All-Story Weekly, Vol. 112, No. 1 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

10 fot stop his chant. important. He was crouched at the side of his fire ‘with his back to the girl, the better to con- centrate his mind on the mysteries of his craft, but it was as if he could see her through the back of his head. “ Great Serpent, - We the branches are Of a single tree.” The medicine was ail. If these words meant anything, didn’t they mean that he and this entygee-hotkee -—this maiden-white—were of a single race? And what even though they were not! At this point he was troubled by an omen, He saw a cock-robin fluster up from a’ thicket of myrtle, then fluster back again— chattering, calling. After that, the robin flew to the top of a tree and called again, At that, another bird appeared—demure, amused and tolerant—a lady bird this time. Not a hen-robin, though. The lady was a red bird, a dame of the cardinal tribe. She paused in the myrtle just long enough to tease the robin, then followed. Blue Otter smote his breast to drive out impurity. He sang his medicine song. He stirred and stirred the boiling herbs in the kettle. He was unmarried. As yet, he had looked on no maiden of his people with special favor. He tried not to think of the slender grace and whiteness of this girl’s arms as he aided her to get out of her queer and sodden raiment. The steam from the kettle was delicately perfumed. ‘The scented heat of it was like this girl’s breath. But he continued to pour into the boiling liquid the ancient petition that had been taught to him by old Blind Heron—he who knew everything and was possessed of great gifts—he who could wander through the wil- derness without the aid of eyes. When he considered that the medicine was strong enough he lifted the kettle from the fire with a loop of palmetto stem and carried it to the slough where he cooled it. When it was cooled, he brought it back to where the girl lay and laved her arms, her face, and her feet with it. The medi- cine he had already applied to these latter— ALL-STORY WEEKLY, | the split cactus pads —bad already begun to function. The swelling and much of the fever was gone. But, studying her, he saw that it might be a long time still before he would be able to leave her; if at all—hefore the big sleep claimed her. What shadows under her long eyelashes! She was as like as not to die. Not the wisest could ever tell. In all the time that he and his people had lived in contact with death—-the big sleep—no way had been found in which to ward it off. It came to young and old, to good and bad, to the weak and to the strong. Tommy Tigertail had been as strong as a steer, and yet hadn’t the lightning killed him here, in this camp, while he was fin- ishing his canoe? There in the slough, a little beyond where he, Blue Otter, had gone for water, the canoe still lay, almost as good as new, carved out of the all-but-im- perishable cypress, but haunted—haunted as this camp was haunted. And what even was the white man’s magic— His thoughts came to an automatic stop as he heard a sound from the ‘direction of the slough. He started, held his breath. He had heard the dip of a ghostly push- pole—the sort of pole that the Seminoles used to propel their cypress canoes through these unmapped waters. But who could be canoeing in this forbidden bit of the world? Was it the ghost—the solopathee— of Tommy Tigertail come back for that property of his? Then some slighter sound—the- groping touch of the pole against tree or shore, some hint of momentary uncertainty about the still invisible boatman—-gave Blue Otter the flash of illumination he was praying for; and he knew who the newcomer must be. Even so, there was but a sight decrease of the ghostliness of the visitor. At least, so a stranger or a white man would have found it during the few minutes that fol- lowed. Silently, the canoe came gliding to what had once been the landing-place of the haunted camp. A groping pole had touched the shore. The canoe sidled close, and he who had come in it stepped ashore. And COMICOOlkS. Com