Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 6, 1923 — page 99: what you’re looking at

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

_ forever. THE HEAD CHOPPER. friends. The river stretched before his weary eyes, beyond the water lay safety, and a canoe waited for him in the willows along the shore. With a sob of gratitude, he trotted across the sand, whimpering in pain and fright. Two hundred yards from the edge of the water, he rounded a clump of willows, screamed like a maniac, and fell flat upon his face! Lying before him on the sand were the heads of five negro men! All night long, all the morning, up to this hour in the afternoon, Jim had been fleeing from that awful African head chopper, who had served his tribal king in the jungles of Ethiopia. Again and again as exhaustion had threatened to overcome him, he had been spurred to go forward by an image of his own head lying upon the ground, his tricky brain and his selfish heart severed And now he had run upon this - ghastly exhibition of the executioner’s skill. #e did not notice that each head was smok- ing’ cigarette. He just dropped his sample book, fell down right there on the spot, and squalled! Figger Bush and his comrades, having watched the river all night in vain, had washed their clothes, laid them out on the sand to dry, and were now buried in the sand up to their necks to keep the mos- quitoes from feasting on them while their garments were drying in the sun. Hitch Diamond came around the clump of willows, waving his dreadful battle-ax. Jim Golly sprang to his feet. He stooped to pick up his sample book, but Hitch’s ax descended with a vicious swish and the keen blade went through every page of the book and pinioned the volume to the ground. Jim squealed and fled, Hitch following, the pursuit augmented by five black, naked runners! Jim stumbled in the deep sand and fell. Instantly the pack was upon him. “Search him!” Figger Bush squalled. “ Take his money offen him an’ gimme my two dollars.”’ They lifted the exhausted man to his feet and searched him thoroughly. Jim begged them not to kill him. Their search re- vealed that Jim Golly did not have a penny on his person. 6A 881 “‘'Whar’s dat money?” Hitch Diamond bellowed. ‘‘ Fotch it fo’th!” “‘ Befo’ Gawd, I ain’t got it, fellers,” Jim whimpered. ‘‘ De Head Chopper seen me put dat check in dat letter an’ send it away.” “ Dat’s a lie!” Hitch howled. ‘‘ Marse Tom Gaitskil tole me dat you drawed dat money outen his bank to-day.” “ He’s got it hid, Hitchie!” Figger Bush barked. ‘ You go back an’ fotch dat ax from whar you drapped it by dat book, an’ we'll let you chop dis coon off a piece at a time ontwell he tells us whar our money is hid at.” Hitch marched back to get possession of the ax. Jim Golly watched until he saw that he had a good start ahead of the man who wore clothes, then he tore himself away and ran. Five unclothed men followed him to a certain point, then they stopped. For Jim, with his clothes on, plunged into some bushes up to his waist. The others could not follow, for they were sticker weeds, and no unclad flesh could stand the torture of travel through those poisonous nettles. Hitch Diamond saw the situation and bawled a command: “* Run to de river!” With a loud whoop, they all started. But they were compelled to detour while Jim made a bee-line. They touched the water’s edge just as Jim Golly sat down in his canoe and sent it out from the bank with a stroke of his oar. The unclad men leaped into the water to follow, but they were too late. Hitch Diamond picked up a large chunk of wood and hurled it at the canoe. It struck against the stern and merely accelerated Jim’s progress toward the other shore. “‘ Good-by, Loozeanna!” Jim howled in derision. And now the disappointed and defeated sons of the Nights of Darkness stood upon the shore and mourned the loss of both their man and their money, cursing their impotence, and making the river echo with their wails of wrath and woe. The sound must have been music to the ears of the harassed and distressed Jim Golly as his oars carried him further from their hatred CoOnniclaoalk © im