Adventure Magazine Cover — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

A way Dict ‘-* aS += Oe Ee Yin ae ee oe 20 Bat started and the pajé blinked at the roar of the explorer’s voice. Though blind, Senhor Tom was not deaf. He had caught the sneer in that priest’s tones, and he gave back the thunder for which the wizard had asked. In the silence that followed I spoke low but fast in Portuguese to the blind man. “Turn your head as if looking at all faces. Then hold your eyes as they are now, toward the chief,” I directed. “The senhorita is not in sight. Our goods are here on the ground before the chief. So are the gun and machete of the dead man. The chief is old and dried up. The one who talks is the medi- cine-man—an ugly brute.” Senhor Tom did as told, and did it well. I knew the pajé would ask soon what we wanted, and Senhor Tom must know the situation first. Every eye was on him as he turned his head, frowning as if he sought a face without finding it. All the Indians except the old Bat and his pajé stared un- winking at the great Tupahn. The chief sat like a post, and the medicine-man watched through lids narrower than before. When the yellow-haired man faced again toward the chief’s hammock he spoke out without awaiting a question. “Tupahn comes to his brother for that which is his own,” he announced. “Tu- pahn finds on the ground certain things stolen from him last night by an enemy.— He seeks, but does not see, his woman who was stolen by the same enemy. Tupahn asks Andirah to restore to -him the woman and his other property.” | There was another silence. I looked around again, studying faces. None ex- cept the pazé looked hostile, but none looked very friendly either. Then I no- ticed that the men nearest the chief, one of whom probably had been talking when we entered, were looking sidelong at their ruler. And four of them held spears whose points were blood-stained. | They were the killers of the man on the creek, They had laid their plunder before the chief, and their tale was not finished when we arrived. Yet no girl was here. A cold fear began to grow on me. The blood on those spear-points—was it all from _ the veins of 4 man? The shriveled lips of old Andirah opened. But before he could speak the pajé made answer, and the chief’s words died. “So Tupahn the Thunderstorm, killer of ee On Og ET Rae oe Sige Pe Pee Ae A eng Adventure - Black Hawk, was unable to keep his own woman? With two men to aid him, he is robbed of his goods—and a woman?” The sneer this time was plain. Senhor Tom’s face reddened. I bit my tongue to keep from making an angry answer. ‘“‘Tupahn was shot from behind,” barked Senhor Tom. ‘‘No man can guard himself against a snake that strikes from under a bush. His comrades were away in the forest. If Andirah thinks Tupahn weak, let him hear: ‘“‘Tupahn was shot in the head by a rifle. He was left without a canoe, so far from here that it took the men who shot him © eighteen hours to reach the place where he was found by the men of the Bat. Yet, struck down by a bullet and with no boat, Tupahn and his comrades started this morn-, ing, followed and found that snake, trailed also the men of Andirah, and are here before the noonday meal.”’ A mutter of astonishment passed among the listening Indians. Knowing nothing of our raft and our finding of the hidden canoe, they supposed us to have come through the bush. Some scowled as if they could hardly believe it. Others stared as if they thought us to be demons in the bodies of men. But the pazé refused to be impressed. “‘Tupahn could not do as he says unless he rode on the back of the storm itself,”’ he jeered. “And have Tupahn and his men lost their guns also? We see none.” The men with bloody spears nodded at this, and their eyes looked unpleasant. But Senhor Tom answered like a flash. “We do not insult our friend Andirah by bringing our guns into his maloca. And if you hint that Tupahn lies you speak false. The Tucunas know that Tupahn tells truth.” Now more men nodded; for Senhor Tom had a name for speaking straight. The old Bat himself looked pleased by the explorer’s words, and his lips opened again. But the blind man, not knowing that the chief was about to speak, roared out at the pajé. “And Tupahn comes to talk to Andirah, the chief—not to a dog-voiced pajé who snarls and growls. Perhaps the pajé thinks himself chief here? If not, why does he snatch the words from his ruler’s mouth?”’ This was straight talk in truth. The face of the priest seemed to bloat with rage, but he hesitated and shot a glance at Andirah. The mouth of the Bat set grimly. And this time he replied for himself: COMME NOIOL<S (E@) S|