Adventure Magazine Cover — page 43: what you’re looking at

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

Buried Gods “T tried to find out where you were from the local man. Not a bad sort. Wanted like the deuce to have the cattle I offered, but the spirits of his ancestors, and you people in the hole there, scared him stiff. “However, I learned by piecing together scraps and what not, something of the system, and guessed pretty accurately what had happened. As you probably know, Connie, they mess up the concrete with the abstract; kings same thing as gods in their eyes, you know. But from the little they had seen and heard in those days and since, they knew that the whites were more power- ful with their guns and what not than the blacks. “Then some enterprising witch-doctor must have said, “Let’s have white gods, and so we'll be stronger than any other tribe.’ Logical enough; but premises somewhat rocky, what?” “Yes, L had heard of the system up north and came along to find out all about it. I did,” said Constable dryly. The two ex-gods laughed, feeling that now they could afford to do so. “Well, to get along with the yarn,” con- tinued the little doctor, “I started working on that basis. While I was thinking things out Mangu and company began to get ugly. Evidently they wanted to. get me safely planted. “Well, matters got to such a pitch that I saw I eouldn’t get out to make up a re- lief expedition as I had half thought of, and that it was up to me to save my own skin to get yours out, young man.” “Very nice of you, doctor.” “H’M,” GRINNED the doctor. “I tell you frankly there was a time when I thought that it was about time to check up accounts for Gabriel and cussed myself for a fool for ever allowing you to kid me into such a mess at my age. Well, they got so jolly nasty generally that I had to think up something or chuck up the sponge. “Then my.local pal began to get scared of Mangu, and I saw that I couldn’t trust him any longer. I saw too that I had to do something to settle matters, and above all to get Mangu and the head witch-doctors out of the light before I would stand a sporting chance of getting near you or of saving myself. Then one night I heard the drums going and thought that it was for my 37 funeral—it must have been about the time of Dorkin’s introduction to the cave from what you say. “Suddenly I recalled the message written on the charm that had lured us into the un- tidy mess. I knew very well that any part of a god is sacred. That’s why they had made a charm out of your shirt, Connie. I hadn’t got a striped shirt, but I tore up a piece of bafta (trade cloth) and faked the blood writing. “Tt worked like magic. They were scared to death of me. Let me do pretty well what I liked. I cussed myself for a prince of fools for not having thought of it before.” “Good Lordy!” exclaimed Dorsay. ‘“Dorkin must have known something of that. That’s why he tried to steal my charm and tried to murder me for it! If I had only known!” “T don’t know so much,” demurred Con- stable. ‘Had he known, why didn’t he fake it as you did, Mace” “Too darned stupid, I guess,” put in, Dorsay. “Probably, from what I know of him,” agreed the doctor. “Say, doc,’ continued Dorsay, “what does ‘hakkim’ mean?” “In Kiswahili Arabic it means doctor. Why?” “Oh, that’s what I thought and kept on asking Gillette—the guy with my safety razor in his ear—for you by that name. That’s how they got me into the cave. He pointed and kept saying, ‘hakkim, hakkim,’ and I fell for it, thinking he meant you.” “Oh, but that’s not Turkana lingo. Probably he didn’t understand a word. But you must always remember that a native is particularly sensitive to suggestion. He regards a white—usually—as a superior be- | ing; is scared; and therefore anxious to please. “You'll remark the same thing in a peasant. If you say, ‘This is so,’ he'll possibly reply, ‘Oh, yes, sir!’ On the other hand if you say, ‘This isn’t so,’ he’ll as well say, ‘Oh) no, sir!’ “But in your case Gillette, as you call him, was probably kidding you—anything to get you into the cave and the trap.” “That’s what I thought—afterward.” “Evidently that’s their game with each one,’ commented Constable. ‘“They prom- ised to show me this god—and I bit! sNaturally I never suspected that I was in- tended for part of the menagerie.” COMMICLOOOKS (EO)