Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 3 — page 195: what you’re looking at

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-— LAND OF THE SHADOW PEOPLE. make a weapon suitable to his great strength of arm. That done to his satisfac- tion, he joined Jim. “T hope that this momia can fight,’ he said to himself; and such was the mixture of childlike superstition with leonin bravery in the heart of Tomas that, though he made ready to face his wild foemen with nothing better than a club in his hands, he shivered and chose the far side of the en- trance opposite where Jaqui crouched with his ax. In the shadow: of the little barricade Nee-Nah crept to Arnold’s side. To his unutterable joy and thankfulness, she told him of the rescue of Katherine Jones from the Huachipairi village. “ But why did you come in here, Nee- Nah?” he asked. “ Why didn’t you let Jaqui come alone? We could have made a dash for it.” “Come for you, Ah-meer-e-can,” was her simple reply. ‘‘ Nee-Nah see you sit here so sad in light of moon. No could stay away.” What the girl had jearned from Kather- ine had*borne its fruit. There was a some- thing in her tones which Jim never had heard there before, something which thrilled his heart and gave him new hopes and courage. Heé groped out in the dark- ness and found her hand; and it did not flee his clasp. “IT love you, Nee-Nah! me, dear?” “Bout love, don’t know. Know Nee- Nah no can live more unless see you, Ah- meer-e-can. What you do to poor Nee- Nah?” A little sob attested the sincerity of her words. “Well, if that ain’t love, it’s something better. It’s just the way I feel, too, Nee- Nah—only I’ve felt it longer.” He gathered the girl to him, and she no longer resisted the pleading of his lips. ‘“‘Oh, Nee-Nah so glad—so glad!” she whispered. Her head lay on his shoulder. Out there in the shadows savage heafts might plot the lovers’ hideous death; but they could not mar the ‘happiness of that first long embrace. Among the panic-stricken Aguarunas the iron discipline of the curaca soon made Can you love iGitiz try Google itself felt. The howling chorus was quiet- ed, and the chief was able to get a tol- erably clear idea of what had caused the alarm. Another of his sentries had seen Nee-Nah make her dash from the wall, where she had been discovered by the pair who had pursued her to their deaths. | This man stood forth and told of a wild white maiden who had flown over the wall like a bird. He further swore that she was accompanied by a ghost. He had seen it running beside her, he declared, and the moonlight shone through its ribs. Instant rebuke descended upon the guardsman from the hard-headed curaca, who himself never had seen a ghost and did not believe in them. He. remembered at once the white girl and men who had fled from him on the day of the big jungle battle, and who had slain his pursuing warriors.: So much the better if she were in his compound. “We will go and talk to these ghosts,” he said; and like a good general, he sternly ordered his sentinels back to their posi- tions. Presently the dark space between two of the maloccas opposite the one which Jim occupied was choked with fighting men. Tomas saw them.. “Tf this is to be our last fight, senor, it shall at the least be a good one,” he said. “‘ Shoot the curacg if you can, senor.” Hardly had the words left the Aymara’s lips when the tall form of the curaca ad- vanced into the light with lifted hands. CHAPTER XXVII. JIM HOLDS HIS FORT. - HOOT, ‘senor, shoot!” exclaimed S Tomas, and groaned disgustedly at Jim’s answer that he could not harm a man who was asking a truce. Fearlessly the curaca walked half the dis- tance which separated him from the ma; tocca, then halted and raised his voice: - “Red dog ”—his usual appellation for the Aymara—‘ asks my white son why it is that he slays his Aguaruna brothers by night, and who is the white woman who has entered his matlocca.” oracoren ssi ATT CO