Adventure Magazine Cover, October 10, 1921 — page 151: what you’re looking at

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

Shattered Altars him in the jaws of the most fortunate. There was a sudden movement, followed by the death squeal, as the pig, caught in a noose thrown by an under-priest, was disembowled by one quick stroke of his glistening bolo. A sudden rush turned the oily surface of the waters below into a churning whirl- pool of quicksilver as the alligators began their fight for the entrails, the king of the herd throwing his ugly body two-thirds out of the water in a vain endeavor to catch the carcass swinging to and fro just above his reach. Again the chant of death began, telling of the human sacrifice that would follow when the full moon threw its shadow exactly below the first offering: *“Dahun Kao, Halekirito, Dahun Kao, Halekirito, Americano, Patay, patay!l”’ The call of the priests rose higher and higher, bursting into a frenzied pean of delight as the living, breathing god of their idolatry, Dahun Kao, a gigantic Rock Python, drew his forty feet of sinuousness around the pool like a flickering light, and began raising slowly upward toward the platform. From the post came the first note of taps—and from the tunnel came the voice of a woman, chanting the altar hymn of the Serpent God. On the platform below, the hooded priests slowly formed a lane, that the rays of the moon might fall full upon the high priestess of the order, leading as if in chains, her sacrifice. Again a moment’s hush, and the melodic notes of taps, rising from the camp below, told the sleepy soldiers to Go to sleep, Go to sleep, Go to sleep, Your day’s done, Your 'day’s done, Rest, good night. The first round of the bugle-call was finished before the priestess stepped upon the platform. Quietness followed, so deep that the gasping breathing of the sacrifice was plainly audible to the watchers on the brink of the pool above. ‘““God save him!” The major had recognized his son. He shook as with the palsy. The gun lay I4I unnoticed, unthought of, in his arm, as he watched the young officer follow the priestess step by step toward the end of the platform. : ‘“Drugged and led to death like a swine, by a Jamaica negress! Better a bullet from the hands of the old man thot loves him than a dith like thot!” The shaft of the moon dropped lower and lower. It struck fair on the coiling ser- pent and was broken into a_ thousand coruscating jets of light by his glistening scales. Ever his ugly head worked up- ward, waiting, watching for that sacrifice which his votaries offered each year when the moon lit his altar. Again the distant bugle, and this time its refrain was taken up by the wailing flute and bugle, the drum beating its steady measure as step by step the priestess cir- cled her victim until he stood facing her, _ his back to the pool where gigantic snake and ugly saurian waited for the end of the horrible rite. Say Good-by, Say Good-by, Say Good-by, Your hour’s come, Your hour’s come, Sleep in Death. As the last note fell, the high priest raised the sacrificial knife. @ -y THERE was a spurt of flame from B 2 @ the major’s weapon, a hissing swish bhu a3 as Big Jake’s lariat cut over the heads of the priests to encircle the lieu- tenant’s body. The high priest swayed and fell, his glazing eyes fixed on the form of his intended sacrifice as the lieutenant was drawn steadily upward. The high priestess, the Jamaica negress, swooped on the knife that had fallen from his nerveless fingers and began jumping in vain endeavor to wreak her vengeance on the swaying figure. There was a scampering in the tunnel below as of rats deserting a sinking ship, and only the dancing priests and the twining serpent were left at the altar. The priestess drew back the glittering knife as if to throw, there was a crash of rifles from above, and Kao’s head disappeared as if by magic. A ripple. of tiny explosions followed the pressure of the adjutant’s eager fingers on the keys of the small black box, and the scaffolding, torn out at its foundations by Conmnicloooks C@