Adventure Magazine, December 10, 1924 — page 132: what you’re looking at

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

0) melting down resin of the puna tree with butter, which made a very satisfactory pitch. Also word had come to me that some of the less wild Chima were hiding in the jungle fringe across the river, waiting to trade with me for iron arrow-heads and fish hooks. A half day’s work, not more; and I was in a hurry to get on upriver. But I waited over to see what would happen to this foolish Joselito; and it occurred to me, too, that my presence might be of some possible service to him. On the third day they came back, the pursuers and the pursued. But of the six who went only four came back, and of the four, two carried machete wounds. So the lad had fought. I was glad. But what availed his fighting, after all, since both he and the woman lay bound in the bottom of the canoe? Gabriel lolled in his throne under the thatch of his veranda which looked out on to the riverfront, and smiled as a spider must smile when its prey comes into its trap. I stood by, thinking that perhaps I might at least save his life for Joselito; for I knew the evil that lay beneath that fat smile. But Gabriel was not a fool. Joselito was his best worker, and he did not intend to lose that labor just yet. FOR a while he gloated over the ex two as they stood before him with 24 their hands bound in front of them, as is the custom of these Indians, and which, after all, is safe enough and very practical; for a man so bound may eat for himself without the trouble of loosening him, and a simple cord passing under his thigh pre- vents him from taking his teeth to the knots except when he is permitted to eat. The men of the sitio gathered round, half-fearful, half-curious , with the apathy of well bullied men. But they left a wide space between the prisoners and the river behind them. That is to say in other words, before the range of the pistol. Also the men who held them, held shrink- ingly at arms’ length. Very illuminating was their attitude on the customary method of justice at the sitio of Gabriel the angel. Gabriel said no word. Neither did the prisoners. Only the boy glared at him as a jaguar glares, without a flicker of the eye. To which Gabriel replied with a grin like a Adventure caiman, and_ pointed with his head at the beating post. This post was a diversion of his own thinking. Simply a post planted in the ground, and some six or eight feet high. A culprit to be “corrected”? was but lifted till his bound wrists passed over the top and there he stood then, free to move, to run round and round the post in his efforts to escape the lash of twisted tapir hide; thereby affording much amusement to the beholders. Truly a pretty sport. The creatures of the Zambo seized Joselito and hustled him swiftly to obey their lord’s order. He saw me looking at him, and grinned at me wide open. ‘‘He has stolen a canoe, and he has killed two men. It is the law,” he said. I remained silent. The man was cun- ning like the devil, and it was his right to administer justice. But Joselito made no sport for the crowd. He refused to run round the post as the whip tore the already ragged shirt from his back. Neither did he cry out. He leaned merely against the post with his head, taking a loose end on the thong that bound his hands between his teeth, and braced his back to the blows. The Indian who swung the whip remembered that this was the over- seer, the jefe, who had enforced upon him and upon his people the orders of the king, and he took joyful toll for all the labor that he had furnished without pay, till the Blanco’s knees began to waver and grow limp and the head and bound wrists began to slip slowly down the pole. Still came no cry from the lad. Truly had he found his spirit, the spirit of the tall fierce man from the north, his father. But from the woman came a _ sudden cry; a scream as of a tigre da montanha. With the scream she turned her head sud- denly and bit fiercely into the arm of the man who held her. Shouting on the name of God, the man let go of his grip; and she, screaming again, ran swiftly forward at Gabriel where he lolled back in his chair and gloated. As the hands of her man had been passed over the post of torture, so she threw her bound wrists over the head of Gabriel and sunk her teeth into the side of his neck, tearing at it as the tigre tears at the thick vein of a fat tapir. : With the startled shouts of surprize from the others mingled my own shout of CoMmicboolk A) CO =