Adventure Magazine Cover, March 20, 1925 — page 53: what you’re looking at

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

The Snow Driver glimpsed a sail or had been beset by enemies of some kind, the armiger surveyed the horizon eagerly. And presently, having beheld what Peter had seen, he frowned. Arching high over their heads, a rainbow stood against a cloudbank in the sky. But this rainbow was inverted, glowing with a myriad colors where it circled almost to the tree tips, and fading into nothingness where its ends merged with the clouds. He had never seen its like before. Being unable to account for this phe- nomenon, he held his peace while the ship- man struggled to regain his breath. ‘““Master Ralph, I have seen the Southern Cross over a ship’s mast; I have seen the eye of the Big Bear; but never a rainbow capsized. ’*Tis an omen—daddle me else.” ‘“Tis a rainbow, no more.” Peter eyed the youngster with dark triumph. “Master Ralph, the mariners o’ the Esperanza saw a mermaid come up out of the waters. Aye, an omen, that, as ever was. And where be they now?” Seeing that his companion was no whit cast down by this comparison, Peter went on stubbornly. “And now our time is come. What d’ye think on it?” “Think? That you have guzzled the brandy overmuch.” “‘Now, shiver my soul else, that is ill said. Look you here, Master Know-All: When I came down from the masthead yonder, the very beasties of the wood were up and about. Aye, they know when an ill wind is to ward. Wolves and bears, they were a-capering and a-rushing all about me, through the trees.”’ “There are no wolves, nor bears on this island,” “T laid my deadlights on them. They were hiding, crafty-like, a-slipping and a “‘Nonsense—”’ “On two legs, Master Ralph. A-peering at me they were.” THORNE was puzzled by Peter’s al statement, stoutly reiterated when he questioned the boatswain anew that he had seen bears on the path to the lookout. He reflected that Sir Hugh’s men had made only a casual examination of the island, and such animals might have re- mained unseen in the patches of woods. 35 Bear’s meat would add splendidly to their larder, and he decided to try his hand at hunting. Taking up the crossbow with its winder and a few shafts—this weapon being both handier and more accurate than the har- quebus—he left the palisade. A heavy mist was blowing in, and the chill of it struck through his light cloak. It swept like smoke athwart the line of the forest, rendering him for the moment sub- ject to the illusion that the pines and the rock gullies were moving past him while he was standing still. Under the mesh of the wood the fog did not penetrate, and he walked hard and fast to stir up his circulation. The gale whined overhead, and the piping of curlews and croaking of gulls filled the space with tumult. The wood opened out in time, and he passed through a labyrinth of scrub oak, all bent in one direction by the winds of count- less years. Until now he had not known that he had come a full two leagues to the other end of the island. But for the moment he paid no attention to his sur- roundings. High and clear and yet faintly a voice was to be heard, a human voice, dwarfed by the note of the wind. It reached him in snatches, and he could not be certain of its direction until he reflected that it must come down the wind. As he rounded a mass of rocks, coated with moss, he heard it clearly and stopped in his tracks. The voice waS a woman’s, and she was singing an old ballad: ‘“‘As I was walking all alane I heard twa corbies making a mane; The tane unto the t’other did say, “Where sall we gang and dine to-day?’ ‘““ «Tn behint yon auld fail dyke I wot there lies a new-slain knight; And naebody kens that he lies there, But his hawk, his hound, and lady fair.’ ” A woman’s voice was the last thing he had expected to hear, and Thorne paused to wind his crossbow and fit a shaft in the slot. Where a woman was, in this island of the Ice Sea, men must be, and it behooved him to draw near with care. He pushed between two boulders and looked out into a mist-shrouded glen. On the far side, in some high bracken and fern he made out the form of a deer, with its GomiiGooo