Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 13, 1923 — page 168: what you’re looking at

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

630 sounded in the thatched roof of the hut; two scorpions, locked together in deadly combat, fell to his shoulder, thence to the floor. With an oath he ground them under his heel. He stiffened suddenly at the sound of a woman’s voice outside the hut. “‘ He is in there, my father.” “That is good. Now get you gone and see that no one comes near this place until the morning’s sun. Mayhap a great won- der-working will be performed.” Smithers shivered slightly; his face paled; his. hand felt for, and fondled, the butt of his revolver. A patter of running footsteps—growing fainter and fainter! The woman was obey- ing her father’s command. A deep, pregnant silence followed. Smithers half rose from his chair and then a dense cloud of black smoke filled the hut. Half choked, half blinded, Smithers whipped out his revolver and fired through the open door. The fumes of gunpowder mingled with the acrid smoke. Smithers rubbed his smarting eyes; the tears rolled down his fat cheeks. - The smoke thinned, vanished, and there, standing at Smithers’s side was an aged and wizened native. He was naked save for a loin cloth about his middie and the neck- lace of snakes’ fangs and human teeth— the necklace proclaiming him to be a witch doctor of repute. Two large wicker baskets stood on the floor, by his side. - He gazed steadily at Smithers and the white man flinched under the searching, all- seeing scrutiny. - * Tomasi, the servant of the Great Spirit, is here,” said the native. strangely like the harsh croaking of a vul- ture. ‘“ He travels on the wind and no man knows where the wind may blow.” Smithers sneered and with the sneer stilled his fears. After all, he told himself, this man was only a negro—a weak one at that. Why, he could pick up Tomasi with one hand and throw him through the door. Beside—charms and witchcrait were power- less before a revolver. Still, he wished that he had not passed off a number of copper coins—polished to look like gold—as sov- ereigns on the old foo!! His voice was: ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Aloud he said with a snarl: “Have done with words of folly. I am no child to be frightened by mummery. And when next you visif me, come openly—as. a man should.” “Who shall determine the coming and go- ing of a child of the Spirits?” Tomasi pro- claimed sententiously. “ In a cloud of smoke’ I traveled and—” “ Au-a, tula—shut up,” Smithers inter- posed. “A handful of stink grass set on fire will make a cloud like the one on which you traveled.’ “Great. is-the. wisdom of the man who was once a white man,” murmured Tomasi. “ But will that wisdom show you how to avoid death?” ““ Aye. And how to kill.” The revolver in Smithers’s hand pointed at Tomasi’s belly. The witch doctor laughed, showing tooth- less, wrinkled gums. “But you did not kill me when I came through the smoke, and could you kill these?”’ He whistled softly; a plaintive note. There was a rustling in the basket at his feet; the top moved slightly. Still whistling Tomasi stooped quickly and removed the cover. A sickly smell, reminiscent of crushed cucumbers, pervaded the hut. Three flat, ugly venomous heads, suspended on slender columns of greenish-black, rose over the basket’s edge; ever-searching, restless fangs darted in and out of gaping jaws. “ Black mambas!” Smithers ejaculated, naming Africa’s most evil thing, the deadli- est snake in the world. ‘Cover them quick- ly,” he continued, ‘“ lest they escape.” His eyes were dilated with terror. Tomasi. smiled. ““T see,” he mocked, “that you know my friends—and my servants. Think you that the cover would keep them in? Thicker than your wrist, they are; longer than your body. But, while I am here they will stay; me they know. And_ so” — Tomasi shrugged his shoulder—‘ me you might kill; perhaps one mamba, perhaps two, but as- suredly not three. They are hard to kill— yes? And most assuredly the third would kill you. Have you ever seen a man after EOPMICLOOO© , S (E©)