Adventure Magazine Cover — page 169: what you’re looking at

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

The Edge of the Simitar the woman expected, but the American! Ireid with his sense of romance, Cohusac said he had acted secretly as a go-between. The girl knew Sevier—had she not watched him day after day from her window? Cohu- sac’s letters and gifts had simply given her the opportunity for an avowal. And she had made the avowal! Cohusac took the note from his pocket and, opening it, held it up in the moonlight for Sevier’s startled eyes to read. Familiar with Arabic as Sevier was, the full force of the quotation immediately struck him. In- voluntarily he looked upward, scanning the wall—swaying—hesitating—his mouth dry with sudden fever—his heart pounding suf- focatingly. Dare he risk it? Was it possible that the madly imaginative Frenchman was lying? “For ’s sake, climb!”’ said Cohusac hoarsely, leaning weakly against the wall. “You fool, what more wonderful adven- tures can life hold than this?” Something in the Frenchman’s blazing eyes—something in his high-strung inten- sity—his suggestion of melodrama—all at once struck Sevier cold. “‘No!” he said shortly. ‘‘Go yourself!” He deliberately walked away without turning until he reached the end of the alley- way. Then he looked back. Cohusac was clambering up the wall, holding on to the end of a rope! Adaptable as a cat, Cohusac decided the instant Sevier turned his back that the ad- venture was too promising to be ended so soon. He knew that the girl was waiting. He realized thoroughly that her disappoint- ment at encountering the wrong man might be dangerous for him; but that did not bother him. What did bother him was his weak, undependable body. The low wall seemed a thousand feet high. Ashe stood there uncertainly, looking upward, suddenly in the shadow he saw the wavering outline of a figure—a white arm stretched toward him—and the end of a rope flicked at his feet. “Ah! Mahabultel Sweetheart!’ cried Cohusac huskily. Forgetting all his plans for trapping Se- vier, forgetting his aches and pains, forget- ting danger, forgetting that he was an im- postor, he seized the rope and, putting his feet in the crevice of the wall, ascended it with extraordinary ease! His reception was not what he had ex- pected. 159 It was a beautiful arm undoubtedly that assisted him over the parapet; but as he rose to his feet to fling his arms about the woman who faced him, unveiled in the dark- ness, suddenly she recoiled, crying out with a gesture of rage and disgust “No! This goat is not the man! We are fooled! There is no power or strength save in Allah the exalted and mighty! Seize him! Seize him!”’ At the same instant two other figures materialized out of the darkness and before Cohusac could fling himself over the para- pet, leaped upon him and bore him with vio- lence to the cement floor. Cohusac fought for his life but might quickly have lost it if the woman had not cried out, catching the men by their shoulders: “Don’t kill! Don’t kill! His friend knows! There will be an inquiry! Don’t kill!” All Cohusac knew was that after a des- perate struggle, of which he could tell noth- ing except that he bit and kicked and writhed to get free, his head was brought down against the cement with a crack that scattered his senses. He relaxed into a very small, inert heap, his last conscious thought being, as he floated away, that the nurse would tell him about it all in the morning. He regained consciousness a few minutes later, though for a moment it was difficult for him to understand what had happened. A sight of the declining moon gradually brought a realization of his situation back to him. His body was so sore and crippled that he could not move, and he lay in silence in the gutter of the roof where he had been thrown, while a fierce argument went on a few paces away within the arched chamber that was used as a kitchen. For a while the angry hissing and gut- tural monosyllables of the repressed argu- ment did not interest Cohusac. His body felt superior to discomfort; it was only when he attempted to move it that he under- stood it was of no use at all for any imme- diate purpose. His whole interest was cen- tered in the beauties of the crystal moon, and the rise and fall of the angry voices came to him only as a pleasant murmur. As his sense cleared, however, words began to impinge upon his reviving consciousness. “By Allah, he was too clever for us! Did I not say that such a one could smell 2 trap?” “Baited by himself? No! The fool left his Co NOOK 1 O)