The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-25

If you would just put a light TO 1t, VIII
see how Walker feels this morning.
He left me. but was back in an instant
with dreadful face.
Hes gone," he cried hoarsely.
The words sent thrill of horror through
me. I stood with the lamp in my hand
| glaring at him.
YES, he's goner' he repeated. "Come
| and look.'
1 followed him without word. and the
] first thing that 1 saw as l entered the bed
room was Walker himself lying huddled on
his bed in the gray flannel sleeping suit in
which I had helped to dress him on the
night before.
Not dead, surelyr' I gasped
The doctor was terribly agitated. His
hands were shaking like leaves in the wind.
Hes been dead some hours
| ''Was it fever?"
Fever Look at his foot!'
I glanced down and cry of horror burst
from my lips. One foot was not merely dis
located but was turned completely round in
| most grotesque contortion.
Good God!' cried. What can have
done this?"
Several had laid his hand upon the dead
mans chest.
Feel here he whispered.
placed my hand at the same spot There
was no resistance. The BODY was absolutely
soft and limp. 1t was like pressing a saw
dust doll
1.-THE breast-bone is gone" said Several
in the same awed whisper. He's broken 10
bits. Thank God that he had the laudanum.
You can see by his face that he died in
his sleep"
But who can have done thie?"
'Ive had about as much ash can stand"
said the doctor. wiping his forehead. IT
don't know that I'm a greater coward than
my neighbors. but this gets beyond me: If
you're going out to the Gamecock--"
Come ont" said /, and off we started. If
we did not run it was because each of us
wished to keep up the last shadow of his
| self-respect before the other. 1t was dan
gerous in a light canoe on that swollen
| river, but we never paused to give the mat
ter thought. He bailing and l padding
| we kept her above water, and gained the
| deck of the yacht There with two hundred
yards of water between US and this cursed
island, we felt that we were our own men
| once more.
We'll go back in an hour or So" said he
But we need little time to steady our
selves. 1 wouldn't have had the niggers see
me as was just now for a years salary"
i've told the steward to prepare break
fast. Then we shall go back" said l. but,
in Gods name, Doctor Several what do you
make of it ALP
1T beats me-beats me clean I've heard
of Voodoo devilry, and I've laughed at it
with the others. But that poor old Walker,
a decent, God-fearing, nineteenth century,
Primrose League Englishman should go
under like this without a whole bone in his
body-it's given me a shake, won't deny
it. But look there, Medium; is that hand of
yours mad or drunk, or what is it?"
Old Patterson, the oldest man of my crew,
and as steady as the Pyramids, had been
stationed in the bows with beat hook to
fend off the drifting logs which came sweep
| ing down with the current Now he stood
with crooked knees, glazing out in front Of
him, and one forefinger stabbing furiousy
at the air.
Look at it!'' he yelled. Look at it!'
And at the same instant we saw it,
A huge black tree trunk was coming down
the river. it's broad glstenng back just
Tapped by the water. And in front of it
about three feet in front-arching upwards
like the fgure-head of a ship, there hung
a dreadful face, swaying slowly from side
to side. 1t was fattened, malignant as
large as a small beer barrel, of a faded
fungoid color, but the neck which supported
|
AS it flew past the ~Gamecock' in the swirl
Of the waters 1 saw two immense coils roll
up out of some great hollow in the tree and
the villainous head rose suddenly to the
height of eight or ten feet, looking with
dull, skin-covered eyes at the yacht. An
instant later the tree had shot past us and
was plunging with it's horrible passenger to-
wards the Atlantic.
What was it?" cried.
'It is our fiend of the cooperage," said DR..
Several, and he had become in an instant
the same bluff, self-confdent man that he
had been before. les that is the devil
who has been haunting our island. 1t is the
great python of the Gaboon."
1 thought of the stories which I had heard
all down the coast of the monstrous con-
strctors of the interior, of their periodical
appetite and of the murderous effects of
their deadly squeeze. Then it all took shape
in my mind. There had been a freshet the
week before. 1t had brought down this
huge hollow tree with it's hideous occu-
pant. Who knows from what far distant
tropical forest it may have come. 1t had
been stranded on the little east bay of the
island. The ccoperage had been the near
est house. Twice, with the return of its
appetite, it had carried off the watchmen.
Last night it had doubtless come again,
when Several had thought he saw some
thing move at the window, but our lights
had driven it away. 1t had writhed onward
and had slain poor Walker in his sleep.
"Why did it not carry him off? asked.
'"The thunder and lightning must have
scared the brute away. There's your stew
ard Medium. The sooner we have break
| fast and get back to the island the better,
or some of those nggers might think that
| we had been frightened"