Adventure Magazine Cover — page 159: what you’re looking at

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

‘They Always Run True to Form yet be ever alert in case there’s a chance of leaving,” the graybeard agreed, Intermittently in muffled tones the con- versation drifted along. Drifted aimlessly and just for company’s sake. The white men yawned, stretched, turned over and lay flat and dreamed. The blackness was - still and solid, the air as motionless as in a catacomb. One of the Kaffirs stirred and scratched, then the great hole was lifeless and at peace. ““Ha-ha-ha-ha! ““Ha-ha-ha!”’ With a ghastly, sickening start Kaffirs and white men were awake. Awake yet dead. Awake and frozen. Each man’s eyes were opened wide, and each man scarcely breathed. Im the still blackness each man’s heart sounded to him like Ha-ha-ha!”’ ~ a drum. “Fla-ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha!’’ A hollow, quavering, cackling voice laughed out once more. The laugh rose to the unseen roof and filled the ghostly cavern, then echoed and rolled back and back again. “‘Ha-ha-ha-ha!”’ Shivering the men rose to sit up and tried to force their eyes to pierce the gloom. The horrid laugh halted and the silence could be heard. “‘Ha-ha-ha-ha!” came within twenty - feet of the white men, a laugh as of one exulting at the sight of torture. ‘“‘Ha-ha-ha-ha!” With trembling hand Bertie reached out and touched a hand of Frank. Each tried to speak, yet each man’s tongue was tied, and each man’s face was wet. ““Ha-ha-ha-ha!”’ The silence fell again and on the silence rose the sound of creeping feet. Feet mov- ing as the whisper of a walk, Roving in cir- cles, moving far away. oe ha-ha-ha!”’ Then silence—absolute twittering, flutter- ing, jibbering, unholy silence. “What on earth was that, Frank?” Bertie muttered, and his voice shook off to nothingness. “By ——! I don’t know, Bertie. the sound had feet.” “Not human feet.” The graybeard crawled over toward M’Poine and touched him. The native jerked aside and yelped a terrified howl. But 153 His teeth clicked ina chattering chorus. ‘What was that, M’Poine?” For a moment the Kaffir struggled to form words and failed, then with an effort his ashen lips moved shakily. “Tagaul Tagati! M’Lungul” “Tagatil By Jove! I don’t blame you for thinking so, M’Poine. If that wasn’t witchcraft it was worse.” “Tagatil” the shaky lips assured mechan- ically. In the black darkness the old man shook his head. “Not witchcraft, perhaps,” he said quiet- ly, “but something that wasn’t human. And something that meant us no good.” “Tagan!” The harsh sound failed to come again, and Bertie dried his dripping face. The face was icy cold. “Tf that wasn’t human, Frank, how did it get in?” “T don’t know, Bertie. Or why.” “But it got in,” Bertie insisted, “and it’s gone out. And it did it in the dark, too.” “That’s no help to us, Bertie. light we'll never find a way unless we're shown.” The men lapsed into silence. The quak- ing Kaffirs, squatting together to gain ‘courage, were far too terrified even to mur- mur. Their bulging eyes, still fastened on the spot where the laugh last came from, in the darkness were frozen open. For hours the men sat silent and waiting the next uncertainty. Sleep for that night had vanished. Dark or. “Tt must be almost morning,” Bertie said . after a time interminable. ‘Feels like we’d been here about a thousand years.” “Tt must be morning I should think,”’ the old man agreed. “I’m stiff enough for it to be next week.” “So’m I, Frank. Let’s get a light.” The graybeard turned to where he thought the Kaffirs squatted. “M’Poine—” he began. “‘Ha-ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha!” came back in croaking, taunting mockery. Next instant the two white men lay flat on their backs and maddened Kaffirs charged clear over them and shrieked in frenzied terror. the darkness far away. “‘Ha-ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha!’”’ echoed hoarse- ly from the spot the Kaffirs left. “Ha- ha-ha-ha!”’ The laugh moved off in the direction the — -comicbooks Charged and plunged into — (E(0)