Adventure Magazine Cover — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

8 Adveaiaic birds and tthe beasts have, which draws - them without fail to their nests or dens after long heedless journeys after food. At any rate, that afternoon something seemed to keep telling me that we were going astray. Pedro too felt the warning. Once he looked back at me and shook his head. But we kept on; for neither of us, once started on a path on water or land, liked to return over it and begin anew. ‘The pair behind us said nothing whatever to us or to each other. And so we put the slow miles be- hind us until the shadows grew long. Then, on the right shore, we.found a little cove, at the end of which rose a slope topped by big trees. The slanting sun-rays, shoot- ing in among the tall trunks, showed that no undergrowth was there to hinder us and to harbor carrapatos or other insect pests, and that a clear little brook trickled into the creek along a groove in the clay. We turned into the cove, climbed the slope, and made camp. “Now that your order has, been obeyed, captain,” the girl smiled, “is your fragile passenger permitted to break the monotony by cooking the evening meal? Or must she still be little Miss Muffet and sit uselessly on a tuffet?” “Why, since you’ve recovered the power of speech, you may cook if you like,” Sen- hor Tom granted. “You’ve been dumb ever since noon.”’ “That was because you enforced ship’s rules, captain. I believe one of the rules is that passengers mustn’t talk to the steers- man. So, not wanting to be thrown to the “sharks, I had to hold my tongue.” “Tough, very,” he laughed. “Hereafter you may talk as much as you like—unless you blister your tongue too. But speak- ing of cooking——” He glanced at us. “We shall try to find something to cook,” Pedro responded. “Why eat our dried rations if we can have fresh meat? Wait a while, senhorita.” And we took our guns and slipped away ‘into the forest. Soon, somewhere off to the left, we heard low grunting sounds. Stealthily we crept that way, slipping around the big tree- ‘butts, avoiding dry fallen limbs and other forest litter, making hardly a sound with our bare feet. The grunting became plainer. Then, peering over the edge of a root-but- tress, we saw near us a couple of peccaries. couple of treed jaguars. Our guns roared almost together. The pigs dropped. One lay still. The other ‘kicked several times and squealed shrilly. Then it became motionless. Before the second. animal was quiet we had reached the pair, ready to shoot again if another bullet was needed. As the wild pig stopped screaming we lowered our rifles, drew our machetes, and cut out the scent- pouches from their loins in order to keep the meat sweet. As we sheathed the long knives again we started and whirled. A rush of feet sounded near by. More grunts and squeals—many more— blended into a chorus of rage. Between the trees came a whole herd of peccaries, charging to aid their stricken mates. In the half- light their little eyes- seemed to glow green with fury. We fired one shot each and then jumped ~ for ‘safety. We knew peccaries too well to attempt to fight off a big band of them. Beside us loomed a tree corded thickly with big vines, and up those vines we went like a And we went none too soon. Under us the maddened beasts jammed into a heaving mass, squealing and clashing their keen little tusks and watching us in hate. Some even stood up on their hind ‘legs against the trunk, their teeth grinning at us like the jaws of death. And jaws of death they would have been if either of us had slipped or lost his hold on the treach- erous vines. But we did not climb far and thus increase the risk of falling. We clun quietly a few feet above their heads mat waited for them to go. For some time we hung there, and still they stayed. They quieted somewhat, but those wicked eyes of theirs remained fixed on us. Our hands and toes, hooked over our shaky support, grew tired. I began to think of tales I had heard of peccaries wait- ing for days for men to fall from trees into their power. I never had seen such a thing myself, but—we certainly could not hold on there all night, and the pigs certainly were waiting. We commenced studying our surroundings. “There is our chance,”’ Pedro said, mov- ing his head upward. Then I saw that against our tree-trunk leaned a smaller one which at some time had fallen part of the way to the ground but had become lodged against a big bole above us. It did not look like a safe perch—indeed, it was likely to Eomichbooks con