Argosy, Vol. 117, No. 2 — page 65: 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. maples, and the yellow of the birch. A birch sapling, no larger than a man’s arm, grew near by, and En-ro saw how its leaves flamed against the dark green of the pine that stood behind it. “Tt is the autumn rain,” he thought, “that ‘takes the leaves from the trees. Three days will it rain!” . And he was dis- gusted and annoyed at the prospect of the discomfort that awaited him. He rose, shook himself, and stretched, for he was cramped from squatting so long, then took his way to the shelter of the great pine, whose branches grew low to the ground. By now the rain was falling steadily, with a pattering sound, and the sky was dark; it was growing dusk in the forest. Stronger and stronger fell the rain, and En-ro wrap- ped himself in a skin and lay down under the tree, resolved to be comfortable as long as he might—until the rain should pene- trate the fronds of his shelter and bring the inevitable drenching. All that night it rained, not in torrents, not with lightning and thunder, but in a steady, relentless, swishing downpour that penetrated and drenched and saturated everything, so that En-ro awoke chilled and shivering. As he squatted, tearing a piece of the fawn for his breakfast, one of Meng’s war- riors passed through the open space, and En-ro could see that he was miserable, chilled to the bone, his garment of skin sod- den and clammy. By some association of ideas a vague thought flashed into his mind, to be instantly seized and developed. Some- what after this fashion ran his reasoning: “Tem, the water, makes us cold and wet; the Red God makes-us warm. Tem fights the Red God, and when the Red God is weak Tem slays Him; may it not be that the Red God, strong and vigorous, will fight and conquer Tem, making us not only warm, but also dry?” At once he set to work, scraped a clear place on the earth, hunted about till he found, in the hollow of a log, some dry leaves that a squirrel had stored there for a bed, took slivers of bark from the pine, and knelt over his little heap, striking sparks with flint and the half of the ham- mer-stone he had kept. . 215 After much labor he succeeded in getting a little glow among the powdered leaves— he had rubbed them to dust between his hands; they caught the sparks better so— and, feeding more_leaves and little splinters of pine, biowing gently the while, he soon saw the tongues of the Red God licking up- ward from the little heap. He added more twigs, then resinous sticks and branches, and soon the Red God leaped and roared. En-ro stood by the fire, turning around, warming himself, drying the water from his own skin and from the leopard skin he wore, and soon he was quite warm and dry and comfortable once more. He thought to himself that the Red God, though an evil master, was a good servant, and he was pleased at the idea of such a friend through the long winter months; no longer would he huddle in skins in his cave, not daring to go out. With a friend like the Red God warmth and comfort were his wherever he might be.. And, too, the Red God would fight for him; had He not done so against the Fear That Walks the Night? Idly he wondered, toasting himself, what would happen when the Red God met Sa, the snow; would they fight, as did Tem and the Red God; with hissing and smoke and anger, or would the Red God devour Sa, even as He devoured branches and leaves? He decided that they would fight, for Sa was own brother to Tem, changing, indeed, into Tem at times, by force of magic. Thus he squatted by the fire, warming himself, meditating, and listening to the roar and crackle of the flames and the steady patter of the rain-drops on the leaves. Presently he looked up and saw one of Meng’s warriors standing some paces off, watching the fire intently, ‘and leaning on his spear. En-ro fixed his eyes on the ne- gro, who, drawn by the psychic power of the steady concentration of mind, soon became restless, then turned toward the white man. En-ro smiled encouragingly, waved his hand to the fire, and said: ‘‘ Draw near and be warm; I will not let the Red God harm you; only go not too close, for He bites even me if I go too near. The negro, a slow step at a time, ap- ECORMNIGLOOOKS (C@)