Adventure Magazine, April 10, 1924 — page 65: what you’re looking at

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

The Making of the Morning Star 63 up his bow, the archer strung it swiftly. Kneeling in the threshold of the house, he emptied a quiver at his foot and stuck the heads of a score of arrows in the earth in front of him. ‘So-ho!” he muttered. knocks in that fashion.” The door fell into fragments, and the bars were cast aside by a tall Kankali who strode into the garden with drawn simitar. The light of the afternoon sun was full in the man’s eyes, and he saw nothing of the archer until Will’s bow snapped and a shaft struck the warrior’s throat, knocking him down. Two others leaped over the dying man and started across the garden. Will sent a shaft fairly between the eyes of the first. The other reached the fountain, where an arrow Clanged into the mail above his girdle, and he plunged into the water. An angry shout from the alley showed that the fall of the three had been observed, and the door remained vacant fora moment. Will heard Ellen’s step behind him and called over his shoulder. “We are beset by the paynims. Go thou to the roof with thy bow, but keep below the parapet. Watch lest they climb the wall in the rear.” : “Who are they?” “What matter—ha!” The yeoman drew a shaft to his ear and paused alertly. Two shields had been thrust across the opening on the alley side, and behind this protection two warriors “No friend knelt hastily, bow in hand. They could not see Will, and he waited until they had sped their shafts hurriedly and without harm to him. The attempt was repeated,-more boldly this time, and an arrow thudded into the empty quiver at his foot. Evidently the as- sailants hoped that they had wounded the archer, because a Kankali ran ito the gar- den, keeping his head down prudently so that the steel helmet protected his face. His round shield he held in front of his body. Will rose to his feet and loosed an arrow that ripped through the tough hide target and pierced deep into the warrior’s chest. The man stumbled and lay where he fell. “They will eke be wiser now,” he mut- tered, fearful that the Moslems would scat- ter around the wall and climb it out of his range of vision. ‘What tidings, my lady?” he called cheerily. : ‘Noyon studied Ellen curiously. “T can see naught beyond the wall. What happened in the garden?” ‘‘A fat man hath gone to pare the ——’s! hoois! His comrades hang back. Nay, I think they are brewing mischief.” He heard feet running in the alley, and a loud outcry. Then a couple of Kankalis swept past as if the fiend Will had invoked were after them. Ellen appeared at his side, fearful that he had been hurt, and they ven- tured a few steps into the garden. Horses trotted up from somewhere anc halted outside the wall.. Through the door stepped a man who was not a Kankali——a warrior whose long beard swept his bare chest, whose iron helm bore the upper por- tion of a tiger’s head by way of a crest and whose wide shoulders were wrapped in the tigerskin. Will fingered his bow, planting himself before the girl. But Ellen caught his arm with a cry of amazement. “°Tis Abdullah, the minstrel!” Abdullah, or. Chepe Noyon, the Tiger Lord, glanced at them and laughed. Then, while a dozen squat Mongols crowded after him, he began to turn over the bodies in the garden to look into the faces, evidently seek- ing to identify one of them. When he reached the last of the Kanka- lis, who had been smitten through the shield, he bent over and uttered an excla- mation of satisfaction. The dead man was Osman, the wazir. Chepe Noyon'signed to one of his follow- ers, who promptly struck off the head of the Moslem minister. Then the Mongols crowded around the two Christians to stare and finger Will’s tattered garments. The archer faced them defiantly, while Chepe Resist- ance was useless, and the girl was the first to throw down her weapons. CHAPTER XV THE THRONE OF GOLD | seta had been without sleep for a day and a night and the part of an- other day, so he had not been an hour in his dungeon before his head sank to the rushes and he fell into a dreamless stupor. The opening of the door brought him back to consciousness, but his wounds ached and his limbs were stiff. He heard guttural voices that dwindled and left him to sit up and to wonder first why he was in the COMmMiclboookkSs.G© S|