Adventure Magazine Cover — page 98: what you’re looking at

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

Q2 some fluff-like stuff in the hole, brought out a short stick not unlike a drumstick and set one point of it on the fluff in the hole and put his two palms together with the stick between them and briskly twirled it. In a little while the fluff began to smoke and then glow. He stopped rubbing the stick and picked up the fluff and blew on it until it burst into flame. He took the burn- ing fluff over to the first pile of wood,-and by blowing and working the wood that pile caught fire. When it was burning well he went to the next until that caught and became aflame and so forth until the last and all were burn- ing brightly. He brought some more wood and piled it on each separate fire until they were cooking-size fires instead of morning hand-warming ones. At last he seemed satisfied, for he lay down on his back by the extended fire on the right of the diagram; and, humming and mumbling to himself, he went into a com- plete trance. The sun had long since passed its meridian and was now half-way into the noontide with a trace of the long shadows that greet the night. The other hundreds of witch-doctors who had begun so blithely to try to unravel the mystery of the king’s death had long since stopped their per- formances from lack of attention and were sitting about with sullen and indifferent looks on their face. The silence was an ex- pectant silence which grew tense as the hours passed with Kos lying there in his trance. The sun’s rim dipped, the stars rushed out and at one stride came the dark, dark night. The fires had burned down to ash, and the red-hot coals glowed blood-red be- hind their coating of white ash. A fire col- lapsed and the crowd shivered. Kos came to with a long sigh, and the crowd of people sighed with him. He looked at the first fire intently and got up excitedly and ran from fire to fire, peering at each one keenly. He reached the first one again. Here he shut his eyes and rubbed his fingers over them. The crowd leaned forward and held its breath., He peered down at the fire and again shut his eyes and rubbed them as if not believing what he saw there. Once again he gazed into the heart of the dying fire and then straightened up and spoke to the people. The turkey-gobbler voice was gone for the time being. He was the arch priest of his calling as in days gone by: Adventure “The fires of today and tonight have burned brightly, and like a man who lives they too must die but leave a story of what has been done and what they have seen. A fire is brother to a fire and a man; for when a man is going to do anything he sits by the fire and talks to it. “The fire knows you. the fire? Kos is brother to the fire. Do you know It will tell him things, but it will not tell you who killed our father, the king. “What does the fire say? An umfaz (woman) an indoda?) (man). An umfan (boy)? Our father was killed by three people.” The crowd stirred with interest and anger. “One is,”’.continued Kos, “‘a tall man, the other is an intombi (girl) and the last is the man who is very strong and “ “Uva Xoxal” (You lie!) a masterful voice rang out. Every one turned in the direction from which the voice came, and there over the spot where the king was buried stood a form with folded arms. Under the starlit night large horns could be seen on its head. For a space of seventy-two heart-beats the si- lence was crushing. A woman wailed sud- denly and every one got up in a panic. “Hlani pantsi!” (sit on the ground) the form commanded. The crowd shuffled uneasily. “Hialan!’’ (Sit down!) the form thun- dered; and the crowd sat down, uneasily swallowing many swallows and looking into each others’ faces questioningly with hands over their mouths. And then the form strode forward, and, kicking one of the fires and scattering sparks in every direction, spoke in a grand and patronizing voice: “Are you afraid? Be not afraid; I am your brother. Have you ever heard a fire speak?” The crowd mumbled dissent. “Has the fire got hands?” And the crowd snickered. “To all the witch-doctors here say I, ‘Let the fires be built up.’ ” And they fell over each other in order to obey his command. The fires blazed up very quickly after they had been replenished. The tall man walked around the fires, looking very awe- inspiring with the horns on his head and his bold cast of face. He stopped suddenly, took away from an umfan (boy) a knobkerrie and called to CORNICLOOOKS b (C@