OCR Text |
Show THE HUT OF HALLUCINATIONS Helen Kinney The golden moon shone brightly on the grass thatched roof of a tiny hut. About the hut pressed green slimy foliage gaunt trees whose leafy tops held thousands of tropical beasts and birds bushes met with tropical rain 'swished in the hot, moist breeze. i In side the hut sat a man or could he justly be called so? His mass of tangled hair, his sunken-fever brightened bright-ened eyes, his gnarled unkempt hands harmonized with the filthy interior of the hut. A small table, a chair, and some leafy boughs piled in a corner and covered with rags, constituted the entire furnishings of this sorbid habitation. habi-tation. With a single gesture he grasped a bottle on the table and drank a portion por-tion of its contents. With a convulsive convul-sive shudder he lurched ,fibm the chair and trembling violently dodged a huge bat which was flying through the open window. Another and an-others an-others flew into the hut, with each one the man's terror grew until he was almost in a frenzy, dodging, gasping, yelling, swearing, lunging against the table and recovering, to struggle on again. Soft winged bats wavering gently about his head. Silky bodys carressingly touching his face' Frantically Fran-tically he sought to avoid them but always they returned to float tantalizing tantal-izing above his head. The door of the hut opened slowly-softly slowly-softly and stealthily into the interior crept a huge lion to be followed by a snarling tiger and, his mate. The man screamed a hoarse terror-stricken scream. Slowly the animals advanced desperately, vainly the man backed toward the wall. He turned toward the window to escape only to find his way blocked by a huge boa constrictor constric-tor who was slipping into the hut. Painfully the man advanced toward his bed of foliage stealthily he passed pas-sed his hand along the side. Suddenly his searching fingers found the desired desir-ed object and he clenched it resolutely. resolute-ly. The boa constrictor moved preparatory pre-paratory to dropping upon the man. The lion and tigers crept closer. Beads of perspiration moistened the mans lisuor crazed face. Just as the reptile started to move, the man leaped to his feet and with a last desperate movement, plunged the dagger deep into his breast, and writhed in agony. Then, all was quite. Slowly the animals an-imals left the hut and the moon light faded away, leaving the hut in an awful aw-ful blackness and the history of a liquor li-quor crazed man. |