Picture Play Magazine (Oct-Nov 1915)

PICTURE-PLAY WEEKLY 9 lone, and we're bound back for civilizalon — I could get away with it, all ight." Lifting the flap of the tent, he stepped utside. A quarter of an hour later, down by he stream that flowed near the camp f the tribe whose friendship Alec Mc■lensie had won, a native girl turned, nth a cry of alarm, as she felt herself «ized from the rear round the waist. "Don't be afraid," George Allerton eassured her, with a maudlin laugh. "I /on't hurt you !" The girl cried out in fright a second ime, struggling to free herself of the runken white man's embrace. And the ext moment, the bushes parting behind im, George was seized, in turn, by a ijurly native, who had been drawn to he scene by the girl's cries. Tearing is arm from the girl's waist, the savge spun George around by the wrist nd flung him to the earth. With an oath, George picked himself ,p and tugged at the revolver in the iolster at his hip, his face contorted ,'ith blind, unreasoning rage. "I'll teach you to lay your dirty hands m a white man !" he snarled at the naive; and, with the words, he fired. The savage flung up his hands and itched to the ground — dead. Then, the evil grin returning to his ace, George again grasped the native ;irl. Dumb with fright now, she strug,led once more to get out of his arms, nit in vain — they tightened around her, vhile the white face she feared, with ts leering smile, drew nearer and nearer o her own. It was an hour later when George ■eturned to the tent. He was thoroughly sober once more, ind his face was paler than usual. Alec, Joctor Adamson, and Mclnnery had lacked up the party's traps, and were eady to set forth on the long tramp )ack to the coast from the jungle "hinerland," into which they had penetrated —thus far without encountering any rouble from the natives. "Where have you been?" Alec asked :; ; impatiently. "Oh, just taking a walk around," the i 7oung man replied, with assumed carei cssness in his tone. "It's funny you did that, when you said you were going to stay in here out }f the heat," remarked Alec, regarding :; lim from under a suspicious frown. "Well — help us strike the tent, and let's get started." It was a half hour after the party had departed from the camp of the native tribe, following a further interchange of good wishes with the chieftain and his assembled people, that a native girl came running breathlessly out of the jungle into the village of thatch-roofed huts and flung herself, weeping, at the chief's feet. She told her story of George Allerton's killing of the native and his subsequent attack upon her. Ten minutes later, the war drums were beating. The warriors of the tribe, to the number of half a hundred, armed themselves with shields and spears and set out after the four white men, at a tireless, space-devouring lope, with the chieftain at their head. George Allerton, lagging in the rear of the others with the lightest pack of all strapped to his shoulders, was the first to catch sight of their pursuers. He gave the alarm to Alec, his lips twitching with sudden fear. "Maybe they're coming after us to act as an escort part way through the jungle," Mclnnery suggested. "They were friendly enough to " His words were cut short by a spear that tore through the pith helmet on his head and swept it off. "They mean business !" said Alec curtly. "However friendly they may have been toward us an hour ago, their feelings have undergone a complete change — for some unknown reason. They're on the warpath, as you can tell from the assagais and shields they're carrying. And we're their quarry, as the spear that's just 'lifted' your hat, Mclnnery, convincingly proves. They've halted. Now the chief is advancing. He calls for a parley — I'll go and see what he wants." Five minutes later, Alec returned to the others, his lips pressed grimly together. "What's angered them at us?" demanded Doctor Adamson. "The chief declares," answered Alec, "one of the tribe was shot and killed an hour before we left the camp, by one of our number. The native had gone to the rescue of one of the maidens who was being attacked by one of us, when he was killed. There is only one of us who was out of sight of the others during that time. That one was — you !" and as he brought out the last word, Alec stepped in front of George and leveled an accusing finger at him. "No — I didn't — didn't have anything to do with it !" stammeringly protested the youth. "It wasn't me " With a deft movement, Alec whipped the revolver from his holster. He "broke" it, spilling out the cartridges, on his palm. Two of them were empty and powder-streaked. "That's a lie !" he informed George, with deadly calm. "You were the one." George hung his head before the three men, who stood regarding him in silence. "What does the chief want us to do?" asked Mclnnery at length. "We are to give up the murderer of the tribesman," replied Alec grimly, "to be put to death by torture. Or all of us will be killed." Mclnnery, an oddly gloating expression on his face, stepped forward to confront Alec. The latter had told him and Doctor Adamson why he had made George a member of the party: because his sister, to whom he w?s engaged, had asked him to. Mclnnery had been in love with Lucy himself. With the knowledge that Alec had won her away from him, black hatred had surged up in his heart against his one-time friend. But now, in the crisis which George had brought about by his folly, Mclnnery had seen a way to remove Alec from his path, and he was quick to act upon it. "They don't know which one of us assaulted the girl and killed the savage, do they?" he demanded of Alec. "No. They want us to settle that point — and then turn the man over to them." "Are you going to let her brother die on the torture fire?" Mclnnery asked softly. "Would that be the tine, the noble, thing for you to do under the circumstances? Or wouldn't it be for you to sacrifice yourself in his placedeclare that you were the guilty one, and die to give her back her brother's life? Have you the courage to do it — for her?" "No, no !" protested the doctor. "For God's sake, Mclnnery " Alec, lifting his head, interrupted him. "Mclnnery is right," he said quietly. "It is the thing for me to do. I will cheerfully lay down my life — not for his sake — but for that of the girl I love." Mclnnery's eyes gleamed with tri