Adventure Magazine Cover — page 78: what you’re looking at

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

76 to windward. It was growing dark, for one thing. At any moment the Hillman with the saw-edged knife and the haphazard notions about death might approach down the passage from the rear. Forward lay unknown territory, and a buttery smell that more than hinted at the presence of - northerners, whose notions of hospitality might be less than none at all. He could be seen through the window- shutters, but could not see in through them. And he had in his pocket the lump of jade, which had lured men all the way from be- vond Tilgaun into the hot plains that they hate. He wished he had left the jade somewhere. It was the sound of a footstep some dis-. tance behind, that might be the Hillman’s, which decided him. He strode forward and entered the door, his footsteps echoing under the arch. Diana followed, growling; she seemed to have a feeling they were being watched. The passage presently turned to right and left in darkness, and Ommony, as he paused to consider, became acutely con- scious that his trespass was not only rash, but impudent. He had no vestige of right to intrude himself into the quarters of strangers, nor had he the excuse that he did not know what he was doing. A tourist might commit such an impertinence and be forgiven on the ground of ignorance, but if Ommony should be knifed for ill-manners he would not be entitled to the slightest sympathy. He decided at once to re- trace his steps; and as he turned to face the dim light in the doorway a voice spoke to him in English. He could not tell where the voice came from, but Diana barked savagely at a small iron grating in a door to one side of the pas- sage, filling the arch with echoes. It took him several seconds to get the dog quiet again. ““Go away from here! Go away quickly!” It sounded like a boy’s voice—young— educated. It was not pitched high; there was no note of excitement—hardly any em- phasis. Diana barked again furiously, and there was no time for hesitation; either he was in danger or he was not; the hound said, ‘“‘Yes;”’ the boy’s voice implied it; curiosity said, ‘Stay!’ Common sense said, ““Make for the open quickly!” In- tuition said, ‘Jump!’ and intuition is a despot whom it is not wise to disobey. Adventure He reached the courtyard neck and neck with Diana, who nearly knocked him over as she faced about savagely with every hair bristling, fangs bared, eyes aglare. He seized her by collar and tail and threw his weight backward to stop her from springing at the throat of a man in dingy gray, who paused in midstride, one hand behind him, in the doorway. There was another man behind him, dimly outlined in the gloom. Their faces, high-cheekboned and fanat- ical—almost Chinese—were fiercely con- fident, and why they paused was not self- evident; for the man who held a hand be- hind his back was armed, and with some- thing heavy, as the angle of his shoulder proved. Diana saved that second. Her animal instinct was quicker than Ommony’s eye, that read anticipation in the faces in front of him. She nearly knocked Ommony over again as she reversed the direction of effort, broke the collar hold and sprang past him, burying her fangs in something—Ommony knew that gurgling, smothered growl. She had knocked him sidewise, and he spun to regain his balance while a ten-pound tulwar split the whistling air where his back had been. He was just in time to seize the wrist that swung the weapon—seize it with both hands and wrench it forward in the direction of effort. The saw-edged tulwar clattered on the paving blocks; but the enemy did not fall, for Diana had him by the throat and was wrenching in the opposite direction. It was Dawa Tsering! The Hillman’s hands groped for the hound’s forelegs; to wrench those apart was his only chance, unless Ommony could save him. A sprung-trap was more likely to let go than Diana with a throat hold. Ommony took the only chance in sight; he yelled, ‘Guard!’ to Diana and crashed his fist into the Hillman’s jaw, knocking him flat on his back as Diana let up for a frac- tion of a second to see what the new danger might be. He seized her by the tail, then dragged her off before she could rush in to worry her fallen foe. Her turn again! Struggling to free her- self, she dragged Ommony in a half circle, nearly pulling him off his feet as the man in the doorway lunged with a long, old-fash- ioned sword. The third man seemed to prefer discretion, for he still lurked in the shadow; but the man with the sword came on, using both hands now and raising the MICLOOOK © in