Adventure Magazine Cover — page 45: what you’re looking at

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

44 voice rumbled off in a low, earnest growl— “T’d surely like to get my hooks on to that Parchelly!”’ A) i N mS A AS THEY marched back along the route already traversed twice by the skipper the gloom of the forest deepened with waning day, and there de- scended again a subtle suggestion of human presence which brought out all the half- dormant primitive bush instinct of the Black Pearl’s native crew. Lithe Gilbert Island- ~ers became silent, stealthy shapes among the dense tangle of jungle; shining brown faces assumed stern lines of predatory keenness; coal-black eyes glittered metal- lically. Yet no human obstacle confronted them. Even the beasts and creeping things of the forest appeared to have withdrawn before their advance. Presently, in response to an involuntary oath from Carter following a headlong stumble over a root, Saunders laughed softly as if the mate’s mishap had broken a tension, and remarked: “Tod, old horse, you must have given the sultan’s emissaries a rough handling to make you so darned taut-strung now. What did ye do to ’em?” “To?” echoed Tod, grinning in spite of his intense devotion to the job of keeping his feet clear and his eyes free of brushing leaves and swinging vines. “Do? Why, blast ’em, that mob o’ yaller-ocher fakers pulled some yarn on me that they was reg lar customs guys and showed a bit 0’ dirty parchment signed by a spider-crawl signature which they said was old Sadrash’s, and said they was come to rummage the ship. ‘T told ’em they could stay alongside until you come back, and they said you wouldn’t come back until] they took their report to Sadrash, and they all grinned like monkeys. Said you was being held—they’d heard about your reputation—” here Tod Carter indulged in a grim chuckle—‘“and Sadrash wasn’t takin’ no chances on the safety of his officers. “So I gives the boys a wink to keep their eyes peeled and let the gang on board. They peeped down the hatch, but that wasn’t what they was after. No,sir! They wanted to see the cabin. “Then when I’d about decided to show "em everything but keep tabs of ’em that blasted Parchelly runs up, dodges when I wasn’t lookin’, and was overboard and Adventure half-way to shore before I twigged him. I run below, and be darned if he hadn’t opened your safe with a skiliton-key or something, and there we was, robbed by a yeller-bellied shipmate as ought never to have been aboard, and boarded by a lot 0’ dirty scuts o’ fake officers as was more like pirates than customs men—not as there’s rhuch difference.”’ “Yes; but what did you do to them?” chuckled Saunders. ‘‘Dumped ’em into the river, and lit out after Parchelly.” “Well, well; patience, old cha: You'll catch up with him when we come before the Sultan Sadrash, never fear,” the skipper ' returned, and strode along in the wake of his leading man. Again, and more insistently, came the suggestion of a lurking presence surrounding them, and the jungle had become dark with a cold gloom by the time they broke, shiver- ing with chill and taut nerves, through the last cane barrier and into the stockaded village. ‘Deserted!’ Carter ejaculated, wiping cold sweat from his eyes. “Thought you said “Shut up!” the skipper rejoined, irri-. tably fora wonder. ‘This place is deserted like ’s deserted. Two of you boys hide yourselves outside the gate here. Come on, the rest of you. Straight to the big hut.” The queer, brooding quiet increased as they stamped across the floor of a wide veranda, making their steps echo and re- echo jarringly. Inside the big hut Saunders saw that it was almost dark, yet with suf- ficient glow from some hidden lamp to sug- gest that people might be inside and awake: The nostrils, too, were assailed rather than soothed with odors so richly sensuous as to render breathing difficult. Impatiently the big skipper seized a heavy floating curtain at the doorway and tore it down; then he strode into a vast, shadowy chamber, his-men close at his heels, and strove against the blinding gloom with straining eyes. “T want to see the chief, Sadrash; where is he?’’? Saunders demanded sharply. The only reply he received was the sud- den heavy jarring crash of a door slamming behind him, a low, cunning laugh before, and the metallic sound of a score of rifles being cocked or charged all about his little party. Eom ness <SiiGO