Adventure Magazine Cover — page 38: what you’re looking at

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

39 I turned toward the door. But Pedro took the smoky torch from me, lay down beside the hole, and lowered the light to the full length of hisarm. Before I could puzzle out what he was doing he arose again. “The dirt in the bottom of that hole has boot-tracks in it,” he told us. ‘‘Now if we can © A noise stopped him. Shouts were rising in the clearing beyond us, where the maloca stood. One voice yelled so loud that we caught the words “any2” and “andirah’— - devil and bat. ‘“Bat-devil,’ Pedro repeated. ‘“The bat- mask is there at the maloca! Come!” Grasping Senhor Tom’s hands, we lunged out of the place and ran for the path leading to the tribal house. Luckily we found it without loss of time, and very soon we had passed through the forest:and emerged into the larger clearing. At the farther end of the tribal house lights _ flared, and it was there that the commotion was loudest. There was no doubt that the Tucunas were awake and that many of the men were outdoors with lights and weapons. But we ran on, determined now to see that prisoner in spite of Andirah and all his tribe. Yet even as we ran we realized that the lights were fading out and that the noise was passing into the house. When we reached the farther corner and turned to- ward the door we saw only a number of © Indians who seemed to be awaiting us. They peered at us in the light of our flickering torch. Into their faces came blank surprize. “The whites! Tupahn!” they grunted. - No doubt they had thought our torch to be that of their payé, running from his hut in pursuit of the escaping prisoner. “Tell them to let us pass, senhor,’”’ Pedro muttered. ‘Most of them have gone inside, and the mask also.” 2 -Senhor Tom, though nearly out of breath after his blind run between us, had not lost his voice. ‘““Aye, Tupahn!” he boomed. “We come again—to tell the Bat his pajé is a vile liar. Stand aside and let us enter!”’ Staring at us, peering beyond us to see whether their priest followed, they gave way. Through the doorway we crowded and toward the chief’s fire we strode. Tucunas in our way got shoved roughly aside. The clatter of voices ahead of us quickly died. By the time we had forced our way to the Adventure central space the whole big house was quiet. The silence was broken by Pedro’s shout. “At last! The senhorita!”’ THERE on the ground before old @ Andirah, who sat in his hammock just as we had last seen him, lay a small figure in khaki. Our Lady Marion was there, yes; but whether it was the living girl, or only her body I could not tell. Straight and still she lay, her wonderful eyes closed and her face seeming dead white against her closely coiled black hair and the dark ground beneath. At her feet, looking like the head of a demon protruding above the ground, the bat-mask stood _ leering wickedly. “Thank God!” Senhor Tom cried in a choked tone. “Marion! We are here! Speak up!” “She seems to be in a swoon, comrade,” Itold him. I fervently hoped it was nothing worse. ‘She lies quiet before Andirah 2 “By the Almighty, if she’s dead—” he rasped, his hand going to his gun. But Pedro grabbed that hand. “Not too fast, senor!” he warned. “Slow haste goes farthest. Have care.” The North American gulped and nodded. Then he asked— | “Ts the chief in his hammock?” [og ?? ‘“‘Andirah, chief of the people of the Bat!” thundered Senhor Tom. “I come again for my woman. That is she on the ground be- fore you. You said no woman had been brought here. Yet here she is. her from me! You handed her over to that stinking dog of a pajé! Your tongue is forked! Now that I find her again, I will have berl’’> The old chief sat as if struck dumb. His hollow eyes rested on us without a blink. Then, slowly, he bent a little and stared down at the white face upturned to him. ‘‘Alive or dead, I will have her!’”’ our com- rade raged. ‘‘And if she be dead, you too go to death! Bat? Chief? You will be chief among the bats of if you have destroyed her!’ He choked again. His hand tugged once more at his holstered gun, and once more Pedro gripped it hard. As slowly as he had bent, the old man sat up. His thin voice spoke. E “The eyes of the Bat are old and dim. They see not as they saw in the years that COPMICLOOOKS G You hid | (C@) S|