Adventure Magazine Cover, March 20, 1925 — page 73: what you’re looking at

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

The Snow Driver “Under a cloak of meekness you would have us set out so that he will see our fol- lowing and learn caution, which is a thing he never will learn. In another hour or so your armiger will be wolf meat.”’ She drew away from the man, hands pressed against her cheeks. “Would you slay him shamefully in this pagan land?” “That will I, and he would do no less for me. By the eyes of you should know no land is wide enough to hold us twain. He serves his king, who is shent—aye, who lieth under sod ere now. Hath a man allegiance to the dead?” ‘“‘Aye, so,” the girl responded promptly. ‘Then is he a traitor. For—and here ts a& merry matter—the lord prince who laid command upon me to voyage hither is now your squire’s lord.” “That may not be,” she cried passion- ately, “I think you are liegeman to Satan, prince of darkness.”’ “Some do call him that. And, by the Three Dead Men, if Mephistophele were annointed monarch on this earth, he would not lack for followers, being both sagacicus, courteous and untainted by remorse. Yet I serve Philip, son of the Emperor Charles, the mightiest lord in Christiandom. And this same Philip will sit presently upon the throne of England.” While he spoke he had been studying the maiden, marking the tawny hair held back by the hood, the slight, firm lips and the pulse that beat in a white throat. Such beauty would command its price, and Dur- forth knew the very barons who would lighten their purses of a hundred gold crowns to possess her. Yet he was embarked upon a delicate mission, and it was necessary that her tongue should be silent as to what she had seen on the Ice Sea, and what she would presently behold. He considered permitting Shatong to cut out her tongue; but she might be able to write. Women he knew were like hawks. Tamed and hooded, fed and wing-clipped, they would be content under the hand of a mas- ter for a while—until he could be paid his price for the maiden. To tame her, she must first learn to fear him. Unclasping his cloak, he took from the breast of his doublet two papers, folded and sealed. These he held near the fire, for the light was dim under the trees, so that hs) she could see the imperial signet on the seals. When he saw that she had recognised it, he put the letters back very carefully in a silk pouch attached to the end of his gold chain. “These letters missive,” he said, “are from Charles of Spain to Ivan the Terrible, emperor of Muscovy, and they are my charge.” “Sir Hugh’s letters——” Durforth’s head went back and he laughed from an open throat, a roaring laugh that reached tc the ears of Thorne and the hunter who crouched behind the ridge, waiting until darkness could cover their approach to the fire. Yet they heard not the words of the agent of Philip. “Death of my life, wench, Sir Hugh’s letters are ashes long since. Sir Hugh gal- lant fool! Sir Hugh, lack-wit leader! Why, he ventured blindly into the Ice Sea. He sailed in circles when he lost company with Chancellor, and he proposed to winter in an open bay without fuel or food.” Shivering, she looked up at him, and he took a savage pleasure in heightening the horror in her eyes. “I had ventured to the northern coast before this, and had talked with the Easter- lings. J knew the peril of the khylden and the cold that stiffens a man’s sinews and soul. So I haled me from the fleet, to the southeast where the tribe of Ostiaks had their dwelling. Before we could return to the ships the storms had snuffed out the Englishmen. “My pinnace had fallen foul of the Laps, and the lads that manned it were drying 1’ the wind. I had sent it to the Wardhouse so that I might sail in it to the inland sea, and thither into Muscovy. But it fell out otherwise. “So was I set afoot. And by mischance that murdering wight Thorne, who hath crossed my path twice befcre now, was journeying along. the coast. My Ostiaks sighted your fire on Christmas night, and I sent Shatong with ten others to the ships to greet your comrades while I conveyed the goods I had taken from the Confidentia hither and awaited the coming of the savages.” Again he laughed, for Durforth could en- joy a jest. “Body of —— Thorne played in luck there. The Ostiaks had never heard a gun roar. But Shatong is a match for your Gloo