Adventure Magazine Cover — page 158: what you’re looking at

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

ees ae "ay « oY ag a — ~ : The Grand Cham staked enclosure. Yet his merchant’s eye noted the barbaric splendor of gold-inlaid armor, jeweled weapons, costly rugs spread within the tents and women’s cloaks fash- ioned of ostrich feathers. What kind of monarch, he thought, ruled over this hive-like multitude of pagans? =e TAMERLANE the Great, King of s=igg Kings, Lord of the East and West, —__ extended a gnarled hand across the chess-board and touched his opponent’s king. “Shah rohk,”’ he said. mine.” He freed a long ruby from one bent finger and handed it to the man who knelt across the board from him—a silk-clad Chinese general who had come from the edge of the Gobi to pay homage. Few could match wits even with fair suc- cess with the Tatar conqueror, for Timur-1- Jeng (Timur the Lame) had fashioned him- self a board with many times the usual number of squares and men. Gathered about the board were princes of Delhi, amirs of Bokhara, and khans of the White and Black Tatars and the power- ful Golden Horde that reached to the shores of the Volga. They were standing under a gigantic pavilion stretched upon supports taller than the masts of ships. Over the head of the conqueror hung silk streamers, swaying in the evening breeze, for the sides of the pavilion were open and the men within could look out from the dais on which they stood, over the tents of the army. _ “Summon the Frank ambassadors,” dered Tamerlane. They came through one of the outer por- ticos of the purple pavilion—Clavijo and Soranzi and Bembo, each with his arms gripped on either side by a Tatar noble. They were worried and anxious,. for they had ridden for six hours through the army that never seemed to have an end. The custom of holding envoys by the arms seemed to them ominous. Clavijo stared at the kneeling Tatar, noting his big, bent shoulders, his massive length of body, his shaggy brows and hard eyes. Tamerlane, nearly seventy years of age, was near-sighted—a peculiarity that made his naturally fierce stare the more difficult to bear. Soranzi blinked at the low table of solid “The game is or- gold on which the Tatar leaned and mut- tered under his breath as he tried to esti- mate the value of a blue diamond in 'Tamer- lane’s plain steel helmet. “From whom do you bear submission and greetings to me?” demanded the mon- arch. His speech had to be translated into Persian and then Greek, through two inter- preters. Clavijo’s broad brow was damp with perspiration. To gain time to think, he said that he did not understand. “Then take those ‘dogs of interpreters and lead them through the army by a rope thrust into their noses,’ commanded the Tatar at once. “Bring others who are wiser.” The two unfortunates threw themselves on their knees, and Clavijo paled. But Bembo spoke up, kneeling and crossing his hands on his chest. “Great khan,” he observed in Greek, “their words were clear; it was my com- panion, the dominus, who was dazed by the splendor of your presence.” This, being interpreted by other mouths, satisfied Tamerlane and he motioned to the interpreters to continue. “Franks,” he resumed, “I have taken your gifts. The cloth-of-silver and gold pleased me. From what king do you come, from the other end of the earth?” Hereupon Soranzi could not restrain a murmur of anguish. The bales of cloth had been his personal stock in trade, now lost beyond repair. Clavijo bowed and at last found an answer. “From the King of—of Spain,” he replied. “Good! I have heard of him. How is my son, the King of Spain? Is his health good? Has he much cattle and treasure?” They stared at Clavijo, these Armenians, Tatars and Chinese. The Europeans were quite a curiosity—petty envoys from a tiny kingdom somewhere at the end of the world. They had come, so reasoned the Tatars, to bask in the magnificence of the Lord of the East and West. Clavijo was very much afraid. He would have welcomed the sight of Michael Bearn’s cheerful face. But he gathered assurance as he began to describe the splendors of Aragon, enlarging upon the great ships and towns of Spain. At this, however, Tamerlane began to pay more attention to a topaz ring that he turned and twisted upon a sinewy hand. Eomichooksrco 157