Argosy, Vol. 123, No. 1 — page 92: what you’re looking at

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

82 the range, you see. I asked El Toro this, but he did not know. ‘““Now these great warriors went every- where across the land and as I have told you, senor, no one could stand against them. Their skin was so thick that the greatest chief could not drive an arrow through it, and they minded the prick of a spear no more than I mind dry stub- ble. So they went everywhere looking for someone to fight, and they had bad luck in finding him until at last the man in the west decided that he would fight the Great Spirit. ‘““So he began to pile mountains one on the other to climb up to the sky and pull down the great Manitou, and the Manitou watched him and grew afraid. Mind you, he was not afraid of fighting the man of the west, but if the mountains were once piled high enough then every warrior on the earth could climb up it to the happy hunting grounds, and there would be no one to pray any more to the Manitou. Which would have made him very lonely, Senor Tyson, would it not?” “Naturally! A child could see that.” “Of course! So he thought a long time, and at last he came down in a dream to the warrior of the west and told him in the dream that there was a man in the east just as tall as he and just as great. So when the warrior of the west woke up the next day, he tore up the biggest oak he could find for a club, and started east to find the other giant. “ But the Manitou had come in the same sort of dream to the warrior of the east, and told him of the man of the west, and the man of the east woke up the next day and tore up the greatest rock he could find—the whole top of a mountain, senor! and he started west. “So the two giants met—even here, senor! Ah, what a thing it must have been to see! Their heads were in the clouds. The birds of the air flew from all over the world to watch the giants fight. Oh, to have been here!” And she clapped her hands in an ecstacy. ‘“The man of the west lifted his great oak tree, the father of all oak trees, and whirled it around his head, and the sound THE ARGOSY. of it in the air was like the screaming of a whirlwind. And the warrior from the ~ east heaved up his rock, and it blotted out the sun. ‘ But when the Manitou looked down on them he was sorry, for he saw they would kill each other at the first stroke; and he did not wish that the biggest men he had ever seen should die. So he thought what he should do. ‘Then he went and lifted all the pile of mountains which the warrior of the west had made, and he brought it and dropped half of it on the man of the east, and buried him out of sight. Then he dropped the other half on the man from the west. And he was buried! The great spirit, you see, is very strong.” “He must be, Rona!” ‘“ Now, the man of the east went to sleep, and he still sleeps But the man of the west, he would not go to sleep, though there was such a great blanket of earth over him. No, senor, he began to fight and heave up his head, for he is a fierce giant, and so he has worked his head higher and higher until now it is almost out of the mountain. “Tt is true! Now, many days ago the Comanches lived in all the valley of the Chiluah, and they learned that sometimes men can look at La Cabeza—that is the man of the west—and see at his top some- thing that looks like a head. And they learned that the man who sees that face will in one year either marry the girl he loves or else die. You see, senor?” CHAPTER XVII. THE BOTTLE BREAKS. : | BEGIN to understand,” murmured Ty- son. - ‘““Do you believe?” He looked at her sharply, but her eyes were wide with apparent credulity. “Why not?” he nodded. ‘ Why not be- lieve it? I’ve heard stranger things than that in my life.” But to his utter astonishment she burst into her soft, yet far-heard laughter. “You believe? You are either a very great liar or a very great stupid, senor.” cComiclboool< C@