Juju
Murray Leinster
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
The Thrill Book, October 15, 1919.]
Contents
| I. | AN AFRICAN NIGHT. |
| II. | THE SEEKER OF VENGEANCE. |
| III. | EVAN'S SORTIE. |
| IV. | THE FIRST VICTIM. |
| V. | AS BY MAGIC. |
| VI. | THE FORM THAT CREPT. |
| VII. | A STRANGE ALLY. |
| VIII. | UNMASKED. |
| IX. | THE GORILLA'S SCREAM. |
| X. | AT THE PADRE'S. |
CHAPTER I.
AN AFRICAN NIGHT.
From the juju house the witch doctor emerged, bedaubed with coloredearths and bright ashes. The drums renewed their frantic, resoundingthunder. The torchbearers capered more actively, and yelled moreexcitedly. The drumming had gone on all day and its hypnotic effecthad culminated in a species of ecstasy in which the blacks yelled andcapered, and capered and yelled, without any clear notion of why orwhat they yelled.
With great solemnity, the witch doctor led forward a young native girl,her face bedaubed with high juju signs. She was in the last stage ofpanic. If she did not flee, it was because she believed a worse fateawaited her flight than if she submitted to whatever was in store forher now.
Two men stepped forward and threw necklaces of magic import about herneck. Two other men who upon occasion acted as the assistants of thechief witch doctor seized the girl's hands. The shouting mass of blacksformed themselves into a sort of column.
At the front were the drums, those incredible native drums hollowedout of a single log, and which come from the yet unknown fastnessesof the darkest interior, far back of Lake Tchad. Behind them camethe torchbearers, yelling a rhythmic chant and capering in almostunbelievable attitudes as they passed along. Next came the witchdoctor, important and mysterious. Behind him came more torchbearers,yelling hysterically at the surrounding darkness. Then came the twoassistants, dragging the young girl who was almost paralyzed withterror. And the entire population of the village followed in their