Argosy, Vol. 117, No. 2 — page 57: what you’re looking at

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

THE SON OF THE RED GOD. The dusk was falling, and the shadows were growing deeper and heavier under the trees, though the tops still glowed in the clear golden light, when one of the guards rose, stretched, and walked over, lazily, to where En-ro sat. He examined the white man’s bonds with care, then loosened those on his wrists. Another negro came forward, carrying a lump of meat, some berries, and a few nuts, which he laid down by En-ro, the two then drawing back three or four steps, still keep- ing their eyes on the prisoner. The Carver of Tusks began to eat, when his eye was caught by a faint movement in the forest, behind the backs of his four guards. He watched intently, and soon made out a huge, tawny head with gleaming eyes, that he knew for a lion’s. ** Snorr-m’rai-no!”’ he breathed, and even as the negroes whirled about the lion sprang. His great paws struck the nearest man to the earth, the warrior’s arms fling- ing out wildly and his ax whirling through the air to En-ro’s feet. The lion stood with his paws on his prey, looking about, his head thrown back, and in that instant another of the guards rushed in and struck the beast with his lance. The lion turned to meet the attack, and a furious battle followed, the three unhurt negroes assailing him on all sides, dashing in to strike and dashing away as the great cat whirled, while the guard whom he had struck down crawled away to safety. -En-ro seized the ax that lay beside him, with two blows cut the rawhide thongs that bound him, snatched flint and hammer- stone from his girdle, and frantically struck . and struck again, showers of sparks falling on the dry, wind-blown leaves that lay all. about, till a glow appeared among them. One eye on the fight, En-ro blew this to flame, then leaping upward with all his might he caught and tore from the pine a half-dead, resinous branch, and thrust it into the fire. The Red God bit into the dry wood, and in a few seconds it was blazing. Mean- while, the fight had gone against the ne- groes; the Fear That Walks the Night was too strong for them, and two lay dead, one torn half in two from side to side by a 207 single sweep of the razor-sharp claws, the other crumbled in a grotesque heap, his spine broken and his chest crushed by a blow of a giant paw that had caught him as he turned to run. And the third! Blind, a frightful welter of blood, he rolled on the ground, moaning and slobbering in agony, for a downward sweep of the lion’s paw had caught him on the forehead and had ripped and torn the skin and flesh and muscles from brow to knee, laying bare the bones and tearing his jaw from the socket. Him Snorr-m’rai-no seized, sinking his teeth in the wretch’s shoulder and flinging the doomed man over his back, to carry him off. At that moment En-ro, ax in his right hand and flaming branch in his left, leaped’ before the lion and with one sure, swift stroke drove the brand over the huge beast’s eye. Roaring with pain, the lion dropped the negro and turned to meet this new attack. He crouched for an instant, every muscle tense, then sprang at En-ro, who met the leap, drove the still blazing branch far down the lion’s throat, and leaped aside. The lion, furious with rage and torture, dropped to the ground and placed one paw on the branch to tear it from his throat, and En-ro seized that instant. Whirling the great stone ax aloft with both hands, he leaped forward and brought it down with all his might full on the lion’s head. Driven by the strongest man in all the tribe of the Ta-an, the sharp flint*edge shore through flesh and bone—and the fight was over. * En-ro turned to where the Red God was devouring the dry leaves and branches, tore a green limb from a near-by oak, and set himself to beat the Red God to death, even as he had slain Snorr-m’rai-no. The Red God had grown fast during the fight, and En-ro werked furiously, beating out the little licking tongues that flickered and grew and spread, buat last it was done and the forest was safe. En-ro wiped the sweat from his face with . his forearm and stood panting heavily, looking over the burned space to where lay Snorr-m’rai-no, dead among the dead ne- groes. The wounded negro whom the lion : GoOmichdooks (C@