Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 21, 1922 — page 124: what you’re looking at

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

’ ! 114 population must vastly exceed the males. Further, behind the wives of Huali-m/’uali marched the rest of the island people, and they were all men. Fifty yards back of the tin palace the chief paused. With much directing and ar- ranging, he got a formation to suit him. The women were lined up in one long row. They stretched for half a thousand yards. They all wore red calico slips of dresses. Siegfried never put on a revue like it in his life. The rest of the island population draped itself as comfortably as possible in the rear. The ladies remained standing until the chief’s back was turned. ‘Then some very old ones and a dozen or two with rather heavy babies at their breasts, sat down slyly. The chief and his half-dozen attendant braves marched then upon the tin palace. The grin was turned on full once more; but there was a determination about the step which worried the prospective host. If there hadn’t been so many open windows, Dascomb would have barricaded his doors. If he had been sure he could get far in any direction, he would have run. There was nothing to do but to face the music and the chief. At least there was room for some par- leying—if there had been any way to par- ley. The chief bowed and smiled with that fawning-dog grin on his face. There was to be diplomacy before force. And Dascomb could play for delay. He pointed to the still inebriated Duano; he . pointed to his own lips and said a long sen- tence in English. The chief looked at Du- ano. He looked at the empty bottle. He picked that up and made sure of its empti- ness. Another happy thought. Dascomb got to the medicine chest. There was still one bottle of brandy left. He drew it out, set it on a table, gestured toward his unwanted guest. The chief held the bottle while one ~ of his braves knocked its top off with his sword. He shouldn’t have feared bamboo- slivers to judge by his indifference to glass. With his mouth over the jagged edge of the bottle’s neck, his head tilted upward, he grinned and grinned. With nearly a third ~ then himself. ‘the chief. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. of its contents drained, he set it down and He motioned to his braves to take the rest. They made quick work of it. . In ten minutes Dascomb could see his mistake. Instead: of seven sober enemies, he had seven drunk ones. They were pass- ing through rapid stages of hilarity toward quarrelsomeness. Only the old chief sat still. The grin grew weaker, and ceased to be a grin at all, giving place to a blank stare. He almost went to sleep. But not quite. He seemed to rouse to what was happening to him. He recalled that he had business to transact. He began to talk. The fact that Dascomb could not understand irritated him. He got up, sup- porting himself with a hand on the table. He looked a minute at Duano. Then he spoke to his braves. The hapless servant was dragged from the palace and down the beach. His cap- tors ducked him again and again. But they were all out of sight, out of mind, with Huali-m’uali addressed himself once more to the task of making Dascomb understand something. He pointed out of ‘the windows at the long row of assorted femininity. He talked loud and fast. He pursed his lips and produced a strange clicking sound again and again. Dascomb guessed that he was trying to reproduce the sound of a kiss. He knew the rest. He had been too familiar with the tabooed fiancée; the old chief had‘been generous enough to offer to part with her in the white man’s behalf; but that offer \had been rejected, leaving the woman still ‘a fiancée and an insulted one. And Chief Huali-m’uali was going to get some sort of apology out of the white man in their pres- ence, or the white man would serve as an exhibition of the way his majesty felt to- ward any one who got fresh with his wo- men-folk. Dascomb wished he were surer of the alternative apology. The old man grew drunkenly more insis- tent. He pulled on Dascomb’s shoulder. He talked loud and harshly. He gesticu- lated more violently. Dascomb thought of using force to put the fellow out of his house. He even thought of killing the old rascal there and COMmiclboo SS C©