Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 4, 1925 — page 96: what you’re looking at

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

886 off my wind so summarily had not been a lasso at all, but merely the clothesline it- self.” Myles looked very uncomfortable and sheepish, aS a general Jaugh went up at his expense. Then said he: ‘ Toron, you are a first class story-teller, and you cer- tainly had me fooled. Did it really hap- pen?” “Honestly,” replied the boy. And Poblath added: ‘It couldn't have been better if he had made it up.” Then Toron went on with the narrative of his adventures: ‘‘ The clothesline was a Builder-send in my then naked condition. Hastily grabbing one of the togas from off the rope, I donned it and hurried out of the garden, just as the morning life began to stir in the little village. Before folks had fully awakened for the day’s round of pleas- ures and work, I had gained the fields and the woods beyond and there I slept through- out the day. ‘‘ Just before nightfall, I found some red clay with which to dye my telltale yellow locks, and then set out once more to grope my weary way northward through the jet black night. Thus I kept on for several days of sleep and nights of travel, until one night a kerkool rounded a turn too quickly for me and deluged me with its light be- fore I had time to scuttle into the woods. Scuttle I did, however, and soon several flash lamps appeared among the trees in pursuit. “The lights of my enemies showed me their whereabouts and thus enabled me to dodge them. But on the other hand, I could not see to find my way, whereas they could; with the result that finally they sur- rounded me. ‘There were four of them, four Formians. I was unarmed. ‘ Fool- hardiness is not courage,’ as Poblath would say. So I surrendered. Luckily they did not recognize me.” “Why should they,” remarked Cabot, “without your yellow curls and vour royal robes?” ‘“ Anyhow,” continued the prince, “ they didn’t. I asked them what was the idea of arresting a poor farmer in the middle of the night, and they replied that it was this middle-of-the-night part of it that made my ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. actions suspicious. Where was I going, and what was I doing? I cooked up some sort of a yarn about being out of a job and out of tickets and they appeared to believe me. However, they said that the orders of Queen lormis were to make a census of all male Cupians, for the purpose of either impres- sing them into service or killing them, as soon as the army of King Yuri should come along on its triumphal march northward. “Of course, I did not want to be listed and quartered on any of these villages, where my identity would probably be recog- nized, so with mock eagerness I asserted my loyalty to my brother—naturally not referring to him as such—and inquired as to whether there were any openings for mechanics in the air service, thanking my luck the while, that we Cupians do not have registration numbers painted on our backs like the Formians. “As a result of my apparent eagerness to serve in the army, which seemed per- fectly plausible in view of my being out of a job, only a few perfunctory questions were asked as to my identitv, and I was taken along to an encampment of the ants. Y had picked the air service, because that would undoubtedly be manned almost en- tirely by Formians, who would not be so likely to recognize me as would my own countrymen, unless I happened to run across some of my former instructors at the Uni- versity of Mooni. I had to take a chance on that. ‘To make a long story short, the motley army of the yellow and black allies came along a few days later bound northward, and I was assigned to one of the kerkools which carried repair parts and machine tools for the airplanes. We then proceeded north without event until the entire armv went into action south of Lake'Luno. And, just in time for this battle, there arrived a large force of fliers gathered from all over the two kingdoms for the final drive that was to end the war. ‘‘ According to word brought back to the air base where I was stationed, the army of my baby cousin had only one plane and one anti-aircraft gun, but these accounted for quite a number of ant fliers and scon we were busily at work making repairs.” An (CO) lDOOlK