Show MY MAN WITHOUT LOOKING AT HIS HAND BET A PUP 1 TIBERIUS SMITH his encounter with arctic circle giants by HUGH copyright by joseph B bowles after the sorry outcome of his lour experiment tib got disgusted with installing wheels of progress and as we now had a modicum of the taint ed he decided on a hit of the cosmopolitan almost before I 1 knew it we had swapped dull placidity for the hys bleat and blare of broadway only the change was BO radical I 1 near ly inconvenienced seven motormen by being run over before my patron could drag me aside and into the permanent office of a circus we 11 just stop and say how d ye do said he grabbing me by the collar and encouraging me to enter then did I 1 know the old lust had returned and that once again we were destined to supply foundations tor the big parade not anything with equators in it I 1 groaned as the head sheik fell ou our necks and joyously proclaimed he bad seven we never sleep sleuths trailing us tor a month 1 I m a quitter unless it s mild I 1 insisted in response the main spring pat ted me lovingly on the back and led w to a big map and asked us to guess I 1 held my hat over patagonia Pata gonta or two years before tib and I 1 had vis cited that joint and with fl paper had tried to catch a few of the rollicking sprites who longed to eat magellan and the other early press agents they had proven great sprinters and had caught us before we covered the first quarter and it was only with painful memories and a brokon collar bone we had torn ourselves away and gained the coast something with blondes in it I 1 begged for I 1 saw tib a eyes spark ling as he cocked his head in the old ay and benevolently studied the chart our would be employer in soothing tones reminded bow we had distanced all other collectors in picking up cir truck I 1 ie showed us ten toot posters of our cannibals and sacred goats and lion faced boy and with this gentle lead began to spring the trap to cut it short the circus wanted giants to sustain hla statement he pro deuced cablegrams cable grams and terse letters written in red ink in which the owner eaid he hankered only tor a dozen high men who would scare the village nags into the methodist church when pass ing on parade and they must be lofty enough to do this without recourse to high heeled boots and two toot chakos of course it he wants giants murmured tib and a light not of sea or land gleamed in hla brown eyes as he formally agreed to try his dang dest I 1 knew there was no use in endeavoring to dissuade him and heedless of the threatening gongs I 1 slouched along in his wake unwittingly on my way to a dramatic situation that for pure intensity of emotion wai to render fridays dimpled footprint a merely pretty climax As luck would have it the man ager possessed a blight alp from a moravian missionary who bad been dolha a lecture stunt after a long stop in the edge of the arctic circle armed with this shadow of a hint my patron now led the way to brooklyn and un fortunately landed the lecturer it re quiren a deep display of heart interest in the hat fared stubby tat eaters back home before our man would veer around and answer indiscriminate questions then he opened up and told us of the lost rare of anally and tib murmured in my off ear there wore giants in the earth in those days the missionary hastened to explain ho had never met any of these big people but half asserted bis belief that they could be found somewhere up there in the interior of greenland ho added significantly they were amply protected from circus collectors cot only by peculiar and ell fet marlc conditions but also by cheer avoirdupois he had first learned of this overgrown race he continued from the insults in fact several of his freely perspiring children who ought to have been in better business declared that they had met with stray specimens while penetrating the tar north but it all tho legends and stale stories were true our quarry would not readily eat from our hands yet the more be rambled the more alba eyes twinkled and he was all aglow to learn more of these museum possibilities consequently three additional dit ional hours found us in philadelphia in search of old sea dogs who prowl about the greenland waters yearly in their barks the mis flonary had furnished us with the name of one of this ilk a man who was a crude expert upon the ines of the polar icecap ice cap and who had recently returned to civilization on finding him tib easily managed to make him talk and the old salt startled us by declaring he had seen some of the in a mining settlement near bay he pictured them as being from seven to nine feet tall but apologized for the former and ex they probably had been am properly nurtured he believed they celebrated their at homes in the burglar proof regions of the ultimate north and had rambled down to the southwest coast because of terribly severe storms and the sub zero stunts of the thermometer this was enough for my patron and another day saw us in consultation with the main spring of the circus the upshot was we took passage on a bark immediately bound tor the frost bitten isle coast of grenland you know Is the only spot on the map that yields alte in commercial quantities and a company in the keystone state enjoys the exclusive privilege of shipping the stuff to the americas Amerl cas we embarked on one of their boats so as not to at tract attention tor there were callec tors who kept close tabs on tib why jenkens collecting for a wild animal show once trailed us all through the congo district realizing we were after something good while bounding over the billows tib kept school and informed me we would arrive at at the begin nang of the summer season when the average mean temperature Is 48 de grees fahrenheit tor three months and where tho officials of the danish government try to eradicate homesick ness by growing turnips lettuce and very email potatoes mainly under glass by the time we began to be an noyed by the waters of dails strait I 1 was so crammed full of arctic lore that I 1 had to step softly so as not to jolt any vital facts out of my system that was bibs way he never went into a strange place but what he was loaded at wo presented our ere denti als tp the agents who sent us on to godthaab the capital of danish south greenland here we were shaken down tor newspapers and any information that dlan t date back be yond the stone age but on the whole we were handsomely treated by those holding the reins of government over this gigantic cold storage plant and we quickly learned that the captains yarn about the strange people was within the truth zone and that some of them had spent the long winter months on the coast now they had retreated up the fiorda fiords into the in perlor we were told where in sheltered places the mosses and flowering plants have the nerve to come forth in the stingy sunshine nest of all wo were supplied with some faithful eskimos one of whom could do rough out of door work on the english language the course we took largely evaded the ice and snow yet we carried along a feht sledge and a bunch of dogs the greenland canine Is the best sledge animal in the world and as ours were a cro between the na alve pup and the majestic dane we felt quite proud 0 bur outfit the west coast strip you know la tree from permanent ice and snow and varies aiom to 60 miles in width the live on this of lowland and avoid the interior where the iceman could quarry from 2 feet to a mile before reaching real soil that s what I 1 call ice the travel was pleasant and and tib was all enthusiasm it I 1 can pinch a bevy of these sightly wags I 1 shall form them into a brass band my child only think of the effect down in utoca he remarked one night when we were near the in perlor limit of the coast strip and were lying in our tent smoking our henchmen were s man people entirely unfit for rail road work because of their penchant to absorb all the tat and oil in sight and they were abominably given to song they kept us awake two hours chanting sagas all in one key at last they let up and we sank to rest as softly as two babes in the woods the next thing I 1 knew tib was digging his honest knuckles into my sides and murmuring and thero we saw the giants the sons of anak and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers 1 I awoke to behold the sun and then about a score of the biggest men I 1 ever saw I 1 thought at first I 1 must be romancing in some spectacular dream As I 1 lay on my skin couch they looked to be between eight and nine feet tall while the leader was equal to three of the broadway squad spliced together in color and build they resembled our north american indians and were armed with whale bone bows and ivory tipped spears of unnecessary length after having feasted our eyes on the amiable squat faces of the insults they looked awfully fierce and unwholesome its not a dream weve found cm I 1 cried staggering to my feet its no dream groaned tib only they ve found us I 1 wish dally you were snugly eating ice cream in the states one glance revealed the situation all of our insults except the brave hearted and badly scared interpreter had scented trouble in the night and for tear of hurting our feelings had silently indulged in caitiff flight the sons of anak had evidently given no pursuit being content with their two souvenirs from the states tib then regained his nerve and straightening up his rotund form asked emma the interpreter it he was heavy enough to flirt with the stran gers patois we called him emma aa it was impossible to climb over the bristling hedge of consonants in hip real name he shivered and said ho could nibble away at the edges and complete the job by the sign lan guage as he bad met several of them on the coast tell cm commanded tib stoutly that I 1 have come to take some of them home with me but that they shall all be returned hero in good con and that I 1 will give each man who goes with me a whale emma drew in a long breath and tried to break into their lingo I 1 no alced he eschewed the polysynthetic gab of his own tribe and rippled along with a flow 0 velvet vowels that sounded like a subway construction gang during the noon hour then tor the alist time the tallest stepladder gave a hearty wow and began a rapid fire back I 1 felt chilly as I 1 saw the sweat stream from em ma s face and heard him give a few mournful hoots indicative of great sorrow will they come em asked tl berlus eagerly io come groaned emma say white men be killed to black dog shaman kindly phone me what that all meads I 1 begged it means my boy explained tib sadly that these uncouth gentlemen led Us to the map and asked Us to guess contemplate offering us up as a tribal sacrifice to their head oleti the black dog I 1 guess they think our demise will propitiate mr dog and stave off another severe winter tell em em ma that the black dog does not want the snow men to be harmed and will be very angry it they are the answer as finally translated by tib to me was to the effect that we were magnificent liars and not on to the real disposition of mr dog the ignoramuses Ignoramus es contended that we must pass out in order to placate their deity and were very much displeased because wo did not look upon our part in the humane ceremony with more fervor while tib was trying to toss back a fitting roland for this amiable oliver the ring broke up and we were a t hurried along towards the east we marched rapidly all that day the in ter preter cheering us on the way with a dirge which we were given to understand was his swan song at night we joined another horde of tho sky scrapers under another chief and passed the long dark hours unbound but carefully guarded by a circle of hungry looking dogs I 1 never saw so many dogs in ono family before and I 1 began to appreciate that the canine was a great institution among these embryo policemen it was the second morning after our capture that tib and I 1 discovered that which surprised us more than the finding of the giants themselves for after our captor and the new chief had conversed for a few minutes and tib had wanted to bet neither understood what the other was saying they sat down on some skin art squares near us and our simon legree produced a dirty deck of playing cards I 1 thought tib s eyes would pop out of his head I 1 wouldn t have been more surprised it the chief had yanked out a grand piano playing cards gasped tib the idea of these untutored children know ing anything about our great alon why billy it shows some white man has been here among em and remained alive long enough to teach em a few of our home pastimes I 1 wonder it he was offered up to the black dog what are they playing tib you know had no use for sports and I 1 had never known him to tease fortuna with coin he always said he was too busy earning money to find time to throw it away to a greater knave than himself they deal five apiece I 1 informed him 1 I think by heavens its so they are playing poker and hang me sir it they t there they sat two enormous copper colored tin horn sports discarding and drawing with the utmost celerity and punctuating their luck with a few walls they evidently had lashed a standard of values as bows and spears and skins and pieces of driftwood were quickly put up and changed hands without any contusion mr goliath of gath Is evident playing in hard luck observed tib with snapping eyes as our captor lost a big pot on three jacks held cold glad of if I 1 cried I 1 hope he gets maced for every barbed arrow in his quiver serve him right 1 I dont know mused tib follow ing the play keenly the other eiffel strikes me as being it anything even more reprehensible of feature that scar on his left cheek makes him look hungry I 1 too noted this the chief of our tribe was now down to his dogs and captives and it was evidently a gle tor him to decide which he would hazard but the dog means life to the snow people and with a grunt intend ed for a sigh he sullenly motioned tor me to step on the carpet great he s betting you all ly cried tib why this will never do we austn t be separated tor I 1 d be ashamed to go back without you and alone up here you d be as helpless as an elder duck in central park I 1 wrung his band but felt aged I 1 was elated to observe he had decided to postpone dying and hope surged through my frost lined veins as he gave evidence of returning to his old masterful self for even as I 1 was wagered I 1 bellevo hla savoir dalre would yank us both bick to the bendly lend ly coast once be got to work ing the visiting chief tossed a few skins and a spear beside me looks kind of bad for our boys now I 1 observed sorrowfully you re worth more than that nil ly cried tib drawing near in his ex its a shame to sacrifice a man that way make the old miser at least approach your value make him throw in another spear but I 1 brought no more and to bibs dismay I 1 changed owners on a pair of tens of all the senile monstrosities he roared why my child in a glided cage I 1 haven t played poker since I 1 was young and foolish but id know more than that tell me what will a flush take 1 I was ashamed to show any deep knowledge of the game as tib had al ways kept me pretty straight but I 1 told him and with a low heart bled back to my new master and this idiot here continued tib forgetting himself in his disgust and tapping his owner on the head has thrown you away he let slide a chance of making a flush in order to draw to a measly pair mr goliath gave a howl at tib s presumption and raised a spear but tib was mad clear through and shak ing his dimpled fist in the other s face he pointed accusingly at the lone pair and then quickly showed him from the discard bow he would have made a heart flush it bed been bright and you call that poker you old pirate hissed tib snapping his fingers beneath his disgruntled masters long nose I 1 firmly believed the irate gamester was about to sacrifice the old fellow right |