Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1937-02-19
CHAPTER TX

Like the SCrOke VI uOOIIL oOuhuCU
the first hollow note of drum.
Liette started-there was something
terrifying in the drums booming
reverberation, something that herald
ed a death too terrifying to contem-
plate. But, steadily, the tempa and
the pitch increased from slow rhy-
thin to a faster, more insistent beat.
When she looked up, it was to be-
hold the door and window crammed
with dozens of cleaning black faces
whose eyes wandered over her scarce
ly covered figure in deliberate cal
culation, then, oddly enough, in the
midst of her distress various jokes re-
lating to the last remarks of mission
aries wrecked in the South Seas came
to her mind and she actually smiled.
Outside and along the fire-illumined
decks rose thousand voices in wild
barbaric chant to which the rumbling
of tom-toms played a barbaric OBJ
ligato. She held her breath appren-
hensively as the sound died away and
another curious sound struck her ear
rather like the irregular slapping
of mems hands. Her small head
proudly erect, she looked out of the
door to behold three of the most ap-
paling hideous monsters the human
mind could conceive.
Three huge, nearly naked creatures
crudely smeared with white paint
were spinning madly over the deck in
eccentric circles, stamping noisily and
ever so often flinging their hands vio-
lently skywards and wildly shaking
large gourd rattles that were tufted
with far streaming plumes of human
hair.
Liette shuddered and instinctively
shrank to the farthest wall of her
prison as three figures whirled to-
wards the deck house with frenzied
leaps, their jaws working and eyes
rolling. She shut her eyes moment
when the naked feet on the greasy
planks drew very near, for in spite
of her dauntless will her body rebelled
at becoming the plaything of that
dark restless mob whose strong body
odors filled the night with choking
reek.
The fire, she realized, had been in
creased to great heights; by its light
she could distinctly see the three witch
III 0f 1ov nd C1n
hairy head dresses with the distinc-
tive up-curving horns, but there the
mutual semblance ceased. Each sway
ing, writhing body was grotesquely
decked with an odd miscellany of OBJ
jects, curtain rings, copper oil cans,
punches of feathers.
Struggling to keep her self-control,
Liette listened; then shrank back as
with a concerted plunge the three
leaped inside and, gripping her by
the arms and shoulders, heaved her
to her feet.
In an instant she was dragged out
side facing an apparently endless sea
of dark, broad features that examined
her eagerly, for the goat skin had be-
come disarranged.
While the close-packed mass blacks
drew back at the approach OF the
witch doctors, she had brief oppor-
tunity to note the huge stone plat
form. 1t seemed to be at great dis
lance; there was long, glowing fire
built of roughly-hacked spars and
booms cleaned from the plenteous
supply of the wreck pack, beyond this
was the kitchen table she had prev
iously noted, and still further on stood
three ominous motionless figures in
white. At their feet was heaped-I
Liette's heart stopped as she beheld
it-a triple row of sardonically gaping
human skulls.
Had the moment not been so entire
ly dreadful, Liette fit she could have
laughed at the appearance of the trio
ranged beside the table. In the CEN
ter TODD an enormously fat negress
with topaz colored eyes, clad in a
spotted white nightgown of antique
design. In the fuzzy pillows of her
coarse black wool was pinned bat
tered silk hat canted at grotesque
angle About her bulllike oily neck
hung great golden chain from which
was suspended long, double-edged
knife, the blade of which, swaying
with the priestesss subconscious mo-
lions, blinked lazily in the freight.
To the left of her, was curious Great
ure who rocked her body back and
forth at the anne time blowing hideous
discords upon long silver mounted