Adventure, December 1914 — page 97: what you’re looking at

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

The Lancing of the Whale than to trust them to your tender mercy. Do your best, or worst. Dick Anthony.’ Is that a decent letter, Dick?” ‘‘What’s the matter with it?’”’ Dick asked. ‘“How did you treat them? Look at them!”’ He could have bitten his tongue off the next instant, for she turned before he meant her too, and—saw. She saw Andry, and there was little else to see because the man was huge, and Marie Mouquin’s inches were all smothered in his vast embrace. But there was an empty saddle that explained things; and a whisp of hair hung over Andry’s shoulder that most surely was not his. “Have you a chaplain in Astrabad?”’ asked Dick. The Princess smiled sweetly as an angel; so Dick knew he might expect new deviltry. “Do you suppose,” she asked, ‘‘that I will allow my maid to run off to a bandit’s lair in the mountains with that horror of a giant of yours? She will return with me, monsieur the chief of bandits!” Dick noticed that she had ceased to call him “‘king,” and felt relieved to that extent. But he was fretting inwardly. His iron code of honor would not have allowed him to take any advantage of a flag of truce, and if she insisted on her maid returning with her there would be nothing left for it but to take the town. And he had a vague, un- comfortable thought of what the maid’s fate might be in the meantime. ‘‘Andry!”’ he said sternly. The giant set the maid on her feet and stood upright. The girl sobbed as she drew her first long breath in minutes. ““Get to your place behind me!” Andry stared hard—at Dick—at the girl —at Dick. Dick shut his lips tight and said nothing. The Princess grinned. It suited her finely to see Dick disobeyed by the man she knew he trusted more than anybody in the world. ‘“Heigho! D’ye hear that, lassie?” asked Andry with a sheepish smile. ‘I maun leave ye. He’s callin’!” | He did not kiss her again nor look at her, but cracked his heels together, faced his front, and marched military-wise until he reached Dick’s rear, where he faced about and waited. “Now,” said Dick. ‘‘We are here to ex- change prisoners. I offer all I hold of your men against my forty-three you have brought out with you.” 95 “Take your forty-three!” she said, glan- cing back and motioning them forward with her arm, The poor devils were so sore and famish- ed they could scarcely begin to march, but they dragged themselves forward and each touched the earth as he passed Dick. Dick waved his arms in a prearranged signal and the Russian prisoners began to file out in a long line from behind the wagons. He waited, sitting his horse in silence but watching the Princess out of the corner of his eye, until the procession reached them and had passed on toward the city. : “That ends the parley, then!” said the Princess. “Since you say so,” answered Dick. ‘Then, take that, sir!’ She plunged her hand into her breast and drew a knife. She poised it—aimed it for ten seconds while Dick sat and smiled at her—and hurled it at him. But he ducked and the knife went whizzing past Andry’s head as the big man rushed forward to protect his master. “So, the parley’s over, is it?” laughed Dick. He looked down at the flag of truce that she had flung to the earth. Her horse was standing on it. He tossed his own down and laughed. She screamed, for she knew a turn of events was coming that she was not strong enough to cope with. She wheeled her horse and spurred him; but Dick seized her rein, and she looked up into his eyes again flashing her hate of him but conscious of the fact that she was at his mercy. “My man Andry wants your maid,” smiled Dick, ‘“‘and she seems to want him. So he’s going to have her.”’ The Princess stared up at Dick, but she did not answer. Of all the unexpected statements that could leave Dick’s lips, this surely was the most amazing. That Dick— the height of propriety and stickler for full meed of courtesy to women, should allow his follower to take a lone woman back to camp was unbelievable. She scarcely believed her ears. She waited for the next amazement. Z “But it wouldn’t be proper, would it, for him to take her off alone, since you haven’t a Scottish minister, and he would rather be single than be married by a Russian priest? Now, would it?” She did not answer. Her head was DOOK C©