Adventure Magazine Cover — page 132: what you’re looking at

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

130 “vou get shirshi. Suppose you no carry him you get this.” He swung a nolla-nollo and Morbora grinned again. “One fella I carry all right along he sick,” he said, saving his face. ‘‘Other thing I not carry. Kallo. Come on.” It seemed touch and go. Caught before they got to the cave, even sighted from the edge of the spinifex, they would without doubt be shot down by the men who already imagined them dead. But the clamor of their bodies for fuel, for the food and water that waited their success magnified their chances, minimized the risks. It was better to die from bullet or spear while they had strength to make effort for the crossing than” to perish miserably. They hoisted Petrie to Marbora’s shoulders, Perro trotting along with ludicrous anxiety divided between his hatred of the black and his conviction that the hated one was doing the master a service. The sun enveloped them in its glare and they found the exertion exhaust- ing them rapidly. After the first fifty yards it was all they could do to hobble on in the wake of Morbora who, sustained by his habits of fasting and the meal of fat, sweet grubs he had taken overnight, could have overcome all of them, taken away their weapons, killed and stripped them. They gave him credit for his act of faithfulness whether it was founded on mistaken and exalted ideas of their staying powers or not. The results of the hand-to-hand combats had not been yet forgotten by Morbora, short though the duration of most lessons remained in force with the savages. 2@ THEY reached the body of the first O4eu black, shot through the heart, lying mee? on the back, blue-red gums drawn back, showing the strong teeth and the dark eyes looking like bruised fruit. Then came Sievers, fingers clawed deep in the sand. He had on only a singlet and trousers and - blood had welled up about the buried spear- heads and blackened on his skin. His rifle was close to him and Cole picked it up with a sense of returning power. Testing it, he found the magazine full. Now they were close to the cave, close to another dead Myall who had been brought down from the rocks above. The black’s face was covered with blood and ants. Morbora seemed to regard the body with some special interest. They had no torches with them this time, Adventure but the cave entrance was light enough, after a little while, for them to see objects. There was another dead black, shot through the head, sprawled out, still clutching his nolla-nolla and, in the entrance to the tunnel, they found Alec Brown with the back of his head a mass of clotted blood. But he was breathing stertorously. Mor- bora set Petrie down amid a confusion of clothes, blankets and food and stood looking about him. It was plain that he did not like the situa- tion and that he expected more trouble in the near future, though his anxiety was divided by his interest in the goods scat- tered on the floor. The little well they had dug had been enlarged and was half-filled with water.. There was the warm remnant of a fire and’ some charred embers they blew to a blaze. More ends of wood outside, they could col- lect besides what might be left in the tunnel niches. Not to boil the water might mean death for Petrie. Cole and Reynolds felt that they could not drink before he did and that wisdom called for them to leave the. raw water alone, but it took supreme effort of will to restrain themselves. Morbora, like Perro, shared no such scruples and both helped themselves freely. Reynolds made damper dough and put it in the ashes while Cole found can and opener and pried apart a tin of bully beef after he and the Anzac had set down Brown’ close to the cave mouth, cleansing his wound, which had evidently been made with a club. Only Brown’s shock of thick hair had prevented his skull being smashed. As it was, it looked as if he was in for ndth-. ing worse than a bad headache, though they could only guess at fracture. The water boiled at last and they set it aside to cool while they made tea, poured it out in pannikins and drank it as soon as it had a chance to cool. They were all close to collapse and they ate carefully but the food swiftly stimulated them. Then they started to take an inventory of the cave’s contents. Brown was moaning intermit- tently, Petrie resting easily. There had been more or less of a feast the night before, with considerable food con- sumed by the blacks but there was enough left to last them for a couple of weeks. The tools were there, their own outfits, including the electric torches, tools, ammunition, three revolvers besides the two rifles and MICLOOOK C@© inn