Adventure Magazine Cover — page 106: what you’re looking at

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

Yee Ak, aN SNOPES Oe aie stesye iy ete 100 whites while very young. He had lived with the Indians for several years and was - thought highly of by both Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. Scissors truthfully answered | that Gruard was serving as guide and scout for General Crook’s forces. Instead of showing any resentment Crazy Horse said: “He was a good man. I would like to see him and call him Kola again. Shunca-luta _ has his mystery glass and is seated by his wolf-robe. What does his medicine tell him?” Sorrel Horse, who had been chagrined at the lack of respectful attention, became busy immediately. He opened a roll of red cotton cloth and from a wad of eagle-down gently picked up a small, round stone and whispered to it and then held it to his ear for nearly a minute. Carefully replacing the sacred stone on the eagle-down he boasted: ‘“‘Shunca-luta’s medicine is very strong. It has teeth like the gray wolf. It will bite the medicine of Two Knives Talking into many pieces.” With the aborigine’s love for the dramatic the spectators leaned forward, the copper - faces revealing their rapt attention. No duel could compare with a duel between rival medicines. Crazy Horse, too, was intensely interested; and Shunca-luta was at his best when demonstrating his wizardry before an appreciative audience. After glancing haughtily about he closed his eyes for a moment as if summoning spirit strength, then swiftly extended a hand high above his head and plucked a deck of playing cards from the air. A sibilant hiss of approval rewarded his sleight-of-hand. Holding the cards face down for a moment he carelessly threw them on the ground within reach of Scissors. Then, apparently without looking at the white man, re- quested— “Let Two Knives Talking pick out one if his medicine is not asleep.”’ Scissors selected a card and almost im- mediately Shunca-luta brought the tips of his index fingers and his thumbs together to form the shape of a diamond and an- nounced— “Squaw.” Scissors held up the card so all might see it was the queen of diamonds. Several other cards were “read” in a like manner. Then the medicine-man scooped them up and made a motion of tossing them into the _ * Adventure air, and they were gone and his hand was empty. es “For an Indian he’s clever with cards,” Scissors said in English for. Dinsdale’ S benefit. During the second his gaze was off the medicine-man the cards dropped before him as if falling from the sky.. A murmur of approval warned Scissors he must be on his mettle. He tore a sheet of paper from his pad and did something to it with his scissors. Folding the paper he requested Crazy Horse to hold it in his left hand. The chief hesitated for a moment, then accepted the paper and clinched it tightly to make sure it did not vanish. Scissors then proceeded to pick up the cards and to shuffle them with a dexterity that would have won the hearty admiration of San Juan Joe or French Curly. Next he extended his two hands, the deck in his left palm, and asked the medicine- man to look at the top card, to announce it and then cut the deck, placing the cut in the right palm and burying it with the remainder of the pack. Sorrel Horse un- willingly complied, his common sense warn- ing him his rival would not embark on any- thing that was destined to be a failure. He held up the three of hearts and buried it in Scissors’ right palm with a shallow cut. Even as his hand was completing the cut Scissors asked him to turn up the top card. It was the three of hearts. Sorrel Horse was sullen of face and endeavored to balk the white man’s skill by cutting the deck to the left hand before Scissors: could speak. Then with a grin of triumph he turned up the top card only to grunt in dis- gust on beholding again the card he had tried to bury. “Don’t ever ask me to play poker,” tered Dinsdale. ‘“‘They never saw any one reverse the cut with one hand,” mumbled Scissors. ‘‘And I’m wakan.” As he spoke he began shooting the cards back and forth until they seemed to fly from hand to hand of their own voli- tion, and finished by opening them in a big fan. With a flourish he shoved them toward Crazy Horse and requested him to draw one. The chief scowled and seemed disinclined to participate in the demonstra- tion. But the warriors were like children in their eagerness to behold the completion of the mystery, and he darted his fingers toward an end of the fan. mut- (EOMMICLOOOLKS |