Adventure Magazine, December 10, 1924 — page 40: what you’re looking at

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

18 **There’s some sort of a path there,”’ said Tony after examining the spot where they had seen the mysterious, shining objects. “Come on!” Scrambling along the rugged crest, they came soon to the jointure of the cape and the hill, where there was an indubitable trail made by human footseps. “‘W’ites, them blokes,” pronounced Ples- sons. ‘And by cripes, look at that! He must be ten feet high!’ He stood pointing to the spoor of a boot a little off the track, which was blurred by many feet—a fresh mark that was at least twenty-odd inches long. “Giants!” exclaimed Tony. ‘Oh, rot! There aren’t any white giants; and if they were natives they’d be barefoot.” He started down the trail toward the valley. Ai little farther on, where the slope began and was fairly steep, were rough steps partly cut in the earth and partly built up with stones. Forty paces down Tony uttered an ex- clamation of disgust and pulled up to look at the first of the cobwebs. The others clustered about him. The strands, so delicate in ordinary spiders’ webs, were as thick as packing thread, strong enough possibly to hold small birds, lizards and rodents. The webs were spun from one of the bushes, which were something like sage brush, to another, and over them; they seemed to be in triplicate, suggesting, as Plessons had said, that somebody had upset condensed milk. Toiling with what appeared to be a furious haste were hundreds of the arachnida at respinning damaged traps torn and ed in the recent passage of the night. re volting-looking creatures they were with bodies as large as a silver dollar and a span of the legs as big as a daddy-long-legs but with much more powerful limbs. The body was pallid yellow with a mottling green resembling gangrened flesh; the beady eyes were jet black and sinister, and the pronounced beak suggested a cross between an octopus and a scorpion. As Sawyer made a step nearer in his curiosity to a web on the left seven or eight of the horrors came scuttling, seeming to fly so rapid were their movements, to repel the invaders. Sawyer let out a squawk and leaped backward. Almost simultaneously hundreds of others, as if warned by some Adventure signal or call, began closing in toward the rty. “Ugh!” grunted Tony and stepped aside smartly as well. “Look out, Plessons; maybe these brutes are poisonous.” “They make me feel sick!’ Bodiker com- hse and then screamed hoarsely, “Oh, God!’ Tony wheeled to see him frantically kicking one leg; then he turned and ran, yelling— “Look out; they’re surrounding us!”’ After the ant style, but five feet thick, two columns of the spiders were advancing un- der cover of the outer scrub and grass, like the claws of pincers, behind the party. As Tony and Plessons turned to follow, Bodiker, losing his nerve, misjudged the distance and landed right into the middle of them. Beneath his boot squirted red blood. He shrieked and leaped madly for safety, dropping his rifle and scrambling up the cliff, never stopping his cries nor his speed until he had passed Sawyer on the crest. Then, plumping down, he began madly to unlace his left boot. “What’s the matter?’’ demanded Tony, who had retrieved his weapon. ‘‘Bit- ten?” “Yes, yes!” gasped Bodiker, as white as quinin, and tore off the sock. “No, no; he didn’t get you,” soothed Tony, for although there was a reddish mark on the ankle the skin was not per- forated. “But, by ——, what a bite! Look at that, Plessons!”’ He held up the boot, showing where the sharp beak of the spider had driven through the tough leather. In the inside was just the slightest puncture. “My ,’ added Tony, suddenly look- ing up, “I believe, they are poisonous! Many spiders are. And these are evidently the beasts who bit up the old man and the dumb nigger. Probably they fester rapidly and produce those hideous, stinking pustules of rotting flesh.” “Yus, that’s it,’”? agreed Plessons with decision. “Don’t yer remember the pore dumb bloke maikin’ them funny signs with his hands like a beast running and springing on a fella? That’s what he meant all right!” ‘Sure; and that’s why the old fellow was so anxious about those letters. He knew he was all in—doomed. They must have got bitten coming through here. Lordy,’ he CoMmicbook A) CO 5}