Adventure Magazine Cover — page 178: what you’re looking at

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

168 managed to hook his quarry and to begin working it shoreward. Six other stakes were driven in the sand beside him, and on each of these the dripping head of a small shark had been placed. The bodies were stacked farther along the beach. The little old man was undoubtedly a fixture, and from the nature and successful results of his strange occupation was perfectly famil- iar with the beach .from long association with it. If this were so, he must have known Hickson. Abu Khalil interviewed the lonely fisher- man with threatening arrogance and was convinced of his stupidity. Others ques- tioned him, but he answered little, his face having upon it that rapt, entranced look which is characteristic of every fisherman with a line in his hand, whether he expects to hook a perch or a leaping tuna. At length, when a sail rounded the point and all eyes were turned upon the dhow arriving with a ripple at her bow, Cohusac’s oppor- tunity arrived. He had regained sufficient strength to stumble across the pebbles to the side of the old fisherman, where he squatted, appar- ently interested in the man’s occupation. After a while Cohusac drew from the sash wound round his body under the kansa a small copy of the Koran. In the brilliant moonlight it was possible to read. Bowed over his book, he appeared lost in prayer; but in reality he held between his thumb and forefinger the leaded tip of a shoestring, with which he managed laboriously to scrawl a message on a blank page: Abu Khalil conspirators destination Somaliland to lead tribesmen in holy war in alliance with Abys- sinia embarking by dhow now (about 3 a.m. Thurs- day) Shark’s Bay. Their plans are organized. Their intention positive. Inform French at Djibouti and Hickson Somaliland. I am accom- panying. COHUSAC. He carefully extracted the page, folded it [lengthwise and, unslinging his lute-like mandolin, tucked it among the strings at the tip, as if he were tuning the instru- ment. Then he began to play very softly, strumming a meaningless accompaniment, occasionally raising his voice in broken phrases as if he were searching his mind for a song. Abu Khalil’s friends were familiar with his music, so they paid no attention; but the fisherman turned his head once or twice and looked down. Each time Cohusac instantly said: Adventure “Hickson Effendi! Hickson Effendi! Hick- son Effendi!”’ Cohusac’s manner puzzled the fisherman. He looked at Cohusac more intently. All at once the meaning of the words struck him. His eyes flashed in his dark, seamed face. Hauling in his line to rebait the great hook, he bent lower, grunting: “Yes! By Allah! Hickson Effendi!” Cohusac seemed to catch the air he was seeking and strummed with liveliness; but the words still appeared to evade him. He hummed aloud, so that the acutely atten- tive fisherman heard: “Hudha! Pluck it as you would a rose— from the end of the instrument as I rise— the nightingale warbled its message—to the Political Officer!” The fisherman gave a violent jerk of his line, sending it as if by accident over Cohu- sac. Cohusac rose cursing shrilly to his feet; and the fisherman, apparently mum- bling apologies as he untwisted the line, said: “I understand. In the name of Allah, go in safety!” “Come, warbler!” cried Abu Khalil roughly. ‘We don’t intend to leave you behind to sing ballads in Aden.” “Come, father of songs,” said Miriam wearily. (oS side a ledge of rocks, over which “hundreds of crabs clattered and the low swells scattered showers of almost tepid water. Drenched, hungry, racked with fatigue, Cohusac huddled in the bottom, his aching head somewhat at rest now that his message was safe. The dhow was an open craft, scarcely thirty-five feet in length, with a very small decking aft where the head boatman stood, tiller in hand, yelling at his Somali sailors. The short, stocky mast was stepped just forward of amidships and raked sharply forward, being kept in place by a mass of heavy stays. From the mast hung the great spar, the forward end made fast to the prow, the after end carried in a sweep- ing curve far aloft, so that the, brown patched sail, filled out by a light breeze, resembled the wing of a bird lighting upon the water. Though the craft was cumber- some, being built of very heavy planking and seamed with pitch, it was very tight and extremely seaworthy. Equipped with THE dhow had been brought along- cConmicloool o(CO)