ragged—in fact he would pass muster better than Billy or I, although fair Berbers were common enough, to which fact we owed the safety of our disguise. “Anyway pull your hood well over your face,’ was all I could suggest to shadow the unusual blueness of his eyes. “T won’t be a "A AT THE garden gate we took the uae =| precaution to peek through the Wai\ { latchet window, but most of the loafers had gone. Across the square were many people streaming in one direction. “Early doors, two bits,” commented Billy flippanily as we went through. Cautioning the doc to keep his mouth shut in any circumstances, we followed on and joined the throng on foot, composed of the usual Mandingo population, mixed negro-Berber with a sprinkling of lower- class women muffled to the eyes in the haik or blanket. We had again slung our guns under our Adventure armpits and beneath the jelabah, envying the portability of the doc’s Mauser and wooden stock-case. In the general hum of conversation about I caught a few words from a group of higher-class Berbers who were gravely discussing some prophecy made by an imam in a certain mosque frequented by the sect of the Druse, to the effect that there would appear at this sacred festival the reincarnation of Darazi the prophet—evidently, I reckoned, some of Sabah’s propaganda. Other words picked up here and there regarding ‘“‘infidels’’ and the ‘“‘lords of the forest”’ gave me an inkling that the Gandhi intended to carry out the fiendish atrocities he had promised, apparently upon the boys whom he still had in captivity. I’ve faced the final proposition several times before, but just the same a fellow doesn’t get used to it—at least don’t. I’ve got lots of red blood and can see ahead lots of fun in life. I was fond of Billy and other people I had known and knew and hoped to meet again. But those words meant, if they meant anything, that the end wasn’t very far off; for, as we had agreed, there was only one thing to do and only one way out. I swore under my breath in good Ameri- can at the luck of it, the treachery of Sabah and the bobbing-up, of all people in the world, of this little Levantine whose face I’d smacked for woman-beating. Yet there was a faint chance that Sabah might redeem himself, which Billy seemed to think possible, but I didn’t. A crook may play straight with his kind, but a traitor never will; at any rate not a fanatical Islamite against Christians. How- ever, I’d got a nearly full bandoleer and a gun, which was considerably better than to be strung up like a chicken to have my neck wrung. While I was indulging in these cheerful ideas Billy tugged at my sleeve, motioning me to slow down. I followed his glance ahead, and after a bit spotted on the right five of our late Hausa soldiers. If they recognized us the row would start right there, and that was the last thing we wanted. I pulled my hood farther over my face, and we dropped back into the crowd, edging toward the other side. While I was cal- culating the chances of the others being about or near us in the arena Billy got the right idea. GOMIIGooOo S (©