Adventure Magazine Cover — page 115: what you’re looking at

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

Black “Oh! Oh, I leave you to your friend, Sir Ralph!” the child cried fiercely and sped away. Bx SIR RALPH gave the shepherd a Be» glance like a blow and turned and called after her. She did not stop. He turned back angrily with a growl: ‘‘ Hast no wit at all in thy chuckle head?”’ The shepherd giggled stupidly: “If I had, you’d have no use for me, master.” Sir Ralph frowned at him a moment, then with a mutter of “Follow!” led the way toward a dark copse. On the way he talked over his shoulder: “Why must you show Mistress Mary you are my man?” ‘Bless me, why not, now?” the shepherd cried. They faced each other in the shade of the hazels. “And besides, I thought you was a-making up to her, and she as sweet as you please. Might ha’ been a-courting, you might.” ‘“Go to, fool, I am a priest!” | The shepherd giggled again. “So you be for sure. And can’t have never a wife. That’s a pity, too, that is.” ' Sir Ralph demanded truculently what he meant and could get nothing out of him but a stupid leer. Sir Ralph reviled him for.a grinning jackass. The shepherd scratched his head. ‘‘ Moth- er Meg Blackavice said as you had some’ut to say. Be that all of it?” Sir Ralph controlled himself. ‘“‘Have you forgot what I said to you a month since, Diccon?”’ ; “‘Oh dear, oh dear, that I ha’ not!” the shepherd cried. ‘‘Why, you was to give me five gold pound when Squire Gabriel dies and you be lord of the manor.” Sir Ralph came nearer. “Well, Dick, well?” “Well, I hope he will die soon, to be sure,” the shepherd giggled. Sir Ralph laid his hand on the heavy shoulder. “ Diccon lad, why is he not dead? When he walks alone on the down by night, star-gazing, is there no chalk-pit that would break his neck, or no dew-pond where he could drown?” The shepherd gaped and stared and then: ‘There—there——” he quavered. “TI was afeared you meant me to stick un.” And all his big frame began to shiver and shake. _“Why, what has given you the palsy?” “Oh, but he’s a ready man, is Squire Magic 871 Gabriel, and a man of his hands and a sol- dier-man he was! And he is a conjuror too, and he hath devils and sprites.” “Therefore is he the enemy of every Chris- tian man,” said Sir Ralph piously. The shepherd crossed himself in a hurry and stood gaping. ‘Look you, Diccon. They tell me he goes up o’ nights to the old wind- | mill, to the chamber he hath made himself there, to work his magic and conjure with the stars.” ““And so he doth,” the shepherd cried. “‘T ha’ seen him catching star-magic in a pipe.” “Why, then, from the manor to the down he must cross the Avon by the plank bridge. What’s easier for a bold fellow who would be rich than to shift the mid planks 0’ some dark night?” The shepherd drew back. His heavy face was contorted with coarse cunning. *“You’m minded to do such, Sir Ralph?” he asked. “‘I see a way for a bold fellow that I know to come by five pounds. And there might be a crown or two in hand for him beside,”’ the priest smiled genially. “‘And if he were careful to put back the planks—after, no man were ever the wiser.” The shepherd grinned and held out his hand. LIKE that, if I have made any- thing of the masses of queer papers at Assynton Towers, Dick the shepherd began the profitable business of his life. They digress to a large de- scription of Assynton manor and Gabriel Rymingtowne, its lord. For the first, what matters to us is that it could be inherited only by males. Therefore on Gabriel Rymingtowne’s death it must pass, not to his daughter Mary, but to his cousin the priest. You can sympathize now with the anxieties of Sir Ralph. You will see the reason why Gabriel Rymingtowne did not love him. , _ Mr. Gabriel Rymingtowne, as I read the Assynton papers, hated no man, finding every one too comical. He had soldiered in Italy and brought back a very complete understanding of the ways of the world and a liking for astrology, alchemy and Greek. Therefore he built for himself a library and laboratory in the old manor-house and made an observatory out of the haunted windmill on the crest of the down. CoMmicbook (©