Adventure Magazine Cover — page 128: what you’re looking at

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

126 “Tamin, toongu.. Fat and sweet,” said Morbora, smacking his lips. “Can do now.”’ The queen and her unfortunate subjects were put into a canteen and stewed and brewed over a hot fire of dry grass for long after the water boiled. Then the black buried it in sand to cool slowly. “Bimeby he all right,” he said affably. “Bimeby you give me shirshi. Bimeby, suppose I belong along you, you give me suttongo.”’ “Blast your impudence,”’ said Reynolds. “If that stuff does any harm to him I[’ll skin you before we let the ants get you. If it cures him you can shave anything I’ve got. Or can get for you.” Morbora grinned again. He was happy. Sure of his cure. The white men in his debt. Dango forgotten—at least tempo- rarily. He seemed suddenly alert. He sat up, his ugly head cocked to one side, his wide nostrils slowly expanding and contracting as he sniffed. “He looks like a pointing setter,” Cole. “‘There’s something in the wind, all right,”’ answered Reynolds, ‘‘and he’s scented it.” ““Komorobory. Molle.” said Morbora in a low voice. Reynolds looked puzzled. “What?” he asked. “Kollef Kollel Hush Komorobory molle. Many men are near. Plenty men—black fella close up.” “You smell?” “Pul komorobory. I smell.” He pointed west and began to crawl be- tween the clumps to where they could see the crags. It was plain that he was not anxious to attract the attention of the men he had smelled out. The three of them crouched flat between two clumps and watched, Morbora’seyes giving the direction. Long, hot minutes passed; then black fig- ures appeared on the opposite side of the clear space of sand hubbed by the lava crags. More and more came. Men and women both, Morbora told them, long before they could distinguish anything but upright biped forms. “They come along this mangan—moun- tain—two-three time every year,” he said. “What for they come?” Morbora seemed incapable of putting the reason into English nor could Reynolds follow his native words. d) said Adventure “He keeps on saying something about ballan and baggoro. Ballan’s moon and baggoro means the liver of a snake. They come here at a certain time of the moon to eat snakes’ livers, maybe. I don’t imagine Morbora knows much about their customs. He’s scared pink of ’em though. Says they’re ¢algoro men and that means cannibals. Not that he’s any better. If we weren’t along he’d have been eating Dango before this.”’ IT LOOKED as if the tribe that was appearing out of the desert were : *4 coming to the crags as to a rendez- vous where some special ritual was regularly performed. They came out of the grass in twos and threes, tall men and saggy-breast- ed women bent under burdens of from two to five baskets, a long sharp stick in one hand and many of them with a lighted, slow-burning brand in the other. The heads of children showed from out of some of the baskets, larger ones were perched on the shoulders of their mothers. The men carried only their weapons, spears, clubs and boomerangs. There were no shields visible. It was a peaceful pil- grimage and they advanced as if they were on their own exclusive territory without fear of interruption. Every man _ was bearded, some were so woolly that they almost seemed clothed in close fitting jer- kins of fur. “There’s going to be something doing in a minute or two,” said Reynolds. “If the gang’s asleep in the cave they’re likely to get wiped out. Suits our book.” “We can’t warn them, anyway,” an- swered Cole. ‘The blacks ’ud make us look like porcupines with their spears first move we made.” “Who wants to warn ’em? It’s their lookout. I wouldn’t tip ’em off if I could.” Cole wondered whether ke would. Spec- ulation was idle. The blacks cut that knot by some discovery that threw the fore- most into commotion and soon spread among the rest. This was apparently the finding the evidence of invasion, either from the shattered appearance of the rock or from signs easily visible to their keen senses. The women were grouped in the back ground while the men gathered together in council of war before they began to approach the mouth of the big cave in furtive fashion. MICLOOOK immediately. C@ in