Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 17, 1924 — page 47: what you’re looking at

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

J thinks that it does, and the natives, being by nature courteous, do not disillusion him. “Icona hamba,”’ one of the natives ~re- plied gravely in response to Ginger Dick’s demand that they be allowed to go. “ First skoff.” His lips parted in a happy grin, disclos- ing white, strong looking teeth, and he rubbed his stomach as if in anticipation of a luxurious meal. The two white men retired to their cots. “Are they cannibals, Ginger?” Hard- wick asked with some show of apprehen- sion. ‘‘I don’t mind dying—not so very much, at least—but what a hell of a way to be buried!” “Naw! They ain’t cannibals. Canni- bals are dirty louts, Cannibals file their teeth. But these”—he shook his head doubtfully—‘ I don’t know wot these have. Shall hus rush ’em, cully?” “ No! I don’t think that would be wise,” said Hardwick after a moment’s thought. “Better wait and see what happens. I have a feeling that if we went looking for trouble we’d find it—and more than we bargained for, at that. “Hell! I’m hungry!” As he spoke a comely native girl entered. She carried a tray on which were two plates of mealie meal, milk, cups, and a pot of steaming black coffee. She placed it on the table between the two men and then squatted down on the floor near the door. Ginger Dick toyed suspiciously with his food then walked over to the girl and held to her a spoonful of the paplike cereal. “You skoff,” he said. But she shook her head, laughing slightly, as she replied: “Tt no bad. No make you belly sick. I eat it if you no believe, but Mary no lie.” * An’ 00’ the ’ell’s Mary?” “Me, Mary.” ‘* And who are you?” “Me, Mary. Me Inkoosikaas Katje’s servant.” * And who is Inkoosikaas Katje?” “You eat, white man, then you see. Mary take you to her.” “Tet’s eat, Ginger,” Hardwick said en- couragingly. “If they are going to kill us THE SENTIMENTAL BLOKE. 197 —and, somehow I don’t think they are— they wouldn’t take the bother to poison us. Those chaps with the spears outside could do the job very neatly and without any trouble.” ‘““Blimme if Hi don’t fink you’re right, cully,” Ginger Dick assented. “ But p’haps they’re trying to fatten hus hup.” But he fell to without any further pro- testations and did not stop until he had, in a sense, licked the platter clean. . “You come along with Mary now?” the girl asked as Ginger Dick, smacking his lips with great gusto, loudly announced in well satisfied tones: ‘“‘T’ve never ’ad better coffee.” They followed her out of the hut, dis- covering to their great astonishment that the latter, which was on the outskirts of a small kraal—beyond the encircling palisade of thorn bush—was only a stone’s throw from a large, rambling house built of red veldt stone and which blended in so well with the surrounding kopjes as to make it inconspicuous even at so short a distance; it appeared at first sight to be only a dark red blotch against a dark background. The kraal and the house were both built on a small plateau and, apparently, was entirely surrounded by bare, rock strewn kopjes. The place seemed entirely cut off from the outside world; there was no road « which they could perceive leading from the plateau to the veldt below, although they were well aware that such a road must exist. But neither he nor Ginger Dick—who’‘ex- pressed the belief that they must “ ’ave floied hup ’ere,” had time to give their surroundings more than a passing glance, for almost immediately upon their emerging from the hut, four brawny warriors closed in on them and they were marched down toward the house, preceded by the native girl. A few minutes later they were ushered into a long, narrow room which, although it was almost devoid of furniture, had an air of luxury about it. Seated on a low stool at the far end of the room, surrounded by gray bearded na- tives was a slender slip of a girl—at first Hardwick thought she was a boy—with short, curly hair, dressed in patched khaki CORNICLOOOkKS (C@