Adventure Magazine Cover, August 18, 1921 — page 77: what you’re looking at

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

White Men practised the little tricks of parlor magic which gave him prestige; nor could they have been as patient and fair-dealing as the trader, for which the savages had respected him greatly. Webb, like many an ambitionless man who goes on outpost for a trading-company, had neither love of life nor a sense of adven- ture. At first all he had wanted was the chance of being off from white men—as if it were not more difficult to forget insolitude than in a crowd; and he had moved into a house that was built on crooked piling, some four feet high, put in a few days killing spiders and scorpions, then discovered that it was easier to get drunk. He had given many presents to Chief Orokgo, including a gaudy jumping-jack that seemed to have come out of thin.air. Across the channel about a mile away were two traders who went heavily armed’ and would not stir out at night. They warned Webb that he would be killed if he did not take better care of himself, but he let his guns get choked with rust and traded the bullets off as beads. The traders across the channel were brained one night as they slept, guns by their sides; and Webb night after night went to his mat intentionally so drunk that mosquitoes could not awaken him and al- ways found his head on his shoulders the next morning. Orokgo’s savages were no different from the score of other tribes scattered in villages on the beaches and many islands of the Sound. They were a lot of headhunting cannibals, vengeful, treacherous, cowardly in some ways and amazingly bold in others. But Webb had become a favorite, and Orokgo put a tabu on his head so none of the gallant young bucks, who prayed for white men’s heads, dared touch it. The tabu is an astonishing power that all of the chiefs of all the South Sea Islands have. It is a good deal like the “‘King’s X” of a children’s game, and to violate it is unthinkable. The tabu always forbids; and in most of the islands where pork is a favor- ite with them it is tabu for women to touch it. The chief may make it tabu to visit cer- tain localities, to fish, hunt, eat of certain things. No matter how severe the tabu, its authority was not questioned until the missionaries offered the Ten Command- ments as a substitute. For three years Webb had lived on the 71 island, and after his neighbors across the channel had been murdered he did not see another white man until the coming of Brannigan and Rodgers. The company’s schooner that was to visit him every eight months had been wrecked or lost; and he was beached high and dry. He heard of various ships that approached, and a few times had seen them in the distance, but he had not been able to reach or get word to any of them. Brannigan and Rodgers had been black- birding, and with the ’tween decks full of natives slammed below in one way and an- other they had found their ship on fire at night, and the crew had taken to the boats. The cannibals had been practically kid- naped for Fijian plantations; and in the rageful, senseless way of heathens had spoiled the harvesting of much sugar cane by setting fire to the Betty Bly and burning themselves to death. It had been about the middle of the mid- watch that the smell of burning wood be- came noticeable. Brannigan, though crude dead reckoning was about all he knew of navigating, was the skipper and on deck. He paced about sniffing the air, and grow- ing more and more excited. Fire at sea is one of the things the devil himself would dread if he turned passenger. All was quiet. Heavy gratings were over the hatches, and the snoring and grunting of the sixty cannibals made a sound like the splut- tering of a great pot. There were four white men on the schooner, Brannigan and Rodgers as ship’s officers, the recruiter and a boatswain; and ten black boys, Fijians and Tongans. ~The Betivy Bly was flush deck, and Bran- nigan ran forward.sniffing and calling to the black boys on watch. In a minute they had located the trace of smoke at the for- ward hatch grating; and when Brannigan hoarsely bellowed below he seemed to awaken a dozen score of fiends. They yelled and shrieked and began swarming against the gratings, thrusting out long biack arms with groping fingers. All hands were roused out, for had broken loose; and those on deck could do nothing but watch, listen and futilely dash water on to the gratings. No one could do more than guess at what had happened, but there was only one guess that seemed reasonable. A half a dozen of the natives were permitted on deck twice MICLOOKS S|