Adventure Magazine Cover — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

carried him to his hammock. There I cut off my shirt-sleeves and bandaged the wound with one of them, after which I soaked the other in the last of our -water and laid it on his forehead as a cooling pad to ease the ache. “Now,” I said, ‘keep quiet and go to sleep. You are feverish, but sleep will do you much good. We are going away for a little while. Do not wake the senhorita.” He was too sick from pain to say any- thing, and we left him there. Each of us carrying a fresh torch from the fire, we went down the bank to the place where our canoes had lain. It was true—they were gone. Only the blank black water lay before us. In the clay bank were the marks of their bows, and other marks too: the prints of bare feet, -and traces of something having been dragged down from above. Saying nothing, we followed those traces back upward. We searched the ground, which was quite soft, and near the fire we found signs.of a struggle. Over by the tree where Senhor Tom had lain we also found his short ax and the armful of wood which he had dropped when struck down by the bullet. And that was all. We had moved very quietly, and Senhor Tom had not heard us prowling about. Now we went over to the little brook, let ourselves down and drank deep of its cool water, made cigarets, and talked low. “The thing is clear, so far as it goes,” Pedro. “Some man came here while we were away, shot Senhor Tom -without warn- ing, overpowered the senhorita, and went away with both our canoes and all our sup- plies. He caught them by surprize, or he never would have lived to leave here— Senhor Tom is lightning and death with that revolver of his, and the girl is no weakling; she would have seized Senhor Tom’s rifle there in the tambo, and used it, if she had had time to reach it. As it was, she fought him - with her bare hands until he struck her down or choked her senseless. Then he got away as fast as possible, knowing we were - near. If only those devil-pigs had not treed us oe He growled and stopped talking. Think- ing of the blind man behind us and the girl somewhere out in the dark in the power of a murderous brute, I echoed the growl. We smoked fiercely until the butts burned our fingers. ies ee ee OY at ad oi ee = ee ae Re Pats Fis RS : oa Ne = ey = Oe Tupahn the Thunderstorm | -also take his revolver. said. -In darkness. “And now we have only our clothes, our — guns, a few cartridges—and a blind man,” I said. ‘No boats, no food but two pigs that will quickly spoil “And plenty of money, which is worth nothing.” I had forgotten the money. It was true, we had plenty; for in the camp of the dead Black Hawk we had found much money wrung from the people of Viciado and from river-traders and plundered from dead men; and this we had divided among us as spoils of war. It was true also. that it now was useless to us. But it gave me an idea. “T wonder if the vile brute | who did this was one of the Hawk’s crew,” I suggested. “Some mongrel who knew we must -have found money and has been following us to steal it and the girl.” “No, I think not. Senhor Tom was not robbed—at- least his guns were not taken, and a man stopping to loot his body would Either the assassin was after the girl, or he was desperately in need of a boat and food. If it was the ca- noes he wanted, he took the girl because he saw his chance to get her too. We may learn when daylight comes. Until then we can do nothing. Come. Let us eat.” So, though our appetites were gone, we went back. to the fire and cooked peccary meat. Senhor Tom lay quiet, and we did not disturb him. After forcing down all the meat we could hold—for we did not know when we could eat again after leav- ing here—we squatted looking soberly at the dim hammock where our comrade lay Finally Pedro, muttering an- other curse on the sneaking cur who had shot from ambush, rose and got the small ax. With this, working as quietly as possible, we cut away sections of the thin but tough root-buttresses of a tall matamata-tree near the fire, and with our machetes we fash- ioned rough paddles. Neither of us felt like sleeping. To go stumbling through the unknown bush, dragging-our companion after us, was not to be thought of. We must go by the creek. When the paddles were made, however, we could do no more until day. We were tired, too, and our eyes burned in our heads from strain and smoke. So we crept into our hammocks. Sleep came to me after a time, and I knew nothing more until the waking birds of the forest roused me by their screams at dawn. Eomichooks (E(0)