Adventure Magazine Cover — page 114: what you’re looking at

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

106 I told Billy, without any more palaver, that I was good for $20,000 for my share in the expedition. Where Frazy had gone I'd go! We recruited our whites from men we’d known, and arranged for them to meet us at Funchal and Las Palmas, where we picked them up some months later on our own schooner, Penguin, and sailed for juby. But in Las Palmas we had a farewell rough- house when our men got in a row that brought us the acquaintance of Baron Bertouche—known to the masses as Sid-el-Keleeb, a man who sponged on the whole world until he met Fieldmorre, who came near kicking him overboard. Well, when we reached Juby we found all hands present, except Véron, who sent a message that he would overtake us. Ten days later then, two hundred and fifty strong —one hundred of these being fighting Hausas trained by ourselves at the butts with rifle and machine gun—we hit the long trail. We found Ma-el-Einen all right, polite enough in his walled town, but kind of sore at us going any farther. Sabah, too, suddenly began to balk and get sullen for no reason we could see. And we got our first taste of the real desert when we picked up a dervish—a dirty, snake-swallowing, shrieking, blasphemous dervish—who gave our Hausas (half of ’em were Mohammedans; half were rank pagan) a real thrill. After we'd gone about five days’ march into the desert sickness began to break out. First it hit the dromedaries. Then the men caught it. When they began to cash in, the Hausas showed signs of funk. We couldn’t figure it out. One day as I was talking it over with Fieldmorre a spasm took him and myself at the same moment. “Fieldy,” said I, “‘we’ve both got it.” We loaded up immediately with laudanum; and the next thing I remembered— Oh, ——, I don’t remember anything. We came to ten days later in wicker baskets slung from dromedaries. The caravan was still intact. Véron had succeeded in joining us, after escaping from Tuaregs. If he hadn’t joined us, knows what would have happened. He caught on right away that the dervish had been slowly poisoning the whole outfit, and punching holes in the water- skins. “What—’ I began. “Shot ’m—?pronto,”’ says Billy. But that didn’t seem to settle things either, be- cause he had put the fear of —— into the lot of the men. ‘The morale was kind of shaken. Irritation and complaining began to break out. We all got the infection. Some of us believed Véron was double-crossing us in the interests of France; others thought Sabah’s actions suspicious; and an undercurrent of resent- ment was soon threatening to disrupt us. Only one thing could have saved us. And it happened. Camp was jumped at dawn by a whirlwind of Tuaregs. We fell back into a square and gave ’em ——, beating them off after a good sharp scrap. We knew now our Hausas could fight! But we knew, too—and every passing hour confirmed it—that the unknown reaches before us héld unguessed dangers and swarmed with terrible fighters. Adventure And I couldn’t forget the Mahdi! HE action put the Hausas in good spirits, and next day we marched on. In the morning camp was jumped again, and treachery broke out—the Mohammedans turning against us Christians, and the pagans uncertain of us both. It was a of a mess. The Tuaregs rode clean over us twice while we fought for the machine guns. eee says I to myself, ‘this 1s the end of the trail.” But blamed if we didn’t come up smiling, though we were hit hard. Only seventy Hausas were left fit. Four of the whites had been killed; two more were serious!y wounded; and all of us had something to show. On top of that we found the waterskins had been slit. It was enough to take the guts out of any man, but the only one to show yellow was Sabah. Tt was ten days to the next water, and he wanted to turn back. We marched away in the dark. The days that followed we went through -——. A lot more of the men pegged out. At last when we were just on the ragged edge we found water and a forest. We camped for several days to get back our strength and morale. And here Famitty first found out our Hausas’ fetish. Snakes! That’s straight. The snake was their totem, just as the bear and wolf are totems of some of the Indians. Well, as soon as we struck that ——— forest we hit trouble again. Poison darts. They got a lot of us, and poor Famitty cashed in. It began to look as if we couldn’t push on any farther. One day a message was shot into camp trom Baranindanan, Sultan of Melle, telling us to beat it or take the consequences. Fat chance of us quitting at that point! Well, we reached a small walled village. and Véron went forward to investigate. That was the last we saw of Véron! We made sure of camp that night—every possi- ble precaution. I made my rounds just before dawn. As I was turning in one of the guards pointed out a monitor in the shadow. I took a step forward to have a better look at the big lizard—and I got mine! When I woke up it was broad daylight; I was in a sack, shoved in a basket, hanging from the back of a dromedary. If you’d ever been in the hands of the Mahdi, you'd know I felt sick. But they treated me decently enough, and alter five days we arrived at Melle. They let me rest and clean up a bit, then they brought me to the palace—into the ivory room where Nubian slaves stood on guard. There was a kind of a throne at one end, with a little dark man sitting there with a hood on his head. One look and I recognized the rotten woman-flogger— Gandy! The swine actually put himself out to please me. Showed me about the palace—his gardens—a won- derful pool. This pool was full of pythons, and he called it the Sacred House of the Snake. “T don’t like snakes!” said I. “Prejudice,” says he with a leer. You’ll soon get used to ’em.” “That's all. (© 3} (Cc DOOKS (© 3}