Black Canaan | Page 9

Saul Stark. You shall see
that. You shall know and understand your own doom. And then you too
shall go into the swamp, into darkness and silence deep as the darkness
of nighted Africa! But before the darkness engulfs you there will be
sharp knives, and little fires-oh, you will scream for death, even for the
death that is beyond death!"
With a choking cry I whipped out a pistol and leveled it full at her
breast. It was cocked and my finger was on the trigger. At that range I
could not miss. But she looked full into the black muzzle and
laughed-laughed-laughed, in wild peals that froze the blood in my
veins.
And I sat there like an image pointing a pistol I could not fire! A
frightful paralysis gripped me. I knew, with numbing certainty, that my
life depended on the pull of that trigger, but I could not crook my
finger-not though every muscle in my body quivered with the effort
and sweat broke out on my face in clammy beads.
She ceased laughing, then, and stood looking at me in a manner

indescribably sinister.
"You cannot shoot me, Kirby Buckner," she said quietly. "I have
enslaved your soul. You cannot understand my power, but it has
ensnared you. It is the Lure of the Bride of Damballah-the blood I have
mixed with the mystic waters of Africa drawing the blood in your veins.
Tonight you will come to me, in the House of Damballah."
"You lie!" My voice was an unnatural croak bursting from dry lips.
"You've hypnotized me, you she-devil, so I can't pull this trigger. But
you can't drag me across the swamps to you."
"It is you who lie," she returned calmly. "You know you lie. Ride back
toward Grimesville or wherever you will Kirby Buckner. But when the
sun sets and the black shadows crawl out of the swamps, you will see
me beckoning you, and you will follow me. Long I have planned your
doom, Kirby Buckner, since first I heard the white men of Canaan
talking to you. It was I who sent the word down the river that brought
you back to Canaan. Not even Saul Stark knows of my plans for you.
"At dawn Grimesville shall go up in flames, and the heads of the white
men will be tossed in the blood-running streets. But tonight is the Night
of Damballah, and a white sacrifice shall be given to the black gods.
Hidden among the trees you shall watch the Dance of the Skull-and
then I shall call you forth-to die! And now, go fool! Run as far and as
fast as you will. At sunset, wherever you are, you will turn your
footsteps toward the House of Damballah!"
And with the spring of a panther she was gone into the thick brush, and
as she vanished the strange paralysis dropped from me. With a gasped
oath I fired blindly after her, but only a mocking laugh floated back to
me.
Then in a panic I wrenched my horse about and spurred him down the
trail. Reason and logic had momentarily vanished from my brain,
leaving me in the grasp of blind primitive fear. I had confronted sorcery
beyond my power to resist. I had felt my will mastered by the
mesmerism in a brown woman's eyes. And now one driving urge

overwhelmed me-a wild desire to cover as much distance as I could
before that low-hanging sun dipped below the horizon and the black
shadows came crawling from the swamps.
And yet I knew I could not outrun the grisly specter that menaced me. I
was like a man fleeing in a nightmare, trying to escape from a
monstrous phantom which kept pace with me despite my desperate
speed.
I had not reached the Richardson cabin when above the drumming of
my flight I heard the clop of hoofs ahead of me, and an instant later,
sweeping around a kink in the trail, I almost rode down a tall, lanky
man on an equally gaunt horse.
He yelped and dodged back as I jerked my horse to its haunches, my
pistol presented at his breast.
"Look out, Kirby! It's me-Jim Braxton! My God, you look like you'd
seen a ghost! What's chasin' you?"
"Where are you going?" I demanded, lowering my gun.
"Lookin' for you. Folks got worried as it got late and you didn't come in
with the refugees: I 'lowed I'd light out and look for you. Miz
Richardson said you rode into the Neck. Where in tarnation you been?"
"To Saul Stark's cabin."
"You takin' a big chance. What'd you find there?"
The sight of another white man had somewhat steadied ray nerves. I
opened my mouth to narrate my adventure, and was shocked to