Adventure Magazine Cover — page 71: what you’re looking at

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

The Wolf-Chaser “Our lives are yours. We have seen you strike a good blow against the wolves.” Hugo moved impatiently, wishing to be gone. ‘“‘Because of that blow,’ went on Aruk slowly, ‘‘you can not go back to your yurt on the mountain. The Turks would skin you alive and set you on an ant-hill. Be- sides, they have set fire to the yurt where you slept, and plundered your goods. Come then with us, with the men of the Altai.” “Come,” echoed the others. 99 CHAPTER IV THE GATE OF THE WINDS HE water of Kobdo Nor was like a mirror under the stars, a mirror that reflected as well the scattered glow of fires about the shore of the lake. Water-fowl, roused by the presence of men in the un- wonted hours of darkness, flew about with a dull screaming. Cattle lowed from the plain, whence _riders came in on sweating horses, from the steppe, from the more distant tribes of Tartary, to learn what had befallen at Kob. They saw the crimson spot in the sky that showed where the city still burned on the second night of the sack. On his back near the reeds where the women and children from Kob had taken refuge, Hugo of Hainault lay, his head on his hands, his eyes closed. He was rather more than hungry. Never having accus- tomed himself to the kumiss of the Tatars, or the poorly cooked meat they ate, his one meal of the day had been black bread and fruit, washed down by cold water from a spring near the lake. Above the whistle of the wind in the reeds and the murmur of a woman quieting her child, his quick ear caught a light step. Opening his eyes he saw a slim figure stand- ing over him. “Tt is Yulga, my lord, and I scarce could find you. I have some cold lamb’s flesh and a bowl of wine. Aruk said that you have a throat for the wine of China, so I had this from a merchant whose caravan has wandered here.” “Wine!”’ Hugo sat up and brushed his mustache. “Vou are a good child. “The girl has manners of a sort, ” he reflected, ‘‘and it is necessary to remember 5 65 that here one is not monsieur le comie, but a vagabond of the highways. Even the remnant of my clothing and money is gone with my forest chateau.”’ “My lord,” Yulga’s low voice broke in, “the kurultai—the council of the clans— has been assembled since the setting of the sun. The wise ones among the noyons are trying to discover the road we must follow. They have heard that Galdan Khan has or- dered the death of all the souls in Tartary. His main army is on the road leading to the Urkhogaitu Pass. -Soon he will arrive with his banners in Tartary, and with him will be five times ten thousand riders.” Yulga spoke quickly, almost breathlessly. “My lord, we will not flee, for where would we go? Cheke Noyon yielded his breath in Kob, and others of our bravest are licking their wounds here. More horse- men are coming in from the Torgut and Buriat.clans, and before long others will ride hither from the north. “We have no khan like Galdan,’’ went on Yulga sadly, “for the kelets—the evil demons of the air—bring him news, and he is invul- nerable. Gorun shivers in his tent and says that Galdan Khan has made magic. The priest can make no magic for us.” She paused and then lifted her head. ‘“My lord, there is a magic that can help us. I heard of it from the Christian priest who is dead.” “The one for whom you pray?” “Aye, my lord. He told us that God opened a path through a sea, so an army of Christians could pass with dry feet.” Hugo was silent. Once at a banquet at the Palais Royal he had made a jest of this, remarking that if the Israelites of Egypt had been monks and the Red Sea a sea of wine they would not have passed unwet. “And an evil horde,” pointed out Yulga eagerly, “that pursued the Christian khans was swallowed up in the sea. Is not that the truth?” Thought of Paul stayed the gibe that rose to Hugo’s lips. “Tf the Christian priest said it,” he responded grimly, “‘it is true. He was my brother.” Yulga pondered this. “Then you must be a Christian from God, because he was an envoy, and you are a khan, a leader of men. And you came to help us in our need. If we do not have a miracle we will all die.” COnicloool< (C@