Adventure Magazine Cover — page 31: what you’re looking at

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

PS | - Tupahn the Thunderstorm Around the maloca came the whole tribe of the people of the Bat. At their head marched the medicine-man. And they were coming straight toward us. VItl CROUCHING behind a tree, we waited. We saw that. the coming of the tribe was not an attack on us; saw that no- body bore weapons in a threatening man- ner, though all walked quietly and there was no shouting or laughter; saw that no- body, indeed, seemed to know we were there. And then we saw something else—that in the middle of a knot of armed men just be- hind the pajé traveled a thing that.seemed not be be human. Just what is was we could not tell at first, for we were lying low and could not see well. But its head rose more than a foot above those of the Indians, and it was the head of a great bat—a hideous bloodsucking vampire, bigger than a man. Its mouth was partly open, red as blood, with wicked teeth grin- ning like those of demon of the great pit, and its eyes bulged as if glaring around for prey. no fear of the awful thing, marching on as coolly as if it were not there at all. Wondering, ready for anything, but keep- ing ‘silent, we watched the thing and its escort approach. But they did not meet us. Not more than ten feet away from us they passed into the forest, giving no glance in our direction. The whole troop went by and was gone. : “Did yousee that thing?” Pedro whispered. T nodded. When it passed close to us I had learned what it was. “A big mask of bark-cloth and sticks and dye, worn on some one’s shoulders,” I mut- tered. “What do you make of it?” “This: No white face was among those passing by, and I believe the captive is in- side that bat-mask. That sneaking priest is doing devil’s work. Come.” He crept away toward the place where the Indians had entered the forest. There we found a path—a plain, wide path which we had not found before because we had turned short of it. Peering along it, we found it empty. The crowd had gone around a bend. We did not enter the ath. Instead, we worked along beside it, keeping always be- ray wet i second time and were gone. Yet the Tucunas around it showed - hind trees? Soon we heard a single voice talking—a growling voice which seemed to be making a short speech, but which did not speak loudly enough for us to make out the words. We knew the snarling tones to be those of the priest. ° Suddenly Pedro, a few feet ahead of me, sank low. I dropped. A slight rustle sounded at our right, and through the leaves I glimpsed the Indians trooping back to their maloca. As silently as they had gone into the forest, they passed by us for the And this time neither priest nor bat-head marched among them. When the last Tucuna had disappeared we arose and advanced swiftly toward the place where we had heard that voice. Only two or three rods farther on we found an- other clearing and another house. Both the open space and the hut in it were small; but the House was built in the same style as the maloca—square-cornered, and thickly thatched from ground to peak. In it we could see no door. Nothing else stood in the clearing, and nobody was in sight. To all appearances, the place was bare of life. Yet we were sure that the pajé, at least, was in that house. . Quietly we stole all around the little circle of trees, seeking the door. But we did not find it. The thatch walls seemed unbroken everywhere. Whispering together, we decided on a ruse. We wanted to look into that hut without letting the priest know of it. our only chance to do so was to find the door; for the place was so small that any attempt to cut into the walls, as we had intended to do at the maloca, would be heard inside. So we separated, each finding a position where he could watch one side and one end at the same time. Then Pedro gave the wail of an owl. An owl wailing in broad day was queer enough to make even a wizard look around But ~ him; but my partner gave the call twice to © make sure it was heard. A long minute passed befote any response came. ‘Then, at the corner nearest me, a black crack opened. Through it came the head of the medicine-man, squinting in the sunglare and peering around the open space. He looked even more ugly than usual, and I suspected that he thought some youth from the maloca might be joking with him. But he did not come out to investigate. GComichbooks mes lat ee e pe < . re a 2a oes ee (E(@) | , > ) oe st + = pees