Adventure, January 20, 1922 — page 77: what you’re looking at

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

Tides of Hate thousand mile we walked through jungle and swamp, only to come to this!” “Walked!” exclaimed Davies incredu- lously. ‘“Ye’re mad asaloon,man. Speak o’ no such walk to me, who’s tramped the Isthmus.” “Not all the way, cappen,” rasped Rando. A fit of coughing seized him; he gripped his mate fiercely by the arm and bade him waste no more time but tell his tale. He sank back bleeding from the mouth, and lay panting while Doggett spoke surlily. “Arter we run from the bulldog for fear o’ hangin’ we struck alongshore no’th,” he said. “We come on an Indian a-huntin’, and Rando bruk his neck, he did, wi’ his hands, like that.” He snatched up a twig and illustrated with gruesome relish. “We got a bow and arrers an’ a long spear frum him. We must ha’ walked a hundred mile or more, tearin’ through thorn-bush, swimmin’ rivers full o’ bleedin’ big halliga- tors an’ wadin’ swamps a-squirmin’ wi’ snakes as long’s th’ bulldog’s mainyard. “Then we come on a village an’ the Indians set.out arter us. We slipped ’em in a bit o’ morass, and they let us go. But one we caught as he passed, an’ I done the needful that time. We got this blowgun from him, an’ a pouch full o’ these yer little darts.” s | He fumbled in his leafy girdle and took out a single tiny brown dart, the counter- part of the one the Indian took from one of the mysteriously killed seamen on the march. | “°TIS the last one,” he snarled, and turned his face toward Davies with a vicious grin. “ Twas for John Cook, but Steve Carr reached th’ dog first—may his soul fry in i “Yes, but how came ye here?” urged Davies impatiently. ‘Livin’ like savages, sleepin’ in trees wi’ one eye open, an’ Stealin’ canoes when they was to be got. Once we stole a big pirogue wi’ a sail, an’ sailed along the coast for a month or more. “Into the Caribbean we sailed, cappen, an’ so to the Isthmus. Lived wi’ Indians and just like ’em,” Doggett chuckled; and his mirth was disquieting to any gazing upon his bestial face with its slavering lips and puckered brows drawn low over beady eyes. ° 79 His merriment shook him, and he wagged his grizzled head. “Ho, yes, lads,” he choked, “like Indians por ol’ Doggett lived wi’ his pal Rando. But we found out what ye’d gi’ yer lights an’ liver to know, Schoolmaster; didn’t we, Rando, ol’ buck? Livin’ along o’ th’ Indians, we was; and they knowed where yer gold went, Davies!” “Knot thy long tongue, man, and come to th’ gist o’ the windy yarn,” cried Davies, with difficulty hiding his excitement. Doggett chuckled again, and impudently up at him. ‘Treated us like princes, them Indians did; didn’t they, Rando? Why, ol’ Rando’s got a fat little snuff-colored wife; ain’t you, Rando?” ‘“Rando’s got a widow, you mean,” put in Nell quietly, getting up from beside the prostrate man. Doggett started up, glared at her venom- ously and bent over Rando, muttering to him to speak. It was useless; Rando was dead enough; and suddenly all pretense was flung aside by Doggett and he leaped back, reverting completely to the savagery that had always been close to the surface and had been brought out by the unimaginable torment of that tremendous journey from Brazil’s reefs. With his blow-gun half-raised to his lips he fumbled for his last dart. It stuck in his girdle for a second, and that second decided still another destiny in that doomed venture. As he put the tube to his lips it was for a breath doubtful which was the destined victim; but swiftly the deadly missile was aimed fair at Nell Clark, the innocent slayer of Rando. With a roar of fury Davies leaped forward to place his own body be- tween the weapon and Nell; like a black comet Goliath leaped with him, crashed one huge shoulder against Davies, hurling him aside, and the blow-gun sped its messen- ger of death as the giant black gripped Dag- gett by the waist and lifted him bodily from the ground. For the space of three heartbeats Goliath poised the man over his head, every muscle of his splendid frame standing out like a cable; then the negro hurled him with a sickening thud against a great tree and himself tottered forward and sank to the turf with his loyal life oozing from a tiny poisoned puncture at his broad breast. stared COnicoool< (C@