Adventure Magazine Cover — page 151: what you’re looking at

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

The Fight for the Cave back of the mired beast. He plunged the head of the spear into the hide between the shoulders, and, using the bludgeon as a hammer, drove the shaft into the animal’s vitals. The rhinoceros screamed and died. Already the hunger-maddened hunters were building a fire. A gory assault was made upon the carcass, and flint knives opened the tough hide and cut away masses. of flesh. As huge steaks were set roasting at the fire Lean Ak gave careful orders for the coming fight with the fish-catchers. The hunters were to eat just enough to give them full strength, and then after a short digestive rest they were to set out for the cave. But soon after the feast had begun the anxious lover saw that his men were bent on exceeding the bounds of feeding that he had set for them. They were gorging themselves outrageously. He called upon them to desist, but the hunters had for- gotten their women, had forgotten their revenge; they were eating, and that summed the world to them. Lean Ak’s protest, to be sure, was not made with the savage air that ensures obedience. He, too, was eating; and tear- ing with his teeth at the slices of pungent rhinoceros flesh, roasted, which gave him a sensation so pleasurable that it weakened his eagerness to be away against the fish- catchers, weakened his longing to see the .six daughters of Ufu the Great once again, weakened his noble ambition to be the an- cestor of brave men through unnumbered generations who would be hunters and not fat fish-catchers. In short, it was not long before the band, Jeader and all, had gorged themselves into a profound stupor, like so many pythons. Not an hour had lapsed before the mer- chants passed that way, coming from the fishermen’s cave. They caught sight of the smoke of the fire, and found the sleeping hunters surrounded by the remains of the feast. The merchants understood the phe- nomenon well enough, and, though they had feasted with Ufu the Great that day, they fell to cutting slices of flesh for themselves from the mangled remnants of the rhinoc- eros carcass. They squatted beside the motionless figures of the hunters, and roasted their meat at.the fire. During the silence of this pleasant occupation an idea moved in the head of the malicious merchant. 10 145 Ufu the Great had driven sharp bar- gains, and the merchants had left the cave in sour mood, so that now when the mali- cious merchant confided to his companions a project to play a rogue’s trick on Ufu the Great they were pleased. The cun- ning fellows ate and deliberated, and then went away in the direction of the fisher- men’s cave. But first they carefully re- moved traces of the fire and of the feast, covering with sand what was left of the rhinoceros carcass. . Back at the cave Ufu the Great evinced interest in the malicious merchant’s recital, which related that there was a trick of magic by which the merchant could stretch Lean Ak and his hunters unconscious on the ground, so that they would be at the mercy of the fishermen—this could be done for a hundred bone fishthooks. Then Ufu the Great could use his enemies for decorative statuary in his cave, or he could make fish-hooks out of them. The mer- chants would perform the magic, and would lead the fishermen to their bewitched ene- mies—all for a hundred bone fish-hooks. ‘This scheme was ingenious enough. The merchants understood that the hunters had gorged.after a long fast and had fallen into consequent coma—a thing common among hunting-people, whose feasts are large and infrequent. And at the same time the men of travel understood that fishermen with a steady, moderate food supply were unfamiliar with the phenom- enon. Ufu the Great would think the sleepers permanently bewitched, when they would in reality come out of their stupor in a dozen hours or somewhat more. To leave behind him a situation of such pos- sibilities pleased the perversity of the malicious. merchant. To Ufu the Great this proposal opened channels of salvation. He had contrived to get rid of the two leopards, only to call in a greater evil. When they had beaten the hunters the fishermen were heartened, but still they never knew when the venge- ful tribe out in the hills might attack them again. Ufu the Great was a man of peace, and the ever present prospect of fighting distressed him. And then the malicious merchant’s offer attacked his traits of piety and of magnifi- cence. He could take the bewitched hunters and make a sacrifice to the Fish that would not be forgotten as long as men COMMiCLOooks (C@