Argosy, Vol. 1 (1882) — page 207: what you’re looking at

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

Oe eee eee —e ee - 198 useful to you in your work here,” Bradshaw:added. He was thinking of the two spades in his outfit. They had been invaluable to him more than once during the long journey, but he could sacrifice them better than a trip skyward via that tree, and he had perceived early that this was not the kind of savage to whom it would do to offer the trinkets usually current in such transactions. ‘You interest me,’ sneered the black. “I thought you would offer a string of beads, or possibly a top hat.” “ No, no, not to you,” said BGrad- shaw; “I prefer to hear your terms. If I can meet them I will do so.” “Tt is not my habit to waste words,” responded the dignitary, recurring to his former cold style of utterance, ‘‘ so we will not discuss the matter further. As for the matters you hint at, I shall be glad to make use of them. They will be in my possession by nightfall 1f your carriers are no further away than you said they were.” | Bradshaw felt his heart sink deeper than it had done when the savages pin- ioned him, or when he saw his impend- ing doom in the rising of the tree. It was not his own fate now that con- cerned him. ‘That was settled unless he could make some effect with one last stroke that he held in reserve. But even if the conviction were not deepening that his own fate was sealed, he yet would have grieved at the doom awaiting his faithful carriers. He had not been long enough in Africa to arrive, as so many whites in- sensibly do, at the feeling that “ nig- gers”’ are merely animals to be sacrificed if need be to the exigencies of the superior race. To him the black man was still a human being, and he regretted, oh! so bitterly, that he had admitted the near presence of his cara- van, and not only that, but had frankly pointed out the direction in which it lay. It would be the simplest thing im- aginable for these ruffians to fall upon THE ARGOSY. the carriers unawares and put them to slaughter, if they did not add incon- ceivable tortures. Bradshaw wished that he had practised deceit, but in speaking the truth he had followed the policy advised and invariably pursued by Pan in dealing with the simple minded natives. Ah! where was Pan now? “You will not get them unless I let you have them,” said Bradshaw, sternly. The tree top was descending under the weight of five men this time. “You are still bold,” said the dig- nitary ; ** do vou not believe that in one minute you will fly to your death?” “No!” shouted Bradshaw with all the force of his lungs, and so explosive and stentorian was the sound that all the blacks, even including their leader, were startled. Bradshaw was beginning ‘to make his last desperate play. | ‘“ No!” he shouted again; “ I am pro- tected by mighty spirits! They will not suffer me to be harmed, and they will strike with instant death the man who tries to harm me!” The black dignitary gave his victim a prolonged stare. What it portended, whether his superstitious fears had been in the least aroused, Bradshaw could only guess. This strange man, so superior to the thick lipped savages who obeyed him as if they were slaves, might be as far removed from superstitious influence as Bradshaw himself. It was the leader alone who could be frightened, for without Pan to convey his meaning to the others, the victim might declaim in English to the last chapter without producing the slightest effect. This thought was all too clearly framed in Bradshaw’s mind. As the savages pushed him roughly over the ground until the foliage of the bended crest brushed his face, he seemed to see the pages of his book of life opening one after the other before his eyes. | COMIC OG KS CO