Edgar Wallace

“ Aliki, the huntsman of her village, neither feared nor cared, for he was familiar with magics of all kinds and often walked in the woods communing with devils. One night he saw a vision in the fire, a great red lizard that blinked its heavy eyelids, Aliki looked round his family circle in a cold-blooded search for a victim. Calichi, the fire lizard, is the most benevolent of devils and will accept a deputy for the man or woman to whom, with its red and blinking eyes, it has given its terrible warning of death. ”

“ Then we will be lovers—”
“There is no magic in that, Aliki,” she said, and he saw that she was against him and lifted his spear.
“You die; as Loka died, because of the word which the lizard of fire brought to me,” he said, his voice very low, and his shoulder hunched back for the throw.
“I am Loka!” said the girl, and he looked and his jaw dropped. For she was truly Loka, the woman he had killed. Loka, with her sly eyes and long fingers. And she had Loka's way of putting a red flower behind her ear, and Loka's long, satiny legs. ”

“ THE man in the streaming oilskins listened, his head bent. Agasaka, the slim woman, stood grave, unconscious of shame—the grass girdle had gone and she was as her mother had first seen her. Presently the first wife came to the end of her story.
“Sandi, this is the truth, and if I speak a lie may the long-ones take me to the bottom of the river and feed me to the snakes.”
Sanders, watching her, saw the brown skin go dull and gray; saw the mouth open in shocking fear. ”

“ Calichi is a fastidious devil; nothing short of the best and the most beautiful will please him. Beyond the group sitting about the red fire and eating from the big pot that stood in the embers, were other groups. The village street of Chimbiri-Isisi runs from the forest to the river, a broad avenue fringed with huts, and before each hut burnt a fire, and about each fire squatted the men and women of the house. ”

“ Only Sanders showed no sign of annoyance. Not a muscle of his face moved when Mr. Nickerson Haben made the most unforgivable of all suggestions. He did this out of sheer ignorance and because of that streak of commonness which was his very own.
“A native woman is ... a native woman,” said Sanders quietly. “Happily, I have only had gentlemen under my control, and that complication has never arisen.” ”

“ Come with me into the forest, Loka, and I will tell you magic and give you love such as as old man cannot give.”
She put down her gourd, hiding it in a patch of elephant gnus near the river's edge, and walked behind him into the forest. There, eventually, he killed her. And he lit a fire and saw the lizard, who seemed satisfied. Aliki washed himself in the river and went back to his hut and to sleep. ”

“ They were brown and filled with marvelous luminosity that seemed to quiver as she looked at him.
“Loka died because she was a fool.” she said, “but he who killed her was a bigger. Her pain is past; his to come. Soon Sandi malaka will come, the brown butcher bird, and he will pick the eyes of the man who did this thing.”
Aliki hated her, but he was clever to nod his agreement.
“I am wise, Agasaka,” he said. “I see wonders which no man sees. ”

“ Only the first wife of M'suru saw this, and fell screaming and writhing at her husband's feet, clasping his knees.
Sanders said nothing, but heard much that was in contradiction of the earlier story she had told.
“Come with me, Agasaka, to my fine ship,” he said, for he knew that trouble might follow if the girl stayed with her people. Wars have started for less cause.
He took her to the Zaire; she followed meekly at his heels, though meekness was certainly not in her. ”

“ Sanders stared at the thing and did not move his hand, and then, through the shining body, he saw the deck planks, and the soft bitumen where plank joined plank, and then the viper vanished.
“You do not fear?” he asked gently.
“Lord ... a little; but now I do not fear, for I know that you would not hurt women.”
The Zaire, with its strange passenger, came alongside the residency wharf two hours before sundown on the third day. Captain Hamilton was waiting, a fuming, angry man, for he had been the unwilling host of one who lacked something in manners. ”

“ So he set forth for the Territories by the first available boat, and because this lank and pallid man had a “streak of commonness in him” (his dead wife had often said this to her most intimate friends) , he did not warn the officials of the big river that he was honoring them with a visit. Mr. Haben was of the type who set traps for possibly dishonest servants, and suspected his chauffeur of being in league with the garage man to rob him. ”