The Frontier, May 1926 — page 45: what you’re looking at

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

bank, where the pines grew in a thick wall down close to the water, I saw a great gap. There was an indentation in the bank opposite the end of the delta which had never been made by the water; and there were the stumps of several trees close by, with the ax marks, weather-beaten as they were, still plain upon them. But not a fallen trunk remained in sight. Why they had been cut down, where they had been taken to, and why they had been cut in this particular spot I could in no wise imagine, Nor was this all. Just opposite the up-stream end of the projection, on the south bank, and about fifteen feet in from the edge of the channel, was a bluff. Well, in this low bluff, which was not over twenty feet high, some- one had caused a sort of grotto to be hewed from the rocks. In this grotto was a wooden idol. It had been carved from blackest ebony, was about eight feet high, had a great hooked beak for a nose, and showed a great, ugly mouth, with the lips curled back from teeth which had been made from the inner surface of shells. I almost jumped when I looked at the eyes; for they were formed of green crystal, resembling emerald, and were as bale- ful in expression as those of a lynx staring at one from the dark depths of a cavern. It was the bright, golden sunlight, of course, which caused those green depths to sparkle so; yet the effect was most uncanny. Wherever one moved in the arc before it the eyes of that hideous monster seemed to follow— and I could even imagine that there was a hint of sardonic mirth in those terrible orbs as the idol, which was squatted upon a carved dais, sat there with grimly folded arms and watched me move about. At the feet of the thing was a littie cone of human skulls, four in number, and a spear, a bow, a quiver of ar- rows, and a shield made of hide, These, by the appearance, had been there a long time. And behind the idol lay more weapons and more skulls. These had Jain there for a much longer pe- riod, I judged, than the others, for some of the quivers were rotten with age, So struck was I by these sights that for a moment I forgot my mission. But presently I was startled by the raucous screaming of a red-billed bird below me; and as it soared away over the trees, I crept close to the brink and peered below. Here and there I saw where steps had been hewn from the | THE DEVIL'S CALDRON rock; and at a point about half-way down the steep slope, where the trees were thick, and on my side of the falls, I caught the gleam of a musket barrel, “ There was no time for indecision. I had guessed true; the buccaneers were coming to the falls. Now I must either run or stay to see whatever was about to happen. Having come thus far, I elected to stay. The face of the little bluff ran sheer to the brink of the falls. This left a flat beach, about fifteen feet wide, be- tween it and the water, If the big chief and the buccaneers followed the line of the steps, after emerging from the trees—and this seemed hkely—I reasoned that they would emerge on this beach. Hence I had two choices: to hide behind the idol, or mount the bluff from its footslope to westward. A hump back of the grotto would hide me from their view as they came up; and there were also thickets close to the edge to shield me when they reached the beach. So I selected the bluff and in a brace of shakes was hid- ing behind the thickets a little to west- ward of the idol and some ten feet above it. CHAPTER XVIII / JERRY BLUNT’S CACHE HAD not long to wait before Gentry and the big chief appeared. They made an unforget- table picture as they topped the rise— the chief a golden- skinned statue, quite naked save for his girdle and ornaments, and Gentry all decked out with a yellow silk shirt, a bright red head scarf, and a blue- and-white polka-dotted sash around his waist. I have yet to look upon two better specimens of physical develop- ment. The chief topped Gentry by half a head, and Gentry was a full six inches over six feet in height. The big savage was also scarred about the breast, with bony features as devoid of warmth as that of a grinning skull; yet, of the two, I had much rather have faced the cannibal. Gentry’s shirt was open at the neck, exposing a scarred and tattooed breast that reminded me of joined shields; his sleeves were rolled up to the el- bows, showing his great forearms, with corded muscles as thick as a ship’s hawser; and now, as he dashed the sweat from his hammered features, 39 and twisted his eyebrows up into devil’s horns, glaring quickly about him the while, I was sure that I had never looked upon a more formidable villain. After one glance at the idof, which the chief saluted with a quick bend of the knee, both went to the river’s edge and lay down for a deep drink. Dum- phey, Horn, two other sailors, and the two cannibals followed one another up the steps a moment later, and they, too, hurried forward for a draught of the sparkling water. And now I was treated to an agree- able surprise. I had feared that the roar of the falls would bother me in hearing them speak, but at the first word this fear vanished. With the close growth of the trees on every hand, I found that the acoustics were such that I heard them easily. “Ah!” growled Gentry, standing up and resting his great right hand on the butt of a silver-mounted pistol in his sash. “That’s better nor brandy, after all. How about it, old Marble Face?” And he looked at the chief and rubbed his belly, with a little smile. The chief did not return the smile, though he grunted, “Huh!” and nodded. Then, with a look of fierce pride, he pointed at the statue, or idol, thence back to the river, and again at the end of the delta. Kneeling down, he drew something in the sand, crossed his wrists before him, made a motion as though binding them, pointed again at the stream, made a sweeping mo- tion with his arm toward the falls, and then pointed once more at the up- stream prow of the delta, Then he stood back and folded his arms dra- matically, “What’s he powwowing about?” asked Dumphey, coming up. “Why,” said Gentry, who had been nodding understandingly through the chief’s demonstration, “here’s the way of it, I take it. When they’re to pick a chief they comes here. Well, as near as I can make out, they ups and puts him in a canoe up above, there, and him no paddle. Arms tied, too, mind you. If this here ebony god is feelin’ right about the liver—which is hard to figger, if them eyes means anything —why that canoe goes smack against them rocks in the middle, there, and stays. If not—why, over the falls.” The others now came up, and Gen- try must needs repeat the story to them. “Ah!” exclaimed a seaman named Blake, a squat, hairy tar, with a cast (CONMUCLIOOLKS «(CGO