Adventure Magazine Cover — page 29: what you’re looking at

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

ITH the peculiar cry of the Arabian horse scenting danger, Holbrooke’s mare suddenly broke from her easy canter, shied, and came toa standstill. Her rider’s hand crept along the glossy mane with a caressing gesture. ‘Little Jewel, what has frightened thee?”’ he asked in Arabic. She tossed her head, responding to his touch, and thrust a dainty hoof forward, digging the soft earth until a cloud of pale dust rose between the unknown object of her fear and Holbrooke’s vision. He dismounted, stood closely be- side her and flung an arm protectingly across her neck. He could feel the mare’s body quiver against his own. His right hand went to his hip pocket. “Quiet, quiet! It is nothing,” he whispered. But his hand lay steadily upon the handle of his revolver; his dark, keen eyes began to search for the hidden menace. The road lay six hundred feet above the city of Algiers. On one side the villas of Mustapha Superieur gleamed white in their emerald setting of palms. On the right the earth shelved abruptly and ran sheer to the sea. Beyond lay El-Biar, the little village of the wells, dozing silently in the glare of African sunlight. Save the American, no living being was in sight. Save the mare’s soft whinny of fear, the nervous pawing of her hoof in the dust, no sound broke the stiHness of the early morning. by Winifred Lee Wendell ay ae ——— ~. Na — 3. At first he heard nothing, then a faint sound. Theexpression in the American’s eyes changed as he caught it. A woman’s voice, speaking in Arabic, drifted through the scrub. He could not distinguish the words. There was an instant’s silence, then, sharply, came a torrent of harsh masculine tones. They grew louder. The unseen speakers were approaching the road. Beyond, where the road broke, two forms were silhouetted against the horizon of blue and green. One was a native, an Arab. The other was a woman—not a native. They turned and walked up the road. Holbrooke’s astonished eyes fol- lowed them. The woman was slender and fair. Her hair was pale gold and covered with a remarkably up-to-date English ' toque. She wore a smart white linen shirt- waist suit and tan shoes and stockings. Her companion’s costume was a white burnoose and turban. MHolbrooke could not see his face, but he recognized in the majestic stride of his sandaled feet, the im- movable set of head and shoulders, not the hybrid loafer of the boulevards and bazaars, but the Arab of the desert. The fellow was straight from the Great Tents. Curiosity, interest, a sense of danger— danger to the girl—filled Holbrooke’s mind with conflicting emotions. Should he go forward? Retreat? Make himself known by riding past them? He decided upon the latter course. He would pass them, walk- ing. He would ask for direction to El-Biar. 785 COmiclbook CO