The Argosy, Vol. 81, No. 4 — page 100: what you’re looking at

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

666 Fleet as a deer, Jolly George ran from the spot of contamination. Up the beach to the low end of the cliff he went and leaped to the shining white wal. Sweat started at every pore. Beating his breast as he ran, he moaned repeatedly: “Lord! Lord! An’ I'll be dead, too!”’ CHAPTER II. ANOTHER JULIET. ROM the inland side of the cliff Jolly George could view a goodly reach of Big Twin Island, well wooded along the edges with luxuriant palms that formed a frame for an assortment of tree-tufted little hills sloping here and there into rolling meadow. Just beyond the last rise of land he knew was the Settlement of the servants and laborers of the big house. Far away on the western point was the big house itself. Be- tween these sections, he knew, had lately been brewing rancor and mischief and secret doings too complex for his simple mind to understand. Until to-day this mystery had gnawed at his brain ceaselessly; but now he could think onty of the uncanny touch of the dead man’s naked foot against his own. The faster he ran the faster it seemed to him the chill of death spread through his every nerve. In about ten minutes he arrived gasping before a small one-story building of cement, that was a hut rather than a house. Dense tree and shrub-growth smothered it in on all sides. The crooked path that led to the low, wide door was so thickly spread with vines and sprouting grass that one could _ easily guess it was not in frequent use. Frantically Jolly George hammered the door with his palms, calling shrilly: “Mother Juliet! Mother Juliet! me! I’m gone to death!” Slowly the wide door was swung open, re- vealing a gloom within the hut black as night. The shadow of foliage in which Mother Juliet’s abode nestled was almost like broad dayght compared to the dark- ness inside the door. Jolly George gazed with expectant and impatient eyes until the door should be wide open. A dim streak of light began to ap- pear. It was down near the ground, wav- ing from side to side as it advanced toward him, Save THE ARGOSY. As the streak of light reached the thresh- old it suddenly rose higher, and then the light faded as a phosphorescent gleam he- fore the day. At sight of a huge snake of brilliant color the boy stopped, riveted where he stood. The rhythmic swaying of the reptile’s toad- like head staggered his senses. He felt that the circle of the snake’s swing was growing wider and wider, coming nearer and nearer to him. Se He tried to raise his arms—to appeal for mercy to Mother Juliet. But his tongue gagged his throat; and his hands, as he vainly strove to lift them, clutched at his belt in an uncontrollable paroxysm. A heavy, sullen, sleepy voice broke upon his ears from the darkness of the hut, ask- ing: | “Who are you, skulker, that comes steal- ing in on Mother Juliet? You wish for me to wrap this snake round you and round to suck your heart’s blood out? Pigeon’s - blood is good for my work and so is rat’s blood, but best of all is—” “No, no, no!” the boy broke in hysteri- cally, and added, sobbing: “Jolly George is death-touched already. You got to charm me, Mother Juliet, an’ I'll catch pigeons and rats for you all you like. Only make haste, ’cos I’m gone.” The boy sank to the ground and writhed in misery there, the while in floods of tears he moaned the same words over and. over again. He did not see the snake vanish abruptly within the hut as if snatched by an invisible hand. Nor was he conscious of the fact that Mother Juliet was pottering about in there, fingering bottles and jars as she crooned a steady, solemn flow of words that only a voodoo seeress like herself could pre- sume to interpret. Still crooning, she appeared in the door- way, a squat, stoutish negress, of an age somewhere under fifty. Her dress was all of yellow satin, faded and soiled, which hung about her in baggy folds. On her head was a silk turban, of scarlet and black, ornamented with mock brilliants set in brass and silver. From her ears de- pended two enormous rings of a coppery hue that flashed as she shook her head and blinked at the light of day with large owl- like eyes. When at length she made out the figure of Jolly George, shuddering in the under- growth a few yards off, her thick lips spread Gomichbooks (C@)