Adventure Magazine Cover, June 20, 1925 — page 179: what you’re looking at

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

‘and of in the process by giving Isaacs aleg up. In the scramble the storekeeper’s cap fell off but he appeared to be unconscious of it. /sa GRABBING hold of the reins, “Get up!” he yelled, drumming his heels on the beast’s ribs. The forward plunge of the horse al- most unseated him, but with an effort he recovered himself and waving his hand gaily he trotted off, bouncing ludicrously from side to side. Then he remembered his cap. “Vait a bit,” he bellowed and sawed at the reins, pulling his horse back on to its haunches. ‘‘My cap, missioner. It fell off! Oy! This hot-headed won’t stand still.” Miles picked up the long peaked cap and ran over to Isaacs with it. Under cover of much yelling at the horse and its rearing and plunging, the two men exchanged a few whispered sentences and then, yelling like a mad man, Isaacs gave the horse its head and rode swiftly away. “Por Dios!” D’Andra exclaimed with a wry smile. “He will ruin my horse and per- haps break his own neck.” “TI ,must confess,’ Miles said slowly, “that I think you were very rash to accede to his extraordinary request.”’ At that moment, however, secure in the knowledge that he was well out of D’An- dra’s sight, Isaacs sat down in the saddle and rode as he well knew how to ride. The most meticulous riding master could have found no fault with his hands, though he might have been inclined to object—purely on the grounds of form, not of technique— to Isaacs’ crouching seat. Presently the trail he was following began to rise gently, winding its way about the hill on the top of which he had built his store, and half an hour later he came to a small, well-ordered kraal. The huts were all -neatly thatched, the pathway to each, door was picked out by whitewashed boulders and about the whole place there was an air of orderly cleanliness entirely foreign to most kraals; here was none of the objectionable features white men usually associate with native villages; there were no evidences of a white man’s civilization—no empty bully tins, and broken down chairs cluttering the place. None of the natives wore the discarded raiment of some white man. Save for the whitewashed stones, the absence of filth, 11 Gideon!’’ 161 nauseating smells and mange-eaten curs the kraal was most truly a native one. In this kraal—Isaacs spoke of it as “my kraal’’ to people he liked—the men and women dressed as had their forefathers; they cultivated the ground with similar tools, hunted with similar weapons and— absolute evidence of Isaac’s influence over them—made fire by rubbing two sticks together. His trading—and he did little of that in these later years—he did with the other kraals of the district. As Isaacs rode through the kraal he was hailed affectionately by men and women; fat, naked littles urchin ran after him, crow- ing with delight when he called to them by name. Coming to the hut of Tomasi, the head- man, he dismounted and talked for a time to that old graybeard. Then, mounting again, he rode up to his store. FF \\ IT WAS noon the following day. | “\ Isaacs and Miles were seated on re 4 on the wide stoop surrounding the store house watching the long column which wound its way slowly down the hill side. Isaacs looked very tired and dirty. Down the front of his flamboyant shirt was a large muddy stain; his black hair hung down over his forehead; his face badly needed the attention of a razor; one eye was slightly discolored. He bit savagely on an unlighted cigar—but, apart from that, he seemed to be completely relaxed: His chin was resting on his chest and he seemed to have withdrawn into himself. : Miles’ rust-black suit—Isaacs called it a uniform—was neatly pressed as usual, yes- terday’s tears had been cleverly darned, his choker coliar was immaculately white, his pith helmet—ic was resting on his knees— had been freshly blancoed. He had shaved that morning, but a row of scratches on his cheek and chin showed that his hand had not been too steady and his flaming red hair was parted a tenth of an inch to the right of its usual line. His blue eyes flashed angrily and he kept beating the heels of his clenched fists together as if in that way he would work off the nervous energy and indignation which possessed him. Isaacs lighted his cigar, inhaled luxuri- ously and then, leaning back in his chair, his hands clasped behind his head, com- pletely relaxed. COMIGDIOOKSEEO