Argosy All-Story Weekly — "The Purple Limited" — page 74: what you’re looking at

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

640 ARGOSY- ALISTORY WEERLY. But as, he stepped into a littl open space among the trees, a little glade where the forest drew back from the river to leave a grassy flat, almost beneath the young man’s feet came a warning hiss, and instantly, in- Stinctively, without conscious thought, he leaped aside from. the Potsoned aera who lay before. His bound carried him welh to ope side ef the trail, and in that second the lon sprang. The intended victim had uncea- sciously evaded the leap, and Snorr-m’rai- no landed full and square on the serpent’s coil. Frenzied, again and again the Pois- ened Slayer struck, sinking his vesomed fangs deep in Ehe leoais Banks, 1 Bis Drees —twice on kis vety nose! Mad with pain and fear, the hon tore and tore at the death which harried him; again and yet “again the Poisoned Slayer struck, but at length he died, rent and crushed by those terrible claws. But the_ lion, wounded to death, raging with the poison which burned in his veins like living fire, thrashed and tore and snarled, clawing the body of the snake to fragments, and snapping and clawing at his own body, striving to tear from it the torture within. Ku-ro, shivering with horror, watched and listened from behind a jutting boulder, till at last the deadly venom took effect, and Snorr-m’rai-no, with one long-drawn gasp of agony, shuddered, fell prostrate, ‘and lay still. Ku-ro fell on his knees and gave thanks to the Great Father that he had been mi- raculously saved from two deadly perils— that each had annihilated the other, and he had been spared; then rising, he went slowly and thoughtfully to his cave. It chanced that though Tu-sen had at hand a supply of ivory, Ku-ro had none,. and he knew well that none was to be had within the Valley of the Ta-an; none of the tribesmen possessed it, except in the form of sculptures and ornaments such as bracelets and necklaces. Therefore Ku-ro must fare abroad and slay a * mammoth, that he might get material for the figure which, he hoped, would win for him the Lance of Dawn. Do-m’rai, he knew, was not a beast of the ferest; rarely did he come within the Valley of the Te-an. His range was on the tundras, those vast ‘and marsky plas treeless, covered with coarse grass and scamty brush, which lay far to the nerth. Thither must Ku-ro travel, full ten days’ jeurney from his home, ia search of the Hill That Walks. Ten days out and tea back; allowing a week for the hunt, ths would leave but two moons for the carving of the figure, and Kw-re knew that be must hasten. So the morning after his most cape he was early afoot; €s- dried meat and reets and a handful of salt na soft and smoke-tanned skin; took his weap- ons, bow and arrows, lance and ax aad dagger, all oak-hafted, and armed with heads of chipped and polished flint, aad set out over the mountains which closed in the Valley of the Ta-am om the northem side. Ten days Ku-ro journeyed, early afoot and late to lie down, finding water is the litthe streams, gradually working through the thinning forest and out upon the plains, which in turn gave way to the barren tur dra. Across this Ku-ro traveled, till at length on the ninth day he came to 8 water-course bordered with small and scrubby trees, hardly more than bushes. . Here he found tracks of the great beast he sought, a plainly marked and deeply trodden trail where Do-m’rai came down to drink. Across this trail Kuro dug a pit the height of a tall man in depth and width, twice that in length; upright in the bottom he set sharpened stakes. Two full days were spent in this labor, Ku-ro praying the while that the mammoth might not come till the trap was ready. It seemed the prayer was heard, and at last ali was finished, a woven mat of grass being laid over the mouth of the pit to hide it from the quarry; the mat was sup- ported on small branches, and earth was spread down the middle to imitate the trail, lest Do-m’rai suspect danger and 90 around This done, Ku-ro set himself to wait, making a cold camp in the brush along the Stream. Fortune favored him, and he had not long to wait; the very night after his labors were finished he was awakened by AA CGOMIIGIOO Ss. mrs