Adventure Magazine Cover — page 133: what you’re looking at

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

Go-Fever all their own little armory. Tobacco and— tucked away in a niche where it would keep safe and cool—a dozen sticks of dynamite with caps and fuse. Best of all, for the mo- ment, there was a metal flask nearly full of brandy hidden under a coat that had served for pillow. This was medicine that was a welcome addition to the retrieved first aid kit. The liquor was good and a sup of. it brought color back fleetingly to Petrie’s cheeks. Swallowed by Brown, it brought him close to consciousness, though his opening eyes showed such horror that they did not bother him when he closed them again and either swooned or fell asleep. Morbora, uneasy, muttering to himself, watched their actions, going frequently to the mouth of the cave. He ate little of the bully beef, at which Cole wondered idly. Then Cole saw him going out of the cave carrying something concealed in his hand. This, it turned out, must have been a knife. He made no effort to hide what he brought back as he prepared to broil it over the fire with a pointed stick of wood. Cole’s in- voluntary cry of horror and disgust brought Reynolds up. ““What’s wrong?” he asked. “See what that fiend’s cooking,” said Cole. Morbora looked up at them in surprise. ‘“‘What matter?” he asked. “This tamin, this toongu.”’ (Fat and sweet.) White fella no good folgoro. This fine meat.” He struck the inside of his own thigh. “Malli tolgoro. Excellent. Make plenty strong.” Cole, nauseated, told him to take it out- side. “Why do you eat man-flesh?” he asked. Morbora, with the utmost sincerity, countered— “Why not?” Cole, knowing his primitive limitations, could not answer him. But he made the black give up his hideous meal. Then they disposed of all the dead bodies, burying Sievers separately, keeping keen lookout all the while. “White fella all vooly, all —— fool,” Morbora persisted. ‘‘Black fella take gin— women—along camp then they come back along of this.”” He indicated generally the things that he was sure would bring back the tribe as soon as they had got their women and children back tocamp. “Better we go quick,’”’ Morbora insisted. 131 %: THEY could not attempt to travel yr] with two sick men. Petrie would be * unable to walk for a day or so, even with continued improvement, and they were not sure of Brown’s condition. They held a brief council of war. “We can hold them off from the cave, easily enough,” said Cole. ‘So long as we are not fool enough to let them come in or to chase them into the spinifex.”’ “‘Those white fella, they make friend with black fella along black fella gin,” said Morbora. ‘Black fella get kola, he plenty mad, let white fella go asleep, then he try kill. White fella gun too much along those black fella. They run. White man try keep black fella gin, go too far, no come back.” “‘Wouldn’t wonder if he was right,” said Reynolds. they’ve paid for it. But we can hold ’em off. They won’t attack nights. Too afraid of the dark. I don’t believe we need worry about ’em till tomorrow morning. But Morbora’s between the and the deep sea. He don’t want to stay and he don’t want to leave us because he’s afraid they’ll catch him and make ¢olgoro out of him.” ‘‘We want to put the fear of the white man into their hearts for good,”’ said Petrie. The brandy and the recovered cholera mix- ture had bucked him up wonderfully. His eyes were bright and some color had come to stay in his lips. ‘‘If we just chase them off they’ll lay for us and get us in the spinifex the way Morbora figures they got the others.” “They took the women and - “That'll be easy enough,” said Cole. “We'll bomb ’em. We can spare some of that dynamite, since we didn’t bring any ourselves. Half-sticks with a short fuse’ll convince ’em of the white man’s magic. Give Morbora an object lesson too. I wouldn’t trust that beggar. He’d desert us any minute on the way back and get his tribe to murder us unless we convince him we’re big wizards. He’s seen us licked once by our own sort and we’ll have to reinstate ourselves. The dynamite’ll do it and it’s good as a machine-gun battery in case they try to get into the cave. They don’t know we’re here to begin with.” Morbora was outside. The interior of the cave with its wall paintings and its general gloom did not seem to attract him. He kept watch, in which capacity ne far excelled Perro. Food equipment had set fresh heat in MICLOOOK C© inn