Adventure Magazine Cover, April 1916 — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

Days of Morgan ship in the harbor, she raised now to the fort and castle on the crest of the timbered, rocky steep which overhung the cove. And - as she looked there flashed into her mind what Captain Jean had told her on ship- board that morning. “‘Barney,”’ she cried, turning to the Irish lad with sudden resolve in her eyes, ‘I am going to put my life and honor in your keeping. Do you know, lad, in that fort on the hill are thirty Englishmen, prisoners, destined for the hulks at Toulon.” ‘Thirty Englishmen!” “Hush! Not so loud. Ay, thirty of our countrymen. For though we fight one an- other, Barney, we English and the Irish are of one blood when it comes to a foreign foe.” ‘Faith, and I guess that’s so, true enough. But how came the English there?”’ “Prisoners they are, lad, who refused to see Tortuga seized by the French, and so are going back in chains. It makes my blood steam to think of Englishmen in such a plight, but my own troubles made me forget them until now, fool and ingrate that Iam. If they knew of my predicament I warrant they would not desert me.”’ “I see what you're driving at,’’ he shout- ed, his eyes dancing. “Shh!” she cautioned. “Tt could be done!”’ Barney’s voice sank to a whisper, and his red rag of a tongue licked his lips with delight. “By nightfall they will all be drunk.” “**Tis what I had counted upon.” “And the sailors from the ship, they are ashore and busy at the wine-casks, too.” The boy’s eyes narrowed to slits. Into the face of Nancy flamed a new light of hope and courage. The fighting blood of the Chillingworths was leaping through her veins. ‘“‘We must make it succeed, boy,” she whispered, looking upward at the castle again. “But the keys? We can not batter down walls of masonry.” ‘“‘Then we shall have the keys some other way, Barney. And take this charge upon your soul: go among the men and learn what guard watches at the fort—and how many men have been left upon the ship. Leave the rest to me.” “Ay, that I will.” “Now, be off with you and mind you ask 23 your questions sagely, that no one suspect your motive.” She watched the boy run off and disap- _ pear in the crowd, and then, following more slowly by another route, was soon in the midst of the merrymakers, searching from group to group, this time with no desire to conceal herself from Monsieur d’Ogeron. Glancing back, her heart stood still when she saw a man creep from a thicket near where she had stood with Barney and come slinking along under the trees—-a powerful- ly built man, with long arms, and a skull that shone in the fierce sunlight as if no shred of flesh covered the naked bone, a man whose yellow eyes she saw even at that distance gleaming like molten gold. CHAPTER VII SOMEBODY SETS A TRAP rT HERE was something so sinister and furtive about Yellow Evyes’s move- ments that for an instant fear raised its ugly head and laid a clammy hand upon Nancy’s heart. Had she been spied upon? Had the plot she and Barney laid so care- fully and boldly. been disclosed? She watched him, fascinated, to see if she could discover in his actions anything to answer the questions that concerned her now so deeply. He was coming closer to her, until she could see the wicked glitter in those burning eyes, the toothless gums, the great, red throat of him, for his mouth was opened wide, and he was panting from his exertions and the heat, panting without a tongue. He passed her, and she read in the yellow orbs which glowed in his head a message as plainly writ as if it had been upon the print- ed page of a book, as she had read his silent commands when she lay in the straw in the cart, and knew as well as if he had spoken that he would kill her if she did not lie still. Three-legs, who had followed her, and was resting himself on his haunches at her feet and licking the stump of his leg which was now almost healed, showed his teeth and would have sprung upon his enemy had not the girl held him back by main strength, both hands grasping the loose skin of his neck. Yellow Eyes passed on with a parting leer, his strange eyes, which she sought in vain to avoid, now burning almost red like CoMmicboooks CO