THE SUNDAY FICTION MAGAZINE, FEBRUARY 20, 191&
house lost bis temper. "How the devil
should I know ? be said to Pollock' twen
tieth Inquiry what .the Porroh man would
do. "He tried to kill you off-hand In the
hut. Now; I fancy he -will try something:
more elaborate. But you'll see ' fast
enough. I don't want to help unnerve
you. It's probably aU nonsense.
That night, as they were sitting; at
their fire. Pollock : again tried to draw
Waterhouse out on the subject of Porroh
methods. "Better get to sleep," said Wa-
bad to put tip there for five days before before. The Mendi rough showed Pollock dark when he wax returning from Per-
he could - get on to Freetown. Water
house,. -considering him. to be Compara
tively safe here, and -within the pale of
Freetown influence, left him and went
back with the expedition to Gbemma, and
Pollock became very friendly with Perera,
the only resident white trader at Sulyma
a little iron -. dagger, and demonstrated era's. -He killed two snakes before he
where one struck in the neck, in a way went to sleep. . In the darkest part of the
that made Pollock shiver; and in return night he awoke with a start, and heard a
for certain considerations Pollock prom- pattering sound and something scraping;:
ised him a double-barreled gun with an on the floor. He sat up noiselessly, and
ornamental lock. felt under his pillow for his revolver. A
In the evening, as Pollock and Perera. mumbling growl followed, and Pollock
so friendly. Indeed, that he went about were playing cards, the Mendi rough came
with him everywhere. Perera was a little
Portuguese Jew, who had lived In Eng
land, and he appreciated. 1 the English-
terhouse, when Pollock's bent became ap- man's friendliness as a great compliment.
parent; "we start early tomorrow. Tou
may want all your nerve about you.
"But what line will he take?" :
"Can't say. They're versatile people.
They know a lot of rum dodges. - You'd
better get that copper devil, Shakespear,
to talk."
There was a flash and a heavy bang
out of the darkness behind the huts,' and
a clay bullet came whistling close to Pol
lock's head. This, at least, was crude
enough. The blacks and half-breeds sit
ting and yarning round their own fire
jumped up. and some one fired Into the
dark.
"Better go into one of the huts," said
Waterhouse, quietly, still sitting unmoved.
Pollock stood up by the fire and drew
his revolver. Fighting, at least, he was
not afraid of. But a man in the dark is
in the best of armor. Realizing the wis
dom of Waterhouse's advice, Pollock went
into the tent and lay down there.
What little sleep he had was disturbed
by dreams, variegated dreams, but chiefly
of the Porroh man's face, upside down, as
he went out of the hut, and looked up un
der his arm. It was odd that this transi
tory impression should have stuck so firm
ly in Pollock's memory. Moreover, he was
troubled by queer pains in his limbs.
In the white hae of the early morn
ing, as they were loading the canoes, a
barbed arrow suddenly, appeared quiver
ing In the ground close to Pollock's foot.
The boys made a perfunctory effort to
clear out the thicket, but it led to no cap
ture. , "
After these two occurrences there was
a disposition on the part of the expedi
tion to leave Pollock to himself, and Pol
lock became, for the first timer in his life,
anxious to mingle with blacks. Water
house took one canoe, and Pollock, in
spite of a friendly desire to chat with
Waterhouse, had-to take the other. He
was left all alone in the front part of the
canoe, and he had the greatest trouble to
make the men who did not love him
keep to the middle of the river, a clear
hundred yards or more from either shore.
However,-he made Shakespear, the Free
town half-breed, come up to his own end
of the canoe and tell him about Porroh,
which Shakespear, failing in his attempts
to leave Pollock alone, presently did with
considerable freedom and gusto.
The day passed. The canoe glided
swiftly along the ribbon -of lagoon water,
between the drift of water-figs, fallen
trees, papyrus, and palm-wine palms, and
with the dark mangrove swamp to the
left, through which one could hear now
and then the roar of the Atlantic surf.
Shakespear. . told, in
his soft blurred Eng
lish,, of how the Por
roh could cast spells'
how meir withered up
under their malice;
how ' they could semi
dreams and' devils;
how they - tormented
and killed the sons of
For two days nothing happened out of
the ordinary; for the most part Pollock
in through the doorway, carrying some
thing In a blood-soaked piece of native
cloth.
"Not here!" said Pollock, very hur
riedly. "Not here!"
But he was not quick enough to; pre-'
and Perera played Nap the only game vent the man, who was anxious to get to
c )
y
r "
they had in common and Pollock got into
debt. Then, on the second evening. Pol
lock had a disagreeable intimation of the
arrival of the Porroh man In Sulyma by
getting a flesh wound In the shoulder
from a lump of filed iron. Jt was a long
shot, and the missile had nearly spent its
force when it hit him. Still it .conveyed
its message plainly enough, .Pollock sat
up' in his hammock, revolver in hand, all
that night, and next morning confided, to
some extent, in the Anglo-Portuguese.
Perera took the matter seriously. He
knew the local cus
toms pretty thorough
ly. "It Is a personal
question,' you must
know. It is revenge.
And of course he is
hurried by your leav
ing de country. None
of de natives or half
breeds will Interfere
wid him very much unless you make it
wort deir. while. If you come upon him
suddenly, you might shoot him. But den
he might shoot you.
"Den dere's dis infernal magic," said
Perera. "Of course, I don't believe in it
superstition; but still it's not nice to tink
dat wherever you are dere is a black man
who spends a moonlight night now and
den a -dancing about a fire to send you
bad dreams Had any bad dreams?"
"Rather," said Pollock. "I keep on
seeing the beggar's head upside down
grinning at me and showing all his teeth
as he did in the hut, and coming close up
to me, and then going ever so far off, but
somehow it simply paralyzes me with ter
ror in my sleep. Queer . things dreams.
I know it's a dream all the time,' and I
can't wake up from it."
"It's probably only fancy," said Perera.
"Den my niggers say Porroh men can
send snakes. Seen any snakes lately?"
"Only one. I killed him this' morning,
on the floor near my hammock. Almost
trod "on him as I got up..?'
"Ah!" said Perera. and then, reassur
ingly, "Of course it is a coincidence. Still
I would keep my eyes open. Den dere's
pains in de bones."
"I though? they were due to miasma,"
said Pollock.
"Probably dey are. When did dey be
gin?" Then Pollock remembered that he first
noticed them the night after the fight In
the hut. It's my opinion he don't want to
kill you," said Perera; "at least not yet.
I've heard deir idea is to scare and worry
a man wid.delr spells, and narrow misses,
and rheumatic . pains, and - bad dreams,
and' all .dat, until he's sick; of . life. Of
course. It's all talk, you know. Tou
mustn't worry about It But, I wonder
what he'll be up to next."
fired at the sound. There was a yelp, and
something dark passed for a- moment
across the haxy blue of the doorway. "A
dog!" said Pollock, lying down again.
In the early dawn he awoke again with :
a peculiar sense of un
rest. The vague pain
in his bones had re
turned. For some time
he lay watching the
red ants that - were
Pollock's side of the bargain, from open
ing the cloth and throwing the head of
the Porroh-man upon the table." It bound
ed from there onto the floor, leaving a red,, swarming o"v e r the
trail on the cards, and rolled into a cor- ceiling, and then, as
ner, where it came to rest upside down, ' the light grew' brlght-
but glaring hard at Pollock.
Perera Jumped up , as the thing fell
among the cards, and began in his ex
citement to gabble in Portuguese. The
Mendi was bowing, with the red'cloth in
his hand. "De gun!" he said. Pollock
stared back at the' head in the corner. It
bore exactly the expression it had in his
dreams. Something seemed to snap in
his own brain as he looked at it.
Then Perera found his English again.
" "Tou got him killed?" he said. "Tou
did not kill him yourself?"
"Why should I?" said Pollock.
. "But he will not be able to take it off
now!" ' 1
"Take what off?" said Pollock.
"And all dese cards are spoiled 1"
"What do you mean by taking off?"
said. Pollock. ' a.;-"-".
c c
er be looked over the
edge of his hammock and saw something
dark on the floor. He gave such a vio
lent start that the hammock overset and
flung- him out. ;
He found himself lying, perhaps, a
yard away from the head of the Porroh
man. It had been disinterred by the dog,
and the nose was grievously battered.
Ants and fifes swarmed over it. By an
odd coincidence it was still upside down,
and with the same diabolical expression;
in the Inverted eyes. '
. Pollock sat paraiysedr and stared at
the horror for some tune.. Then he got up
and walked round it giving ft a wide
berth and out of the - shed. The clear
light of the sunrise, the living stir of veg
etation before t the breath " of the ' dying "
land-breeze,; and the empty grave : with
"Tou must send me a , new pack from , the marks of "the dog's paws,- lightened
Freetown. Tou can buy dem dere."
"Buttake it off'?" . .
"It is only superstition. I forgot. '. De ;
niggers say dat if de witches he was a
witch But It Is rubbish ' Tou must
make de Porroh man' take it off, or kill
him yourself It is very silly.'" ' ... .... -
Pollock swore under bis" breath, still
staring hard at the head in "the corner.'
"I can't stand that glare, he said.
the weight upon his' mind a little.-"-
He 1 told Perera " of the - business as
though it was a Jest a jest to be told
with white' lips." "Tou should not have
frighten de dog," said Perera, with poor
ly simulated hilarity. ,
- The next two days,7 until the steamer
came, were spent by. Pollock in making a
more effectual disposition of his pos
session. Overcoming his aversion to ban
Then suddenly he rushed at the thing and dling the thing, he went down to'tbe river -kicked
It. It relied some yards or so, and mouth and threw it Into the sea-water,
came to rest in the 'same position as be- but by some miracle it escaped the croc-
fore, upside down, and looking at him.
"He is ugly," said . the Anglo-Portuguese.
. "Very ugly. Dey do it on deir
faces with little knives."
Pollock would have kicked the head
again, but the Mendi
man touched - him on
the arm. "De gun?"
he said, looking nerv
ously at the head. -
."Two if - you will
take that beastly thing1
away," said Pollock.
The Mendi shook his
head, and -intimated
that he only wanted one gun now due to
him, and for which he would be obliged.
Pollock found neither cajolery nor bully-.
odiles, and was cast up by the tide on"
th mild n tittln urnv nn 4Va vIuao V.- '
- " f . V j IV w
found by an intelligent Arab half-breed,
anu wiereu tor sate to jonocK and Perera
as a curiositv. Inst nn fhA ntn nf nivh
The native hung about in the brief twi
light, making lower and lower offers, and ii
at last, getting scared in some way by the
evident dread these wise white men had
lock's shed, threw his burden in there for
Pollock to discover in the morning. -
At this Pollock got Into a kind of
trenrv - H nnM Knni ,m. . kin -. ....
- . . w. units JLAV
a .... . . '
Tvcuvuu ouaifiinway inw me aawn ana ,
had constructed a big pyre of brushwood -before
the heat of the day. " Ha was intotw
rupted by the hooter of the little paddle
ing any good with him. Perera had a gun" steamer .from Monrovia to - Bathurst,"
which was coming through the gap In the "
bar. ."Thank heaven!" said Pollock, with'
infinite ; piety, . when the meaning of ; the 4
sound dawned upon him. 4 With trembling
hands he lit his pile of wood - hastily,
threw' the head upon it, and went away to
pack"- bis portmanteau and make his
to sell (at a profit of 300 per cent), and
with that the man presently departed.
Then Pollock's eyes, against his will, were
recalled to the thing on the floor. ...
"It Is funny dat his head keeps upside
down," . said Perera, ", with an uneasy
laugh. "His brains must be heavy, like
de weight in de little Images one sees dat adieux to Perera. - '
keep; always upright wid lead in dem.' . That afternoon, with a sense of Infinite
Z '"I Shall have to be up to something Tou will take him wiv you when you go relief. Pollock watched the flat swampy
first,' said Pollock, staring gloomily at presently. Tou might take him now. De foreshore of Sulyma grow small in the
the greasy cards that Perera was putting cards are all spoiled. .Dere is a man sell distance. The gap In the long line of
on the table. "It don't suit my dignity to dem In Freetown. De room is in a filthy white - surge became narrower and nar-
mess as it is. Tou should have killed him rower. ; It : seemed to be ' closing In and
yourself cutting him "off from bis. trouble The
Pollock pulled himself together and feeling of dread and worry began to slip
went and picked up the head. He would from him bit by bit.' At Sulyma belief in
said Perera. hang it up by the lamp-hook. In the mid- Porroh malignity, and Porroh magic had
are wonderful die of the ceiling of his room, and dig a been in the air, his sense of Porroh had
grave for" it at once." He was under the been vast,' pervading, threatening, dread-
Impression that he hung It up by the hair, ful. Now manifestly the domain of Por- r
but that must have been wrong, for when roh was only a little place, a little black
he returned for it, it was hanging by the band between the sea and the blue cloudy
expedition number of red ants that swarmed over neck upside down. .Mendi uplands. , , " -
the place; and these annoyances put him . He buried it before sunset on the north - "Oood-by, ; Porroh!"
Ijibu; how they kidnaped a white trader
from" Sulyma who had maltreated one of be ; followed - about, 'and shot " at, and
the sect, and how his body looked when it blighted in this way. . I wonder if Porroh
was found.- And Pollock after each nar- hokey-pokey upsets ' your - luck at cards."
rative cursed ' under his breath at the He looked at Perera suspiciously.
want of missionary enterprise that l- "Very likely It does,
lowed such things to be, and at the Inert warmly, shuffling. Dey
British government " that ruled over this people." - ,-
dark heathendom of Sierra Leone. In the . That - afternoon. Pollock killed two
evening they came to the Kasi Lake, and snakes in his hammock, and there was
sent a score of crocodiles lumbering off also -an extraordinary increase in the
the '' Island : on f which the
camped for the night
said PoliJc,
"The - next day ' they reached - Snlyma,' in a fit temper to talk over business with side of the shed he occupied, so that he 'Good-by certainly not at( revoir." . .
and smelled the sea breese; but Pollock a certain Mendi rough he had Interviewed should not have to pass the grave after The raptain of the steamer came and