Adventure Magazine Cover — page 179: what you’re looking at

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

The Mahogany Garden ‘“‘So you are going to take me to the run- aways in the woods, eh, Juan? Since I have business to which to attend, suppose I will not go?” “Then I will bring them and we will take ou.” Haskell laughed outright at the cool finality of the assertion. “All right, Juan, we will wait and see.” Taking his observation instruments from his bags, Haskell parceled them between the three of them and led the way up the steep slope of the mound, saying he wanted to make sure of their exact location. The red men looked on the lensed brass things as the appurtenances of witchery and handled them with fear. The ruined temple Haskell found to be far less ruined than he had imagined. The walls were of solid masonry about eight feet thick and twenty-five feet high. The space they enclosed was about eighty by one hundred. All around the walls were the niches in which the wooden beams, rotted and gone thousands of years ago, had once reposed when they supported the roof. There were no rooms, but on either side of an altar, on which perched a huge stone tiger, were the remains of founda- tions that showed there had been wooden structures within the square. From just beneath the tiger ran a two-inch stream of pure cold water—a complete mystery to him, an insoluble problem in hydrostatics. On both the outer walls and inner panels were inset single stones about a foot square, on the face of each of which was carved a different design of curves and dots, the indecipherable hieroglyphics of the so- called Maya language, the written, stone- treasured narratives of a people which Le Plonjeon says will add ten thousand years to the history of humanity when the man is found who can read them aright. In the enclosure were a number of large trees, one a gigantic hardwood tree, at least eight or nine hundred years old and reaching up one hundred and fifty feet in the air. Buckling on steel climbers, Haskell spiked his way up the great trunk, clinging to the huge ridges of the bark and, perching in a crotch near the top, looked out over the scene. To the north lay the reaches of the wild scrub thicket, broken by the white cultivated expanse of the hacienda; east, west and south swept the forest. To the eastward there seemed to be a 12 743 dip in the horizon. At first he thought it was a low-lying cloud-field there, but, level- ing his glasses, he saw that the forest stopped short off—in fact, seemed to have a sort of bay in it, and that at the outer edge of this was the sea. If it was swamp through which a channel could be forced and logs floated to tide- water, he knew that it meant much to him. 6 A Sahel Bye HE WAS about to descend, think- ing what a fort the temple would make, when he noticed some moving spots between him and the far hacienda. By careful work he made out that it was Don Felipe’s party returning. Not all of them, however. One son and five men had been left behind in the forest. The haciendado had left a sort of patrol while he hurried home to have his wound dressed, lay his plans and get reenforcements, not to effect a capture once the fugitives were overtaken, but to locate them. None of them had seen Juan at the time of the shooting and Haskell realized that the two sons and the other men had ridden after Don Felipe, not when they had dis- covered Juan’s departure, but when they had found the two carbines left behind to be minus their firing-pins. That had told them that Don Felipe was armed with a useless weapon and that Haskell was on his guard. The natural thing had been to set out post-haste. It was a relief to the en- gineer to think that Emalia’s part in the affair was not discovered, to lay her open to abuse, perhaps real danger, at the hands of her brutal uncle. Juan had built a fire of dry sticks when Haskell descended after making a rough topographical map of the country, and was preparing the evening meal, careful that no smoke should rise from the cooking. The blaze was screened within the temple and they kept it alight till long after dark. The Indian Haskell had brought with him was very silent and apparently dejected all eve- ning, while the American sat by the fire, listening to the tales of the old Mayas which Juan had to tell. But neither of the others thought anything of the lad’s be- havior, and all three lay down to rest, con- fident that where no enemy could find his way in daylight none could come by dark. When Haskell awoke at daybreak the first thing he noticed was that the Indian’s place was empty. Calling to Juan, he ran Ad ~S U hs COMICLOOCkKS. GO S|