Adventure Magazine Cover, March 20, 1925 — page 62: what you’re looking at

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

44 Thorne noticed that the trees of the grove were moving unsteadily; he heard a human voice calling him plaintively, and at once the sound was snatched away by a mighty droning in the air. The ranks of firs bent back and quivered, as a ship heels over be- fore a sudden blast and labors in righting herself. And then he felt for the first time the breath of the Ice Sea, the touch of the snow driver. In that instant cold struck through him as if he had been utterly naked. He was driven from the knoll on which he stood, and pushed toward the camp. Without volition of his own he began to run, and heard his name called: He turned toward the sound, and saw Kyrger kneeling at the edge of the felt, beckoning him. Thorne crawled under the covering, and found that his fur robe had been pushed in ahead of him. Joan was there beside him, invisible in the darkness, her man’s sea-cloak drawn over her. “Roll up in your coverall,’’ she cau- tioned him. ‘‘Kyrger says that we must keep warm, else we never shall be warm again.” He both heard and felt the Samoyed driving home the two stakes that had been left loose. He was lying on a dry bed of pine needles, and even as he wriggled into his furs he was conscious that these were being driven against his face with something that stung his skin like tiny specks of hot iron. | Covering his head, he lay still a while until the chill had left him, listening to the whining -of the wind that came in great gusts, wondering how Peter and Kyrger were faring. At length, being minded to find out, he crept from his furs and pushed up the flap of the tent enough to thrust his head and shoulders out. And he almost cried aloud in astonishment. Snow, a fine, dry snow, was whirling about him, driving into eyes and ears, and making it difficult to breathe. This was not like the snow storms that he had known, where flakes fell heavily into a moist mass underfoot. This was the breath of the snow driver, tinged with the cold of outer space, more malignant and pitiless than human enemies. Thorne knew now the meaning of khylden, knew too that it would be utterly useless for him to try to stir outside their covering. Adventure He crept back, shivering, and felt the girl draw nearer him for warmth. CHAPTER XIII THE GATE IN THE SKY no nearly three days the snow driver raged, and then there fell a calm. The whole of the earth was blanketed in white and only the dense clump of firs showed the spot where four human beings slept, two feet beneath the surface of the snow. The reindeer were the first to sense the passing of the storm, and staggered up, tossing their heads and going off at once to paw at the drifts with their cleft hoofs in search of the moss that was their winter food. The movement aroused Kyrger, who bobbed up and shook himself like a dog. Picking up a fallen branch, he went to where Joan and Thorne were buried, feeling around with his feet until he found the spot. Here he hesitated a moment, his eyes traveling to the bundle of gear secured in the tree. This was to him incalculable treasure, and, above the other things he coveted the crossbow which sent a shaft twice as far as his bow. It came into his mind that if he let the outlanders sleep on they would die and the weapon would be his as well as the other things. In fact he wondered whether the other three were not dead already. Then the Samoyed began to thrust the snow away with his branch. The same in- stinct that had led him to safeguard the lives of the helpless three, now called to him to rouse them. Kyrger had accepted Thorne as his master. He looked upon the armiger as a young lord, in much the same way that Thorne cherished the memory of Edward, his king. He hauled up the felt and satisfied himself that Thorne still breathed; about the maiden he was more doubtful. He ex- amined the biscuits, and saw that they had eaten something. Then he set to work rubbing snow on the man’s face and hands until the blue tinge faded from the skin and Thorne opened his eyes, grimacing with pain, and incapable of movement until the hunter had rubbed his limbs. “Mistress Joan?” he croaked, and rose to his knees, swaying dizzily as the blood began to circulate through his veins again. GOMIGIOO (©