Adventure Magazine Cover — page 64: what you’re looking at

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

820 in the lock. He smiled derisively. He had neglected to lock the door. Whoever was attempting an entrance by trying to turn a key in the lock was wasting time. Keegles thought he heard a curse. Then he could plainly hear a key rattle in the lock as though the hand that held it had grown impatient searching for the tumblers. Kee- gles’ grin of derison grew in proportion with the sounds. He had once tried to throw the tumblers of a lock that were already thrown, and he knew something of the profane elo- quence that attaches to the operation. He heard whispers again. Then a sharp, muttered exclamation. Then a hand on the knob and a sharp click. ‘Then the door burst suddenly open, and a man tumbled headlong into the room, turning com- pletely over with the impetus of his fall. Keegles knew what had happened. The man had been resting his entire weight on the door-knob, possibly leaning against the door itself, when it came open. Keegles did not move. He had pulled the counterpane up around his face until only his eyes—apparently closed—were visible. He struggled with an inward mirth, and tried to feel grim and blood-thirsty. But it was no use. He saw the man on the floor plainly. He was lying flat on his stomach— a big stomach that kept his knees and chest in air—his head raised, a pair of wide, fright- ened eyes turned in the direction of the bed. Keegles also saw the heads of two other men, one above the other, sticking around the door-jamb. : For perhaps thirty seconds there was no movement. Then the fat man on the floor got his knees under him and scrambled to his feet, making noise enough to have aroused every sleeping person in a city block. The two other men now came in— one tall and thin, with the graceful propor- tions of a clothespole; the other a little man, pudgy, wide about the middle, with short legs and a long neck. These three men, then, were the ones who were to kidnap him. He decided, with a suppressed chuckle of mirth, that the three were going to have the job of their lives. He saw the fat man tiptoe to the door and close it. Then he took the key from the tall man and locked it, leaving the key in the lock. Then the three held a whispered con- sultation, and from somewhere about his person the little man produced a prodigious - amount of rope. This they proceeded to whisper. Adventure cut up into lengths. When this was done the fat man came quietly over to the bed and looked down at Keegles’ gigantic figure. “By George!”’ he ejaculated in a hoarse “He’s grown awful tall! But doesn’t a man stretch out when he’s lying in: bed?” Keegles distinctly saw the tall man’s face grow paler as he looked down at the bed. ** S-s-h-l[—Don’t wake him, for heaven’s sake!’’ he whispered; “‘We’d have ie Keegles heard the fat man chuckle. ‘‘No fear of that,” he returned hoarsely. ‘He didn’t hear me before, when I came down on the end of that rug, so I guess there isn’t any danger now. By George, he must be a healthy cuss—he sleeps like a log!’”? Keegles thought he detected envy in this last. ““He’d be worse’n a log to carry,” ob- served the little man. ‘Pounds, Clothespole, and Pudge,” com- mented Keegles, mentally designating the men in the order of theirapproach. ‘‘ Pounds is a bluffer, Clothespole is a coward, and Pudge is lazy.” The man he had designated ‘ Pounds” approached the head of the bed, a piece of rope in hand. ‘One of you get around to the other side of him,” he whispered. ‘‘The other tie his feet. I'll take care of the arm on this side.”’ This latter order was reversed. The arm on Pounds’ side took care of him. It shot suddenly out of the bed-clothing, flew up with terrific force, and landed on Pounds’ jaw with a noise like a pop-gun. Pounds went down under it as though he had been struck on the head with a mallet. At the same instant Keegles’ right foot went out and the heel of his shoe struck Pudge’s head —the latter collapsing in his tracks with a half uttered, affrighted curse. Clothespole was still gaping with surprise, his mouth open to an enormous width, when the six feet of brawn and action struck him. Then he, too, selected a soft spot on the carpet. Throwing off the bed clothing, Keegles went over and turned up the light. Then he went to the desk, selected another cigar, lighted it, and pulled the big chair around to a position that commanded the entire room. He drew the revolver from his hip pocket, laid it beside him on the center-table and, leaning back, puffed contentedly on the cigar. Very soon Pounds sat up, gazing about him drunkenly. COmiclbook CO