Argosy, Volume XXIII — Index Page, 1897 — page 172: what you’re looking at

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

742 HOODOO SAM. ‘‘ Lemme go home ; please lemme go home !’’ wailed the child. Sam caught him by the shoulders. ‘‘Shet mouf!’’ he exclaimed, show- ing his teeth in rage. ‘‘I make Boogger jump on you.’’ He rushed across the room, caught up the cage and set it down close to the child. ‘‘ Make noise one time, me open cage ; Boogger jump on you, lak he jump on lil’ Jimmy. He bite lil’ Jimmy—an’ him done dead; flung ter alligator.’’ The child shrank back and crouched on the floor, shaking with terror, his eyes fixed in piteous appeal on the mocking face of the negro. goer Brock could stand it no longer. Grasping the axe he had brought from the wood pile, he rushed to the front of the hut and began to break down the door. With the third blow of the axe, the boards crashed in, and he leaped through the opening. The African confronted him, brandishing a knife, his eyes blazing, his mouth distorted in a grin of horrible ferocity. It was knife against axe. Neither had time to get other weapons. The negro dodged the blows aimed at him with cat-like activity, all the while try- ing to get in a thrust with his knife. He succeeded at length ; the thin, keen blade found its way into Brock’s shoulder and snapped against the bone. The negro wheeled to get his gun, but a bullet from Brock’s pistol struck his arm, and suddenly turning, he leaped like a madman upon the young man and hurled him to the floor. Brock was no match in strength for the powerful African. Before he re- covered from the shock of the fall, he was pinned to the floor and his revolver wrenched from his hand. One of his arms was held down by the negro’s knee ; with the other, he struggled desperately to keep his assailant from planting the muzzle of the revolver against his breast. In the scuffle Boogger’s cage was overturned, and the shrill rattling of the angry snake added to the horror of the moment. At last Brock’s right wrist was caught by the negro’s left hand and held as in a vise; then, with a grunt of exultation, Sam turned the pistol to the defenseless heart of his foe, who, panting and helpless, closed his eyes and waited for the bullet that should tear flesh and soul asunder. But instead there came a yell of pain and terror from the African, and the weapon dropped from his hand. In an instant, Brock saw what had happened. The rattlesnake had attacked his owner. Brock saw the head of the reptile, with its wide mouth and hooked fangs, as it reared back after giving the blow, and then darted down, striking again and again before one could draw breath, burying his fangs in the naked arm and the face of the negro, who seemed paralyzed for asecond. Then, springing to his feet, Hoodoo Sam seized the axe and began to strike at the snake with furious blows, his teeth set and the foam dropping from his distorted mouth. ; Boogger was game. He fought to the last, until one of the blows of the axe severed his head. With a yell, the frenzied negro caught up the head and the mangled coils and flung them into the fire ; then he dropped down on the pile of moss in the corner that served him asa bed, where he lay panting and exhausted. A Comicbooks-co n