Adventure Magazine, April 10, 1924 — page 125: what you’re looking at

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

| bs Comp cle Ly Georges a Bae Aer apes er at ; ae ton Novel ette Surdez_ Author of ‘Out of the East,” “West of Chad,’ ete HE Yakoma boatmen sang in uni- son. At each jerking syllable they plunged their shovel-headed pad- dles into the stream. “Fith, yah, eh—eith, yah, ehl”’ The muscles corded beneath the shiny skin of the ebony backs. As the blades lifted at the end of the stroke, drops of water scintillated in the red sunlight. The broad river formed the dividing-line between the French Territory of the Ubangi- Shari and the Belgian Congo. The surface of the Ubangi, green and blue, mottled with patches of shimmering light, shaded off into deep black toward the banks. The yellow and red leaves of a knot of trees stood out vividly against the green of the bush. In the first canoe, Sergeant Peller sat on his camp-chair, rifle across his knee, smok- ing. Squatting to face him, Bo Diare, cor- poral of fratleurs—French Native Infan- try—hugged his knees to squeeze his bulk in the narrow canoe bottom. ‘The straight featured Ouolof chewed on a twig, to clean his teeth, and droned a Sokolo song. To the rear sat four tirailleurs and six Yakoma paddlers. The second canoe, considerably larger, was loaded down with bundles, manned by eight paddlers, with Private Yatera in com- mand. In the bundles were fifty Gras car- bines and ten thousand cartridges for the Bakkasu Post, up-river. A precious load in the region, where high-powered rifles were at a premium, where even an old percussion gun could purchase two women. The paddlers were from the Belgian shore. The boatmen usually employed for river service, Yakomas from the French side and N’Sakkaras, had been requisitioned for an expedition farther up the Ubangi some weeks previously. Therefore, the crews were not as dependable as they might have been. But Peller, whose bronzed face and ease of manner revealed an old hand at the game, did not worry. With six ¢irailleurs he had reasoned that there was little cause for un- easiness. And there was no possibility of an attack from the wandering bands of hostile natives. They had long since learned that a military rifle shoots oftener and straighter than a trade musket. The ser- geant lost himself in contemplation of the banks, admired the tall waving grass, rustling in the wind, the flights of birds ma- king for their night perches on the fish nets. The boatmen ceased singing abruptly; the canoes slid on in silence. The Yakoma headman, who was not engaged in paddling and had opportunity to observe, pointed ahead to a bend in the stream, and whis- pered excitedly. ‘He say hippo there,” Bo Diare trans- lated. Under the slim, twisted arcades of the mangroves, 2 hippopotamus bathed peace- fully. His monstrous back, glistening black, emerged from the water. 123 Go DOOLK C@©