Adventure Magazine Cover — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

fem at ie a) Prisoners his shoulder. For a moment he studied the blue-eyed girl who was washing her broth- er’s wounds; but she turned her back toward him, and he met Tros’ eyes again. “Tf what I hear of you is true, I will nevertheless remember former friendship, Tros. If it is not true, it is better not spoken in men’s hearing. Let us talk alone.” Tros led the way down from the poop and into the cabin where his father’s body lay. The smell in there was stifling; Cas- wallon snorted, but Tros threw the door wide and they stood together studying the old man’s face. “Like a Druid,” Caswallon said at the end of a long silence. ““Greater than any Druid!” Tros answered grufily. “What are those marks on his wrists?” Caswallon asked. “Cesar tortured him!” They faced each other in the light that poured through the open door. “Ts it true, or is it not true, Tros, that you have made a pact with Cesar?” “It is not true,” Tros said frowning. “Who has come telling you that lie?”’ “Skell! You spared Skell’s life when you had the right to kill him. You sent him to Cesar, as you told me to help you to trick Cesar. But now Skell returns with a tale about secret intriguing.” Tros whistled. “T turned Skell over to Cesar’s men at Caritia, thinking they would put him in the pest-house. Has Skell won Cesar’s confi- dence so soon?” “He i is home again, and in strange com- pany,” said Caswallon. “T have not seen him, but Tros laid a hand on Caswallon’s arm. “T speak,” he said, ‘‘in the presence of the dead. Believe me or Skell! Which shall it be?” Caswallon turned his back and stood for a full minute in the doorway, stroking his chin, watching the wounded on the deck. Druids had arrived from somewhere; with their long skirts tucked into their girdles they were pouring liquid on to stiffened bandages, examining wounds, behaving workmanly, as if they knew their trade. Caswallon turned suddenly. “Tros,” he exclaimed, “I am beholden to you twice, and I would not take Skell’s word for it that the sun is not the moon. ni ee %% yl ee a © ee ot Po” ess tele ee | ee ee ete OI I. ee ee a i ee 2 oS oe : 7 ota 2 ret . ° : of War Yet Orwic tells me you refused to fight the Northmen until you ran into them down- river and there was no room for you to run; he tells me that at Seine-mouth you spoke with Cesar in Latin, which is a tongue we Britons don’t understand.” “T called on Cesar to surrender to me,” Tros interrupted. ‘He had climbed over the bow when I sunk his boat and——” ‘“‘And Orwic tried to capture him, but you called Orwic-off. Ceasar did not surrender, - but you and he spoke, after which he es- caped! And now comes Skell to Hythe, whence he sends me a letter by a woman’s hand; and the woman says Cesar has promised you my kingdom when I am dead, in return for your having spared his life. She had a letter for you from Ceasar, writ- ten in Latin, which I can not read. These Northmen raided Hythe before they came up-Thames. How is it you were so long following them up-river?” “Storms! I was hove-to in the ocean. Moreover, I did not know of Northmen in the Thames. When I saw the smoke of villages i “My men say you refused to let them land and run to my aid!” “Did I not sink a longship?” ‘Tros asked indignantly. “Yes, when there was no alternative! And now, when you might have shot these other Northmen down, you let one whole boat-load of them escape, and you accept their chief’s surrender to yourseli—their chief, three women and how many men? I find that strange.” ‘Will you listen to me?” Tros asked; and when Caswallon nodded he told his own story from the beginning, omitting no de- tails, not even his own qualms and his thoughts of making for the Belgian coast. “For I foresaw you might doubt me, and I knew Cesar would be swift with some ingenious trick. Now it amounts to this, Caswallon: I am Cesar’s enemy, and your friend. But you and J are freemen. You may end our friendship when it pleases you.” Caswallon hesitated, with his hands be- hind him. There was something on his mind still. “T have told all. What are you keeping from me?”’ Tros asked him. “You shall speak with Fflur,” Caswallon answered. Tros breathed relief. Whoever else was Eeom (@) ‘books.com