Adventure Magazine Cover, April 3, 1918 — page 86: what you’re looking at

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

84 and puffed cloudily. He was apparently deep in thought. Then at last he spoke. ‘We shall have to get her off,” he said. Unfortunately the Zaire on this trip was carrying a skeleton crew. There were a dozen Housas, a few deck hands, a native engineer, also half a dozen villagers who had begged a passage to Youkombi. Moreover, part of the Zaire lay in deep water so that it was impossible to wade. Bones rang the engines first to stop and then to astern, but the Zaire was firmly fixed. “But presently the river will rise,” he said to Yoka confidently, ‘“‘and the water will wash away the sand.” Yoka scratched his chin. “TY think the waters are going down, lord,” he said, “‘for the river was in flood six days ago and there have been no rains.” “You are a silly old ass,” said the an- noyed Bones. He scanned the horizon for a sign of a village, though he might have known that there was none, for he had passed through the lake fifty times. Bones’ motto, how- ever, was that “you never know,” and such» was his optimistic spirit that he, at any rate, would not have been surprised to have dis- covered a fairly large-sized township, equipped with, amongst other things, a complete dredging plant, had established itself since his last visit. | There was only one thing todo. Bones ordered the canoe to be launched, and with four paddlers and one Housa as an escort he made his way to the nearest village which, as it happened, was situated on the big middle island that lay athwart the northern end of the lake. There was, as he knew, a footpath close to the river, and he started off on his two-mile tramp to Youkombi, the village in question. A mile from the point of his departure the path divided, for here the land forms a promontory. One path naturally followed the water, but the other cut straight across the neck of the salient and formed a short way for such people as did not fear ghosts. Bones took the nearer path, and in conse- quence he did not see the two watchers who squatted by the side of the water only waiting for a glimpse of the Zaire to fly back with their discovery to Youkombi. It also happened that when he reached the ~ Adventure point where the paths were reunited, in- stead of following the one broad track that leads to the village, he followed the forest path which took him away to the left, for he was anxious to see for himself whether certain allegations against the people of the Youkombi were well founded. Though he was not conscious of the fact, here he missed the second group of watchers who, as a matter of precaution, had been placed on the road half a mile from the village. Bones searched diligently and patiently, for in all matters of strict and serious duty Bones was conscientious to a fault. His search was well rewarded, for under a dwarf mimosa and almost hidden by the rank foliage which smothered the ground he discovered a bundle wrapped in native cloth and containing certain little wooden pots of native manufacture which were filled with vari-colored clay. There was red and green and vivid orange, blue and brown. Also there wasa necklace of human teeth, a mask of feathers and a strange-looking ivory instrument shaped rather like a tuning-fork. . BONES met no villager, and it was ae extremely unlikely that he would, ' because the whole of Youkombi was sitting in wrapt silence watching a man fantastically hued with great white rings painted ’round his eyes and blue and green stripes of ocher running across his shrunken breast. They would have been interested in Buluta under any circumstances, for his name was a household word from the terri- tory of the Great King to the villages by the sea. But what added fascination to his own personality was the fact that he was at that moment engaged, under the pro- fessional inspection of fifty witch-doctors, in curing the first wife of the headman of the Youkombi. The cure was a simple business. She lay, spread-eagled, on the ground, ankles and wrists attached by stout rawhide thongs to little sticks which had been driven in the ground and he was letting out the nine and nine devils with which she was possessed, from time to time lecturing as an ana- tomical professor to his fascinated audience. “Oh, people and wise ones, thus you see my magic,” he said, brandishing his little knife and rubbing his nose with the back of his lean hand, “‘because of the wonderful things I do now Sandi would hate me and COnniclooo SCO)