Adventure Magazine Cover, June 20, 1925 — page 94: what you’re looking at

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

76 Adventure “HE GREW to be a changed man. He became thin and hol- _low-cheeked and dyspeptic, a mys mere shadow of the man he had been before his teeth went. His only con- solation was Jake. Why he loved that ugly, savage brute of a goat, I never could guess. But there it was. He’d sit for hours talking to it, just as if it was a human being. And Jake, he’d stand there working his jaws and waiting for McClure to come within range of his chain to butt him good and hard. “Now Price, naturally, hadn’t any cause to love David McClure, and I don’t pretend he had. But McClure was beaten; his store was deserted; he couldn’t eat any ‘proper food and his pride had been humbled ‘—and that ought to have satisfied Price. But it didn’t. He’d got his knife into Mc- Clure, so to speak, and he meant to give it one or two good twists while he could. “He soon got to know about the goat and how McClure was sort of comforted by talking to it, so what does Price do but bribe one of the natives to go and kill Jake during the night? And for all that Mc- Clure had tried to freeze him out of Ati- mara, it was a pretty low-down trick. “Anyway, the goat was murdered. Next morning, when McClure stepped out on to his veranda, the first thing he saw was the dead body of Jake with a spear in its side. From what I’ve heard tell, McClure just broke down and cried like a child—and I -shouldn’t wonder if it was true, seeing he was in such a low state. Clure swore the goat should have a proper Christian burial, so he dug a grave, McClure did, and buried Jake in it and said the prayer for them in peril on the sea, which was the only one he could remember. “Now if Price hadn’t done that mean trick on McClure, he’d probably be in Atimara now and boss of the island. But in getting Jake killed, he overreached him- self. It happened this way. When the Anyhow, Mc- — natives heard that the goat had been killed, what must some of them do but ‘go the next night and dig him up so’s they could roast him and have a feast. “They lit a fire on the beach—right in front of McClure’s store—and started in to skin and prepare the mortal remains of Jake. This was at night, remember, so McClure was asleep. But presently he was wakened up by a most almighty row and at first he thought the natives were attacking his place. ‘He listened for a while to their yells and hoots, then grabbed a revolver and went out to see what was happening. All he could make out at first was a big fire on the beach about fifty yards away, with a bunch of niggers round it. However, he thought he’d better discover what all the racket was about, so down he goes to the beach. There he saw a score or so of young natives, some of them doing a sort of war dance and others lying on their bellies beating the ground with their hands. He thought at first, McClure did, that they were holding a cannibal feast and had chosen this spot to show they didn’t care any longer for him and his laws. | ‘‘He tightened his finger round the trigger of his revolver, thinking to himself he’d reach these niggers they couldn’t break the laws he’d given them, even if he had lost his teeth. And he crept nearer, did Mc- Clure, nearer and nearer. ‘‘And then he suddenly had a shock. For, of course, it wasn’t a human carcass like he’d expected, but the remains of Jake, skinned and trussed ready for roasting. And that wasn’t all, either. For near the car- cass, just as they’d been fetched out of the goat’s belly, were—the teeth of McClure! “And that,” concluded the skipper of the Golden Treasure, “is why Joe Price left Ati- mara by the first boat that called and David McClure again became topside joss. A queerish sort of story, don’t you think?” COMIGDIOOKSEEO