Argosy All-Story Weekly, December 2, 1922 — page 63: what you’re looking at

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

Ws Reh S a x RS We ao re) Ba NPs: <> <4 % = a ae ae < By DON CAMERON SHAFER x LL those wild Mangeromas of the jun- gle are possessed with devils. They are fit only for the rubber fields and extermination. I, Joao da Cal- vero, one of the oldest seringales of the Amazon, should know—Parque, have I not many times purchased these worthless sav- ages as new conscript labor for my rubber gathering?” : With descending darkness the sobbing wail of the howling monkeys died out and the nocturnal birds and beasts took up their round of noise. —The moon came mounting swiitly above a distant fringe of towering palms, flooding the undulating surface of the matted and tangled jungle with a bril- liant, mellow glow which barely trickled to earth about our tambo, or camp, so dense was the foliage above. Night—but not still! A continuous rus- tling in the jungle—a continuous slashing in the river. Now and then a rotted, creep- er-strangled branch, gnawed through and through by insects, crashed to earth. Down near the water a great tropical owl shrieked and moaned and there was a flutter of strong wings from restless parrots in the palm fronds, the squeak and clatter of night- time animals on the dank earth and many unexplainable sounds. Once it was as as though a distant bell was ringing—the measured beating of a hollow drum—and again a piercing, unearthly shriek of death. “ But what have the wild Mangeromas to do with the high price you are asking for your rubber?” I questioned in my best Por- tuguese as I watched Joao in his fire-lit hammock deftly rolling another cigarette. “Tt is true, senor, that I am asking of you foreign rubber buyers a high price,” an- swered Joao, quite unperturbed, “ but you must not forget that every hundred ki/o- gramo of caoutchouc I have stored in my defumador has already cost me many pieces of gold—and at least one human life.” “Even so, senkor, but have I not also heard that human life is cheapest along the Amazon?” 333 a i ae comicbooks.com