Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 6, 1923 — page 176: what you’re looking at

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

9538 master in the bosque hunting for this El Carnicero. “He says that if you will give this tusk to his second wife she will sew it in a little leather bag, with a thong about it to hang from your neck. And that so long as you carry that tusk, you will be protected from the other great cutter that El Carnicero still carries.” The paymaster started slightly at this. And then he fell into thought. Then nodded quickly. “So be it,” he said. ‘ But I will watch while she sews it in the leather.” And thus it was. And crouched upon the earth beside the dead woman we watched the second wife and the chief as they sewed up that tusk into the leather bag. So quick they were, with their tiny childlike hands! And such a neatness in that job! Aye, steady were this Barlow’s eyes upon the work, and steady were my own. And how, in their little voices like birds are these Negrit’s, senor, did they chatter as they finished their task. Then did that chief place the thong over the paymaster’s head with his own hands, while the paymaster stiffened once more at the touch. And I could not help but wonder, senor, if the paymaster was not thinking of how this El Carnicero had followed us on the trail the night before, and then after having lost his tusk, had rushed off into the bam- boo, and then in the early morning done this cruel deed to Chief Augustin’s wife. And I wondered myself if that great baubus had feared to attack us in the night because the paymaster had that broken tusk in his pocket. And these Negrit’s! Wild creatures of the bosque themselves! Did’ El Carnicero feel this? And was he taking a wicked vengeance upon them, because they were but half men and half wild creatures? And because it was this chief’s own son who had really been the cause of the paymaster’s coming to the Boton country, and causing him to lose this tusk which we had just seen sewn up in the deerskin bag that now hung from this Barlow’s fat red neck? The paymaster interrupted my thought. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ‘Snap out of it,” he snarled to me in that way of his. ‘“ Let’s get after him.” I threw out my hands, though the hot blood was rushing to my head again. ‘He will be lying in the bamboo during the high sun, senor,” I protested. ‘ Let us wait here in the village until evening time.”’ I cannot say to you what his answer was. As he desired, we sweated all day long through the bosque. And again was that strange feel in the air. And three times, five times, a dozen times, senor, did we hear something behind us in the bamboo. And yet, stopping and looking about us, could see nothing. And each time did that paymaster feel of the cord about his neck, and curse, and go purple in his fat face. And secretly, senor, was I glad that the tusk was in that bag. For though I had seen this Barlow shoot, and shoot well, yet had that charm not been about his neck, I would still have feared. And with my reputation, senor that is to say something. IV. EVENING came, and still we saw nothing. Yet still, too, did we hear things behind us. And I could see that the paymaster did not like this. Night came, and we returned to the village. And again to find that El Carnicero had made a visit, and ripped the thigh of an- other woman who was getting water from the Boton. And again did Chief Augustin beg the paymaster for that tusk, saying that he would give him many pesos for it. And he brought forth a tin can which was filled with money, senor, the money that all his people had received for many years by the sale of deer and pig and chicken to the navy folk at Gordon’s and Olongapo. And though this Barlow’s eyes looked upon these pesos with the greed that was part of his very soul, still he would not give up the leather bag. So we lay in the open that night, by the vio, not Caring to test out the vermin of the huts. And the paymaster tossed much before COMmiclboo (©