Adventure Magazine Cover, October 1911 — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

974 Jack understood. It was not the first time that he had come in contact with this purely physical fear of heights, which, once roused, is so all-conquering. For the next few seconds he thought quickly. The doors, as he could tell from the sound of the blows upon them, were nearly down. Helen must not remain where she was; rather would he see her do what she ‘‘had to, to keep Borja from getting her.”” And he could think of but one alternative—a desperate one, it is true, but there was no other that he could see. Glancing from the door, he saw that the General had made the journey in safety. Quickly casting loose his end of the line, he tied it around Helen’s waist and, lifting her over the sill before she had time to realize what was happening, dropped her. Jack’s heart sickened in sympathy with her terrified scream as she shot downward; his head spun as she whirled at the end of the taut rope; ‘every time her tender body touched the cliff his own seemed to feel the hurt, magnified tenfold. Then a final crash of the doors told him that it was time to think of his own safety. Helen was being raised as fast as willing hands could take in the line as he lowered himself to the ledge for the return journey. Hardly had he started when there was a scream of triumph from the house he had just left; then a chorus of excited voices broke forth as it was realized that the ex- pected prey had vanished. But some one of the servants, probably under the well- grounded fear of instant death, must have betrayed the method of escape. A head peeped through the doorway, then another and still one more. “Look out, Jack—steady, now!” It was the voice of Mr. Grey, and the sharp report of his pistol followed it in- stantly. The weapon spoke thrice, with hardly a perceptible interval between the reports. Jack felt the wind of all three bullets on his cheek as they sped by. Glanc- ing back he saw that but one head remained, and that this one hung limply over the door- sill, a small, round hole in its temple. The sight made Jack feel a sinking in his stomach for one second. In the next he was caught by Tommy’s powerful hands and hauled into the door of his own house as though he had been a sack of the vegetables which ordinarily entered in that way. ““How’s Helen?” .he demanded, as soon Adventure as he felt the floor of the house under his feet. ‘All right. A few slight bruises. She’s fainted. But come on. The police know where Helen and Dad have gone, now, and there’ll be things doing. ‘There are win- dows flanking the doors in this house, so we can lam the stuffing out of ’em if they try that timber-ramming stunt, but Dad’s afraid they’ll have brought a couple of guns by this time.” “I wondered why they didn’t use artil- lery, or at any rate, dynamite against those doors of yours,” remarked Jack, as the two pulled in and coiled away the line that had been allowed to drop when Helen was taken from it. They hurried toward the front of the great house. ‘There was no dynamite in the city, and no guns. We have friends who saw that everything that could be was sent away. Dad was watched so that he couldn’t do anything himself, but he’s been in communi- cation with our people right along. They’re due to drop in almost any time, now. Per- alta just found it out; hence the police. There—what did I tell you?” The report of a light field-piece, as Tom spoke, echoed from the opposite side of the plaza. Instinctively Jack listened for the sound of an exploding shell, but it did not come. ‘““What on earth can they be firing at?” he asked in amazement. ‘‘At us—or rather at the front doors,” Tom replied. “But that can’t be! They didn’t even hit the house. They couldn’t miss like that at a range of less than two hundred yards.” “Can’t they? You don’t know what these gunners can do when they try. They’ll get the range later, though. Is this your rifle? Am I to take any of the others? Good. Come on!” fee THE scene in the plaza had changed on since Jack had left the room over- looking it, to which he now re- turned. No groups of sullen men were standing there. Save for two mountain- guns and a half-dozen platoons of infantry, the little park was empty of living men. But, though the plaza was empty, the houses surrounding it were not. This fact was proved by several motionless bodies dressed in uniforms as gaudy as the flowers among which they:lay sprawling, and by cCoMmiclbook CO