Avon Fantasy Reader No. 11 — page 48: what you’re looking at

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

my head. I think I am the keeper of the club again. I imagine I am going forth on a hunt. I wake up. There I lie awake on my mat thinking how easy it would be to get up anil go join the brotherhood of the M’Bembi again.” The black man ran a red tongue over his thick lips and shook himself. “I pray to the angels to put such thoughts out of my head.” The black man was interrupted by the lead mule suddenly wheeling in the trail and bolting back on the procession. The three men shouted and flung up their arms. Mogglesby caught the animal and stopped it. “Look ahead there,” he directed, peering into the jungle. “It might be a snake or a panther.”’ Then as the men chivvied the animals forward again, Mogglesby caught a peculiar scorched odor amid the hot smell of the jungle. The doctor slipped past the animals and disappeared in the screen of the dense growth. Mokato hurried after the little man. “Brother! Brother! Come back!’ he warned sharply. ‘Don’t go about the place!” Mogglesby hurried after the white-eyed Negro. “What is it? What’s the doctor getting into?” he asked anxiously. “Brother, he’s getting into the temptation’ of the devil!’ cried Mokato in alarm, as he sniffed the air with his wide nostrils. “I mean is there anything to hurt him?’ cried Mogglesby. “Tt will hurt his immortal soul, brother,” advised the black man in dis- tress. At this point their colloquy was interrupted by the doctor's voice calling in shocked tones: a God's sake, Mr. Mogglesby, come look! I’ve found the devil him- self!” This was so opposite to what Mokato had been saying, that the big man pushed his way through the screen, drawing his handkerchief as a defense apainst the odor. A moment later Mogglesby saw the doctor peering through the vines into a small charred circle in the jungle. There was an expression of horror on the little man’s face. Mogglesby went up, hardly knowing what he would see, and a moment later his own revulsion stopped him in his tracks. The clearing had been burned over. Mh the center of the circle lay a huge prone figure partly charred and partly stripped of its flesh. Its right arm was missing from its elbow, the left, of an extraordinary length, was stretched forward on the ground. The thing was headless. In the heat of the jungle the odor of decomposition already had set up, although the burning appeared recent. The big man turned to Mokato with a question and saw the black man down on his knees, his thick lips moving. “O Lord,” the Negro was saying, ‘the devil has led me into this tempta- tion. Lead me away, Lord; take my hand and lead me away.” The Englishman stared in the utmost amazement. __ “For God’s sake, Mokato, what earthly attraction or temptation could any human creature find in—” 46 COMicOOkS.ComM