Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 1, 1922 — page 95: what you’re looking at

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

THE jU-JU MAN. In response to many questions, and by the aid of much broken English and badly damaged Bantu, and illustrated by gestures and even rough sketches, M’Buli managed to tel a tale of his night’s experience that filled Rushton’s soul with amazement. According to his account C’Wayo had appeared to the chief and “ drawn his spirit from his body,” as he expressed it. The two of them had then rushed through the air for endless miles, the earth invisible and the moon and stars terrifying close, until M’Buli was suddenly aware that he was standing on the outskirts of an encampment. Ry the light of many fires he could distin- guish the bodies of skeeping men, and when he recognized them to be Bololos he was even more frightened than during his trip through the boundless reaches of space. Within a few feet of him an alert sentry Stood leaning on his spear, and M’Buli was greatly relieved to discover that the man could not see them; on the other hand, he was correspondingly annoyed to find him- self quite powerless to kill or injure the un- suspecting savage, which was the headman’s first coherent idea. C’Wayo led him through the files of sleeping men, of whom he counted one hun- dred and twenty-seven. Off to one side, by a small fire of their own, lay two men wrapped in blankets. One of the figures was very large, the other short, but broad, ‘and though their faces were concealed M’Buli was positive that they smeiled like white men. : The next thing he remembered was fol- lowing C’Wayo toward a tent that stood near the edge of the camp. They walked boldly past the man who watched its en- trance, and apparently passed through the canvas walls without troubling to raise the flap. M’Buli found himself looking down at the recumbent form of a sleeping woman. “It was Massa Holden’s little mammy,” he declared. “What?” Fred exclaimed. mean you saw Missy Celia?” “Yes.” M’Buli’s assertion was positive. ‘She sleep. In she hand she hab dem small lightnin’ gun dat spik quick-quick.” “A revolver?” hazarded Fred. “Yes,” nodded M’Buli, He seemed to “Do you $85 search his memory for another detail, and in a moment his face cleared. He reached forward and tapped the butt of the heavy revolver that Rushton wore at his waist. “Him all same elephant scrivello.” Rushton started. It happened that he had recently purchased in Mafadi a small revolver with a finely modeled butt of ivory, and he had given the weapon to Celia on the occasion of her birthday, only a week before the outbreak of this present trouble. He was quite sure that she had kept it in her room, and quite certain that M’Buli could never have seen it. There was the chance, of course, that some servant had noticed it and described it to the headman, buf the chances against such an improb- ability were a thousand to one. The young man found himself confronted with the apparent fact that M’Buli had visualized Celia, in a dream, and had dis- covered her in possession of a revolver that complied with the description of one he had never seen. It was too much for Fred. Mentally, he threw up this hands and con- fessed himself in the presence of the inex- plicable. ‘““Go on,” he urged in a stifled voice. ‘‘ What happened next?” _ M’Buli could add only one more detail to his astounding narrative. It concerned a command that C’Wayo had given him for the young man, bidding him look for a mes- sage ‘in the eye of the white elephant.” “What in the world does that mean?” demanded the mystified Rushton. “ ‘ Eye of a white elephant!’ Why, it’s not once in ten years that a white elephant is seeh in these parts—and how could I get a message from its eye? More likely to get one from its tusks if I tried!” ‘No savvy,” answered M’Buli gravely. He added with emphasis that his words were the words of C’Wayo, and that the fetish doctor could not possibly have been talking nonsense. “‘ Did Missy Celia look well?” | Fred was almost ashamed to put the question, suggesting as it did that he was beginning to credit the incredible. Never- theless, his heart was greatly lightened by M’Buli’s assurance that, so fur as he could see, the young woman was well. comicloool C©