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Virginia Maxon, idling beneath the leafy shade of the tropical foliage, became
presently aware that she had wandered farther from the campong than she had
intended. The day was sultry, and the heat, even in the dense shade of the
jungle, oppressive. Slowly she retraced her steps, her eyes upon the ground, her
mind absorbed in sad consideration of her father's increasing moodiness and
eccentricity.
Possibly it was this very abstraction which deadened her senses to the near
approach of another. At any rate the girl's first intimation that she was not alone
came when she raised her eyes to look full into the horrid countenance of a
fearsome monster which blocked her path toward camp.
The sudden shock brought a single involuntary scream from her lips. And who
can wonder! The thing thrust so unexpectedly before her eyes was hideous in the
extreme. A great mountain of deformed flesh clothed in dirty, white cotton
pajamas! Its face was of the ashen hue of a fresh corpse, while the white hair
and pink eyes denoted the absence of pigment; a characteristic of albinos.
One eye was fully twice the diameter of the other, and an inch above the
horizontal plane of its tiny mate. The nose was but a gaping orifice above a
deformed and twisted mouth. The thing was chinless, and its small, foreheadless
head surrounded its colossal body like a cannon ball on a hill top. One arm was
at least twelve inches longer than its mate, which was itself long in proportion to
the torso, while the legs, similarly mismated and terminating in huge, flat feet
that protruded laterally, caused the thing to lurch fearfully from side to side as it
lumbered toward the girl.
A sudden grimace lighted the frightful face as the grotesque eyes fell upon this
new creature. Number One had never before seen a woman, but the sight of this
one awoke in the unplumbed depths of his soulless breast a great desire to lay
his hands upon her. She was very beautiful. Number One wished to have her for
his very own; nor would it be a difficult matter, so fragile was she, to gather her
up in those great, brute arms and carry her deep into the jungle far out of
hearing of the bull-whip man and the cold, frowning one who was continually
measuring and weighing Number One and his companions, the while he
scrutinized them with those strange, glittering eyes that frightened one even more
than the cruel lash of the bull whip.
Number One lurched forward, his arms outstretched toward the horror stricken
girl. Virginia tried to cry out again--she tried to turn and run; but the horror of
her impending fate and the terror that those awful features induced left her
paralyzed and helpless.
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