A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, April 1950 — page 117: what you’re looking at

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

THE LITTLE DOLL DIED 17 then walked out under the moon, just the three of us—Mrs. Peabody, McCoy and I—Mrs. Peabody carrying the little wooden box. Jenny Lou had long since gone beyond tears. She knelt by, silently praying, while I mumbled the funeral serv- ice and McCoy made four scoops with the shovel. : When it was done, the relief was terrific. The wornan’s face was calm, and a weight of tons seemed released from the Irish- man’s shoulders. He mopped his forehead with a wrist, and put aside the shovel, and turned to the woman, simply. “You'll let me look after you? As he— would have wanted? You'll come home with me now, Jenny Lou?” “Yes, Terry,” she said softly. “I haven’t been fair to you, either. If you want me— as soon as we can leave Morne Noir— I’ll marry you.” Looking back, I saw them standing over that sad little grave. Hand in hand. I walked back into the stockade, and up in the black mountains the voodoo drums were pounding. But the Cacos had been beaten, and the thing was over. Wilfred Peabody had had a Christian burial. CHAPTER 9 Last Baptism O THEY were married, and every- q oné lived happily ever after? Well, I’ll tell you about the wedding. No story 1s complete without a wedding, it seems, and to finish this one off right [’ll have to tell you about this one. But first, we weren’t able to get out of Morne Noir for some weeks yet. Charle- magne was wild about that Caco defeat, and he harried the district with snipers and sent bullets into the stockade»every chance. But the atmosphere was better around Morne Noir. You know, it was. As it turned out afterward, the back of the Caco revolt had been broken by that battle—if the records don’t give my out- fit the credit for it, it’s maybe because we didn’t deserve the credit—anyway, that zombie scare was over. The Great White Doctor’s return, coming back as he did, turned the trick. \ Then Charlemagne was nipped off by an informer. That ended the war. As a mony was as usual, charter in the history of the U. S. Marines that one 1s a zim-blinger and worth re- counting. A reward was put up for the Caco leader, and for twenty-five hundred bucks a Haitian turncoat offered to lead a Marine squad to the bandit’s secret camp. A Marine captain and six men dis- guised themselves with rags and burnt cork to look like Negroes, and sneaked through the enemy line at night and shot Charlemagne. It happened not far from Cap-Haitian, and if you think it didn’t take nerve, tell it to the Marines. Where but Haiti could a thing like that have hap- pened? Boe And now the wedding. As usual, with the war having petered out, a detachment arrived to relieve Morne Noir. We were bloody glad to get out of there, and no- body could have been gladder than Jenny Louise Peabody and big Terrence McCoy. Plans were set for the church in Cape Haiti—somewhat reluctantly I’d consent to be best man and make the arrangements. The story got there ahead of us, and what with the revolt being broken and all, things were making for quite a shebang. The boys in my outfit were the only ones in- | vited, but half the town seemed on hand, and we had a time keeping them out of the © church. There was plenty of flags and? flowers and rum. Out in the street the Negroes were staging a carnival bam- boche. : : Because a boat was leaving for the States at midnight and there wasn’t time to wait over, McCoy and I wangled the priest’s consent for the ceremony at ten P.M. Rain was falling, but it didn’t douse the celebration in the street—only muffled the dance-drums a little—and in the church the candles were right pretty. ; So was Jenny Louise coming down the aisle in some Haitian lace she’d got some- where, the top sergeant escorting her and trying not to look as plastered as he was; and so was McCoy, if I may say so, all duked up in a clean white suit, rose in buttonhole, chin out handsome. He got a big hand from the leathernecks in the pews until I snapped an order to remind them in church there wasn’t any cheering. I’d been afraid of trouble because of all the rum, but it went off well. The cere- then I snapped the ecbhooks.com