A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, April 1950 — page 99: what you’re looking at

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

f. ah - Santo Domingo, 99 he wrung permission to remain in far -out of the colonel I didn’t know, but he had it, and he intended to pitch his re- _search camp in Morne Noir until the trouble blew over. He said he could go on with his investigations in the Morne Noir territory, and he assured me he wouldn't be a bother to me or my Marines. Bother! I glared at Peabody and his wife and the drishman, too choked to speak. I could see Peabody had no more idea of the danger he was in than a babe inthe woods Mrs. Peabody had about as much sense as a doll. McCoy stepped forward to say he was sure they could take éare of themselves. That was ali I needed. A crackpotted sci- entist and his entourage to look after on the lid of that Haitian volcano. If I’d been able to afford an escort—I’d have shipped them P.D.Q. to the coast, but | needed every man | had. Until reinforcements re- lieved me, they’ d have to stay. “Don't worry,” said Peabody, reading the consternation on my face. “My wife and McCoy and | will have our own camp. You don’t need to trouble about us at all. Indubitably this local fiasco will soon be dissipated. Meanwhile we can quietly pur- sue our research. | am particularly inter- ested in tracing the early civilization of the Arawaks ” I stared at him. “Arawaks!” “The original inhabitants indigenous to this island,” he gave me. ‘““The aborig- ines. A tribe of the Carib Indians. Today, sO far as we know, there remains but a handful of Caribs, remnants of the race that retreated to Honduras and Guate- mala. There were thousands of them -once, and they lived on this island when Celumbus discovered Haiti . . . But the Arawaks have anes vanished Sraxn the earth.” “That’s why we’re trying to trace them,” Mrs, Peabody explained. ‘We think there’s a few left in Haiti,” McCoy put in. 7 “The original Indians who were here _ when Columbus landed,” Peabody chirped _ excitedly. “A few remaining Arawaks who live in isolation deep in the unexplored -interior—in the mountains bordering perhaps. Preserving _ their ancient religion and primeval ways. _ Think sips it would mean a fe. the his- torians if we could find this lost tribe.” Then Peabody paid off with the remark that I was going to remember. leaning across my soap-hox desk at me with his glasses shining like two moons, he said, “y am certain we are.close on their trail, Captain. We are trying to trace them by their miniature mummies.” I’d never heard of such things and my face said so, “Miniature Arawak mummies.” Pea- - body nodded. “The South American .In- dians know the secret of shrinking human heads. Doubtless you’ve seen some of their specimens in the museums. But these Ara- waks knew how to shrink and cure the _ whole body Their midget-sized mummies are the rarest anthropological specimens on earth, and we’ve had rumors of such specimens in this neighborhood. You don't | mind then, if we remain under your pro- tection and conduct our research in Morne Noir?” Huh! Already the drums were thump- ing in the sundown, and I was thinking of Charlemagne’s raiders and what those voodoo-maddened blacks wouldn’t do to get their hands on a white woman. Trouble? Tell it to the Marines! All I could do was throw up my hands and say, “My Lord!” CHAPTER 2 Loaded for Trouble LL right, that’s the set-up. The A background and the people. Pea- body and Co. pitched camp under the-wing of the Stars and Stripes, and be- sides looking like the last outpost, Morne Noir took on the aspect of a scientific laboratory, a dime museum and a taxi- dermist’s shop. Luckily Charlemagne was raiding down in the south that season or, learning those white folks were in town, — he might’ve hit us instantly. Playing nursemaid to a scientist’s camp is a.job I never want again, especially a camp conducted by a bird like Peabody. He was a pip. [said he had a spindly little frame with an oversized head, but I hope I didn’t give you the idea he was the schol- arly invalid sort. Like fun! He didn’t eat much—too absent-mind- ed; but he was a human sai: on the to "A