Argosy All-Story Weekly, March 15, 1924 — page 155: what you’re looking at

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

784 prods of the spear point, had elicited noth- ing, Khamis led his prisoner into a hut, bound him even more securely, and placed two warriors on guard. -Obebe came to see him. He, too, questioned him, but the River Devil only looked blankly in the face of the chief. “J will make him speak,” said Obebe. « After we have finished eating we will have him out and make him speak. I know many ways.” ~“ Vou must not kill him,” said the witch doctor. “He knows what became of Uh- ha, and until he tells me no one shall kill him.” | “ He will speak beforé he dies,” said Obebe. — “He is a River Devil, and will never die,” said Khamis, reverting to an old tribal controversy. After the. cannibals had eaten they heat- ed irons in a fire near the hut of the witch’ doctor, who was squatting before the en- trance working rapidly with numerous charms—bits of wood wrapped in leaves, pieces of stone, some pebbles, a zebra’s tail. Villagers were congregating about Kha- mis until presently the prisoner could no longer see him. A little later he was taken "out and pushed roughly toward the hut of the witch doctor. Obebe was there, as he saw after the euards had opened a way through the throng, and he stood beside the fire in the center of the circle. It was only a small fire; just enough to keep a couple of irons hot. “Where is Uhha, my daughter?” de- manded Khamis. The River Devil did not answer. Not once had he spoken since Khamis had cap tured him. “ Burn out one of his eyes,” said Obebe. “ That will make him speak.” “Cut out his tongue!” woman. . “Then he\cannot speak at all, you she fool!” cried Khamis. The witch doctor arose and put the ques- tion again, but received no reply. Then Screamed 2 he struck the River Devil a heavy blow. a -upon them all. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, in the face. Khamis had lost his temper, so that he did not fear even the sinister silence of this fiend. “You will answer me now!” he screamed, and, stooping, he’seized a red hot iron. “ The right eye first!” shrilled Obebe. Suddenly the muscles upon the back and Shoulders of the prisoner leaped into action, rolling beneath his brown hide. For just an Instant he appeared to exert a terrific physi- cal force, there was a snapping sound at his back as the strands about his wrists parted, and then steel-thewed fingers fell upon me right wrist of the witch doctor. “Blazing eyes burned into his. Khamis dropped the red hot rod, his fingers para- lyzed by the pressure upon his wrist, and he screamed, for he saw death in the angry face of the river god. Obébe leaped frantically to his feet. Warriors pressed forward—but not near enough to be within reach. of the River Devil. They had never been certain of the safety of tempting fate in any such manner aS Khamis and Obebe had been _ about to do. Now here was the result! The wrath of the River Devil would fall They fell back, some of them, and that was a cue for others to fall back. In the minds of all was the same thought: “(If I have no hand in this, the River Devil will not be angry with me.” Then they turned and fled to their huts, stumbling over women and children who were trying to outdistance their lords and masters. Obebe turned now to flee, also, and the . River Devil picked Khamis up and held him in his two hands high above his head, and ran ‘after the chief. Obebe dodged into his own hut. He had scarce reached the center of it when there came a terrific crash upon the light, thatched roof, which gave way beneath a heavy weight. A body descending upon the chief filled him with terror. The River Devil must have leaped in through the roof of his hut to destroy him! The instinct of self-preservation arose tem- porarily above his fear of the supernatural, for now he was convinced that Khamis had been right and the creature they had held . prisoner was indeed the River Devil. : 9A CoOnnicloook