Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

QUEEN OF THE NIGHT. it a confirmation of his worst fears. Her eyes blazing, her chest heaving, she was poised waiting for one more word from the luckless sailor. And then, like a puma, she would spring. Herzog backed away into the sanctuary of the corner where the skipper and his mate were waiting. “ T’m beggin’ you, skipper,”’ he whispered hoarsely, “‘ call your man off. It ll be hor- rible, and your old ship will be a bos’n short. Can’t you warn the poor loon?” Disregarding Herzog, the skipper leaned toward Yarre’s table with a grim smile of expectancy tightening his mouth. The words of Juana rang softly and clearly in the breathless air. ‘“ And what do I do, senor, to give you this chance to be a witch doctor and per- form these miracles?” The answer was an electric shock im- pregnating the silent room. It brought a pallor to the wrinkled face of old Herzog; it brought the mate’s pale eyes bulging out- ward; it made the skipper open his mouth so that the puff of tobacco smoke lay dead in it. And finally it was enough to make the woman in the blue wrapper slink back again to the door of the kitchen. “Let me talk to you alone,” were the words that the boatswain uttered. ‘“‘ Up above—alone!”’ The spectators saw the luckless man point upstairs—with a devil-may-care wave of his tattooed hand. If their ears could not be believed, if he had spoken so softly that they had misunderstood, at least this ges- ture left no doubt as to his meaning. He had actually asked Juana to go upstairs! “ Madre de Dios!’ the girl cried voice- lessly. Yes, it was coming. Another scene—a puma lioness—and what would the unsus- pecting prey seem like, this third time that Juana was insulted? A bull? A fatted calf? More probably a shorn lamb! The sailor was absolutely naive, childlike, in his simple belief that he was inspiring love in the girl’s heart. “ Madre de Dios!’ Juana’s chest heaved and her eyes flashed like the green fire in the eyes of a wolf. It seemed as if a strange light had inflamed her: she was radiant with 658 anger. Some men might have called her superbly beautiful—if it were not for that drab cotton smock. Into that bosom of red cotton her hand crawled with the graceful undulation of a beautiful snake gliding into a bush of flowers. “Her dagger! I knew it!” the innkeeper ejaculated in a scarcely audible moan. Tom Yarre looked at the girl’s hand, and when he saw the heft of the dagger appear —a gleam of black’ bone against the soft gold of her skin—he burst out into a hearty, ringing laugh. ‘If you knew my real purpose in asking you to come above,” he cried, “ you would not be so ready to carve me up. Look here ”—he leaned forward across the table and began whispering to her—“‘I have something that will look better on you than this cotton reefer you’re wearing. jewels for your arms, and a comb for your hair that ‘Il look like a fore-royal in a breeze. If you want to wear a gown that will make you the belle of the fiesta to- night, you come with me. When I’m through with you, you'll make Cinderella look like a seacook.”’ “What lies do you spik to me?” the girl cried. ‘ Sailors do not bring silks to Juana —or jewels to their women. Sometimes, yes, men like you bring such stuff as drunk- en dreams are made of!” “The guests are coming to the fiesta, the music will start thrumming! Every one will dance—except the kitchen wench dragging around the decks onions and rot- ten meat and hardtack. Do you want to rule over them? Come above! I'll hoist a suit of sails on you that’s never been dreamed of in this port!” The boatswain caught the new light in Juana’s eye. “ I’ll make ’em crawl on the decks to you and kiss your feet.” “Tf you’re lying to me, senor—”’ “Tf I’m lying to you, bring your bowie knife along! Carve me to mince meat for your tamales! Bite your name in my neck! Yank out my tongue with your claws!” The little group in the dining room fo- cused their bulging eyes on Juana’s face. What they saw they could neither explain nor at first believe. There was a softening COMmiICLookKs I have - (E@