Adventure, August 3, 1919 — page 185: what you’re looking at

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

la now. Grind it up, I suppose, as much as Possible, and stick ix i then been) Thank How much have you got there of the stuff?” “Qh, only about a handful, I thought that would be enough for me.” “Put that idea out of your head,” said the doctor sharply. ‘Now come along. [ll bunk you up on that bough and you grab the pods. About a quarter of a pound __ per gallon ought to be enough. If it were _aconite, it would knock ’em stiff at the first a gulp.” Into the gloom of the great tree’s interior disappeared the coat-tails of Warren-Dukely, _ Jooking like some monstrous white-breasted bird clumsily seeking to roost. ™ Vill AS A lover hastens to a tryst, so K 9) rose the sun and rising seemed to dally in the pleasance of his love. With the hot kiss upon the dew-tipped crest of the giant tree the two white men hustled the last of the empty pods into the latrine behind the hut. Just as a bird raucously announced the capture of his prey to his nearby mate, Warren-Dukely, o® peering through the fence, saw the first of the six young girls who daily brought his food, for to a layman or woman of the age of puberty was it worse than death to come within the orbit of the sacred magician’s sight, the husband of the Tree of Life, ; arbiter of fecundity in crops and women, _ mother of all, potent and terrible. _ Across the glade they came: lithe young _ forms of ebony moving lissomely from their a slender waists, bearing upon their immobile _ heads a slain goat, chickens and calabashes of sweet water, milk and eggs—for must the holy mate of the goddess be propitiated if fed sumptuously to avoid his great displeasure. “Better lie perdue, Doc,” warned Warren- - Dukely, “while I find out whether they _ know where you are or not—that’s if these _ children know.” At the entrance to the palisade the six oped and, having placed the loads upon ting. Dukely replied. One responded ting speech which was obligatory ssing a ed | on. Then in af bee £ ra et. a tres . ; ~~ 6, Ser ale The Tre heaven it’s sweetish. They probably won’t — notice it or rather like the sweet effect. 1 person. Then in and glided down the 175 glade as if well content to have completed their dangerous duties. “As I thought, old man,” reported Dukely, returning into the hut with the groceries. “They know that you’re here. And, by way of precaution, I instructed ’em to tell our invaluable friend, Yamala, that I had summoned you, my brother, to take my place after I had—entered into con- nubial felicity.” “D’you think they’ll swallow that?” inquired the little doctor, squatted upon an overturned calabash, stroking his beard. “Oh Lord, yes! You haven’t learned as I have the great prestige of a medicine- man. They will expect crops an’ what not as never before by the union of such a great white magician as I. God, so thoughtful, too! Jeven provide a successor as mighty!” “Why,” demanded the doctor with a calabash of milk in his hands, “don’t they cultivate the glade here near to the source of magic power? Seems queer.” “Oh no. They dare not do that. The island is sacred, as I’ve told you. They seem to look upon the ground here as a part of the body of the great mother and ‘re scared to hurt her feelings by scratchin’ her skin. That’s the idea as I’ve under- stood.” “H’m, homeopathic magic as usual.” Dukely sank down upon the camp-bed. “Phew! I’m fagged out. Sorry, old man,’ he added swiftly, “I’m forgettin’ my duties. You must be starving. There’s some cold goat in that calabash beside you an’ some cornbread of a sort—sourdough, y’know. When you've eaten, we'd better. have asleep. You must need it, by Jove— so’s we'll be fit for the—Diamond Sculls tonight,” he added with a chuckle that was less. harsh» ‘Oh, by the way, we'll need your gun, Doc; so let me have it, and I'll toddle along an’ hide it in a bough near where I know now the canoes will be. We can pick it up as we go.” “Good. And you may as well take these few cartridges in case they should take a fancy to them, eh?” As soon as he had gone with the-rifle and the belt, the little doctor, whose curi- osity had been excited by the first glimpse of the interior of the hut by daylight, rose to note the contents. At one end was the camp-bed with a bepatched mosquito-net; aun < a. > = * 4 a * ° in rt ate! Show comicbooks.com ea * * : pal in the middle, facing the door, wasa chair - .