Adventure Magazine, December 10, 1924 — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

The Blond Spiders 5 99 “No, no; lie quietly,” urged Tony per- suasively. ‘‘You’re mistaken. He can’t be any of the men. He’s been with us all the time.” “Yes,”’ the old man insisted. where are they?” His eyes wandered piteously from one to the other. “Where are what?” “The sack—the stones—the letters?” “He’s wandering I think,” whispered Tony. “Better try to get him to sleep a bit.” The old fellow lay quiet, striving hard to control his mind. Then suddenly, as if summoning all his will power for a supreme effort, he struggled half up in bed and cried out clearly: ‘“‘They’ll never get the letters—nor the stones—and without they can’t know how to find them. They ——” The sudden entry of Bodiker startled him. He stared wildly and muttered unin- telligibly. Then his supporting skeleton arm collapsed and he fell back on the pillow gasping. They saw his lips moving- and bent to listen. Tony caught an agonized, ‘“Too late!”? and the body went limp and the light out of the eyes. “‘He’s gone!’ whispered Plessons. “What did he say?”? demanded Bodiker, and his voice was anxious. ‘Get any sense out of him?” “No,” responded Tony. ‘Died before we could get what he was trying to say.” Bodiker muttered something and queried, “Sure he’s dead?” peering doubt- fully into the glazing eyes. ‘Better give him another shot—maybe bring him round,” he hastened to add. “Ain’t no use,’”’ said Plessons, ‘“‘unless Peter’ll give him one!” Bodiker still stared doubtfully. Then after touching the eyeballs he seemed satisfied. “Phew!” he sighed, wiping the gouts of sweat from his brow. “Guess he won’t need—quinin after all!”’ “But— II “OH, THAT bird’s a dumbbell— see jdead from the neck up!’ said 4 Sawyer. “Lumme!”’ snorted Plessons. “You might just as well have bin without a tongue for all the sense you talk!” The Australian began anew trying to get some information out of the mutilated sur- vivor; but as the African natives, unlike the American Indians, have never developed a sign language, little progress was made. One attempt, accompanied by throat noises, was the running of the fingers over the ground, ending in a jerk which the whites took to mean some animal rushing to spring upon its prey; another and the most fre- quently repeated, was the drawing by means of a knife of a circle in the earth into which he placed pebbles—which were rare in that country—or twigs. “The old man,” argued Tony, “talked about stones which might mean diamonds, and also about somebody who will never get them nor the letters and won’t ever know where they came from.” “H-huh,” grunted Bodiker noncommit- tally. ‘Somethin’ like it,’’ agreed Plessons. “Well, maybe he was a prospector and was coming out with a bunch of diamonds. Perhaps he knew he’d never live to get out, or in case he shouldn’t, wrote to his people. That’s about as far as I can get. But as for the circle stuff that’s got me beat. What d’you think, Alick?” “Guess you're right, Tony,” assented Bodiker suavely. ‘But can’t you think up what the circle might mean?” “Bull!”’ contributed Sawyer. es mean the place where he got ?em,” put in Plessons. “A vlez or somethin’ like that.” ‘“‘What’s a vez?” inquired Tony. “Small valley where yer might find blue clay.” “‘Well, he might have meant a round kind of flat between hills?” “Sure that’s it!” agreed Bodiker. *You’ve got the brains of the outfit, Tony!” The native, who, squatting before them, had been watching the lips and the expres- sions of the white men, made another noise and, touching Tony on the knee, pointed toward the southwest. “By the ——, I believe he understands English,’ exclaimed Tony, “from reading the lips!” Right then the man nodded and made a strangled grunt. “He does! Say—’’ Tony bent toward him, pronouncing the words slowly—“are they—diamonds?”’ CoMmicbhook Wh) C© 5}