Adventure Magazine Cover, August 18, 1921 — page 158: what you’re looking at

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

152 “Why didn’t you try to find her people? To take her back?” “ALl’Lungu, in those days the white set- tlers had not come into the country. There was no Mission. No Doctor. We had never seen a white child before. Now she is one of us.” The inside eyes of the white man went through the entrance to the hut and out to the brown girl with the long hair and the firm white teeth. His wavering brain was troubled. “Where did you find her, father? How did you find her?” The old man waved an arm. “Away, away a long days’ march from here we found her, A/’Lungu. Away in the ruined city with the round tower. The city where you left your wagon.” Like a flash his brain came back and settled firmly. “There?” “Vehbo, M’Lungu. In an abandoned wagon. A white man, the first white man to come into this part of the country, left her and I and my men, when hunting, found her.” ‘“‘And never found out who she was?” “M’Lungu, for many, many days we hunted for the white man who was her father—it must have been her father for she always cried for him—but we never could follow which way he went or where he went. The only Kafir with the wagon waited long for his baas to return, but he never did. The Kafir is with us still. We brought away the horses and the wagon and oxen. That is why I, a Matabele, have horses. There were two horses and three mares. Those I have now are the offspring of them. And what is why I, a Matabele, have a rifle and cartridges. It is the rifle of the lost white man.” “He must have had a lot of ammunition for it to have lasted all this time.” The old chief looked seriously, almost as if hurt, at the white man. “A Lungu,’ he said quietly. “I am a friend of all the wild animals. All of my people are their friends. We do not kill for sport as the white men do. And if we need to kill we kill our own way and make sure there is no suffering. I have never fired the rifle.”’ The white man winced, but quickly changed the subject. “Didn’t the Kafir know what happened sadly this time. Adventure to his baas? Didn’t he have any idea which way he went or why he went?” ‘Al’ Lungu, the Kafir saw him disappear. A Kafir of a strange tribe came to him as he sat looking into the fire the first night he stayed beside the old round tower in the ruins. The Kafir told him he would lead him to the place where he found diamonds. The white man seemed dazed, but followed him. He never came back.” Painfully Charlie raised himself on to an elbow and looked fixedly into the eyes of the old chief. “Was it a Kafir with two toes on each foot?” ‘And red hair, M’Lungu.”’ For a full minute the white man looked around vacantly without seeing anything at all. ‘Then I know where that white man is,” he said presently in a thoughtful whisper. gine “T’M GOING over to that ruined ming town tomorrow to look into that round tower,’’ Charlie said one eve- ning as he met the old chief inside the kraal, For several days he’d been walking about getting his strength back, even been out shooting, and now was anxious to find things out for himself and then hurry to his store. The old chief shook his head and visibly shuddered. “Tkona, M’Lungu. Pagati.” The white man laughed. “To blazes with your witchcraft, father. An old man like you ought to know better.” Again the old man shook his head, almost “There are many things we do not know, M’Lungu. Things we must not know.”’ “That’s all rubbish, father. explanation for everything.” “Can the M’Lungu explain why he was lost?”’ the old man asked in an awed tone. For an instant the white man was non- plussed. “No,” he said slowly. I’m going to find out.” “Oh, ves, I will. Come with me tomor- row, father, and bring some of your young men. Bring shovels and what tools you have and let us clean out the tower and dig.” “The young men will never enter that place, M’Lungu. I told you it is ¢agati. They know it is ¢agati.” There is an “That’s just what COmiclboook ©