Adventure Magazine, December 10, 1924 — page 49: what you’re looking at

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

The Blond Spiders the bank of the butte they saw strutting up and down with a tired precision a native soldier, ghostly in the light of the pallid moon. They halted to confer. Watching, they observed that at every turn—not regularly, for sometimes he stopped and leaned wearily on his rifle—the sentry wheeled about right on the edge of the bank, which at that point was fairly densely covered with scrub. Creeping on their bellies, they succeeded in reaching the base undetected and, wait- ing until the man paused at the end of his patrol, rushed up and lay hidden on the lip of the plateau. After another turn he halted on the edge and stood mooning across at the forest. Leaving their rifles, simultaneously Ples- sons grabbed his feet and pulled them from under him as Tony sprang. A grunt was knocked out of him by the fall, and then a sharp tap of a revolver barrel put him to sleep. Having securely bound and gagged him, they rolled him down the bank into thicker undergrowth and sneaked across to the back of the nearest lighted hut. With Teuton thoroughness the refuse clay had been util- ized to make the bricks which paved the floor of the wide veranda. The large win- dows were covered by stretched cheesecloth, allowing light and air to circulate. Gruff voices in conversation sounded as they stealthily approached the window at the back and from each side were able to peer within. Evidently the hut was the officers’ mess. From the middle hung a paraffin lamp of the usual store pattern. At one end of the long table covered with colored baftasat the thick- set blond man,von Muhlhauser. He was bald. By his side was another man cadaverous of features with prominent cheek bones and high-power spectacles; the short-cropped skull seemed almost flat on the top, sug- gesting an inverted soup tureen, and his ash- colored beard was twisted to one side like a tree in a trade wind, caused by his habit of nervously tugging at it with the left hand. Both these men—Mulhauser had changed— wore white uniforms which looked spotlessly clean. Three younger officers, all haggard of features, were also present wearing patched clothes. At the far end was the sergeant who had accompanied the Kommandant and another non-commissioned officer; and between 27 them stood Sawyer, truculent of jaw but loose-lipped, huge shoulders lopsided as he carried his bulk on one leg. “Dunno,” Sawyer was saying sullenly in reply to some question. ‘“They was sitting under the tree there last I seen of ’em.”’ “‘Ach, we will them haf tomorrow. Dey gan not egscape. You, vot dat ol’ man he tell you?” “Didn’t tell me nothing. Died before he could spill the beans—so they says.” ‘Der beans?” queried the Herr Kom- mandant irritably. “Before he could tell the story,” inter- preted the sergeant in German. “Ach!” interrupted the man with the crystal glasses. ‘“‘Vot condition der man vas?” “Mighty bad, doc,” returned Sawyer. “Covered with them running sores.” “Could der man ven you him catch talk?”’ “The Aussie said he couldn’t, but he’s a darned liar. I dunno.” “You t’ink dat he talk, isn’t it?”’ from von Muhlhauser. ‘Sure, he could talk all right. The three of ’em had a frame-up. We _ weren’t suckers.” “Frame-up! Suckers? Vot is dat?” “Trying to put one over,’ growled Sawyer. ‘Speak English, pig,’ grunted the ser- ceant, roughly jerking Sawyer’s arm. “Tried to cheat,” amended Sawyer sul- lenly. “How dat you know?” demanded von Muhlahuser. “‘Because that lime-juicer—Australian— knew how to find this valley, but when they saw it they got scared and waited for us.” “ Ja?” “‘We lamped—we saw your fellers com- ing in the moonlight, and them two lay for em and shot ’em under the white flag.”’ “You say dat my men der vite flag haf?” growled von Muhlhauser. “Your fellers nothing,” protested Sawyer hastily. “Himandmeput up the white flag.” ‘“Vot dey do den?” “Grabbed the di’monds. And I said we’d better play on the level, and then them fel- lers went off their nuts and wanted to start something,’ asserted Sawyer. “I give them the dope to lay off of that raw stuff, but as soon as we got down in the valley the lime-juicer tried to get Bodiker.” “Get Bodiker?”’ CoMmicbhookk Wh) © 5}