Adventure Magazine Cover, October 1911 — page 184: what you’re looking at

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

1130 because you have a few circus friends there behind the wall you can play with the law? Listen to me, my man, if I don’t learn a little more about the disappearance in a couple of days, I'll arrest you on suspicior. See?’ reeem, “IT WAS a bit high-handed, I sup- Bea pose, but the covert insolence of the esP8e4# man had riled me. I doubt really if he had anything to do with it at all, but he’ll probably bolt. He’s a Gipsy and no Gipsy will wait to face a thing, innocent or not, if there’s a chance to bolt. It’s in their blood—practically every time one of his race shifts camp he’s bolting from some- thing trifling, as a rule, but serious some- times. I’m going to have him watched by some one in the house and if he gives one little sign “of flitting Ill arrest him and chance it. “Well, I left him with that. You needn’t tell me I tackled the man the wrong way. I know it. But there’s something superior about the fellow. Intelligent. He’s not the sort of man to be deceived by the ordinary offhand, round-about-the-bush inquiries. ‘“‘T came back again past the house and struck the carriage-drive. You know_the drive there, a wide, gloomy place. No hedges—just a strip of turf each side with firs running up close to the edge. I came fairly quickly, thinking that I had not got a tremendous lot out of my day’s work after all, when, about half-way down the drive I got a cold, beastly idea that I was being fol- lowed. It was brutally dark, and you can believe I turned round pretty smartly. Nothing there. ‘““¢ Wolves on the brain,’ I told myself, and stepped out again. But I’d started looking behind. It’sa rotten trick that. I went the next hundred yards with the skin of my back crawling. I nearly ran. I began to sweat and then all at once my fear took me by the throat and twisted me round. In the dark- ness behind, about two to three feet off the ground and twenty yards away, there were eight spois of light. They hung there, per- fectly stili. “TI went clammy. I’ve read about that sort of thing—but it was the first time I’ve experienced it and I'll see to it that it’s the last. “T hesitated and then moved on again, looking back. The spots of light moved on too, swinging up and down a little. I knew Adventure then they were eyes, all right. It occurred to me that Lovell was probably there with the wolves, too, but kzs eyes didn’t show and it was just guesswork. I came on, sideways, like a crab, and the eyes came too. Only they seemed to me to come quicker—to be gaining. Well, I cowun’t stand that. I knew I was very near the end of the drive and Iran. There are no gates, you remem- - ber—the drive turns in off the road; and even as I set foot on the highway one of the wolves jumped for meand ‘chopped ’—that’s the only word, I swear—at my throat from behind. “It missed, but I felt it rip the cloth of my coat. I heard a sort of angry shout behind that was Lovell, I suppose, and then the light from your window beamed up across the flat. I headed for it in a bee-line. Scared cold I was. I fell a dozen times. I remember thinking vaguely that the wolves weren’t following me beyond the road, but I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to keep running, and I did, but I couldn’t have gone another yard when [I struck your case- ment = Waynill ceased, breathing rather quickly. That sudden wolf-leap and the slash of those long jaws were too vivid in his memory to allow him, as yet, to tell his tale without emotion. Then he looked at us with a pale glare in his eyes. | “‘T’ll arrest Lovell to-morrow if I have to shoot every wolf the Princess owns!’’ he swore. There was a momentary pause. ‘But perhaps Lovell was not responsible,” said Torrance, “‘I believe the wolves are as tame as dogs. It may have been an accident.”’ The Inspector smiled, rather grimly. ‘“‘“Ves—the sort of accident men get penal servitude for not preventing!” he said, rising. “I must strike out for the hotel— it’s getting late.” “T think you’d better spend the night here—there is plenty of room. Gregg will see to you,” said Torrance cordially. Waynill hesitated, and even as he con- sidered the invitation, a long, low howl, inexpressibly eery, floated across the forest, filtering through the casement into the room. “Ves,”’ said Waynill, all the color sudden- ly stricken from his face, “I think I’d better stay—and I'll get to bed now. It’s just possible that the bloodhounds will provide us a long day’s work to-morrow.” cComicbook CO