SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE VILLAGE OF THE DEVIL-DEVIL DRUMS, PLUS A MURRAY LEINSTER COLLECTION I PROBABLY WILL NEVER READ

 "The Village of the Devil-Devil Drums" by "Murray Leinster" (Will F. Jenkins)  (first published in Danger Trails, June 1928; reprinted in Leinster's Guns for Achin, 1936; in Adventure Novels and Short Stories, as Will F. Jenkins, January 1938; and in Leinster's The Trail of Blood and Other Tales of Adventure, 2017)

Guns for Achin by Murray Leinster (London:  Wright & Brown, 1936)

The island of Sualaha in the Solomons is not a safe place for any man, white or black, where any person from another village is considered fair game for the native headhunters.  Nor is it a safe place for a woman because females are considered unimportant.  Young Ntuvi had had a bit more freedom than other women, being the daughter of a former village chief; perhaps that gave her ideas she should not have had.  When the most powerful and most holy man in the village, the devil-devil doctor Old Baruti, tried to become amorous with Ntuvi, she threw a pot at him in disgust, splattering the man with food and, worse, hurting his pride.  Ntuvi fled into the jungle, knowing that Baruti would have her tortured and killed for such a blasphemous offence.  Baruti began beating on the devil;-devil drums, alerting his village to find the girl and bring her to him for punishment.  Even Kavo, the boy who wanted desperately to become a warrior and who had feeling for the lithesome Ntuvi, was afraid to go against Baruti's wrath.

Meanwhile, a wounded white man is crawling through the jungle, being chased by more than a dozen warriors from the other side of the island.  We are not given this man's name because it does not matter; all that matter's is that he has a white man's head -- something that is worth ten times more than a Black man's on this island.  He and two shipmates come ashore from s schooner where they had been attacked without warning by natives.  The white man escaped; his comrades were slaughtered; and now a large group of native are in pursuit.  The path through the jungle is dangerous.  There are traps -- lethal poisons, arrow and spear traps, deep pits filled with spears -- throughout the jungle.  the white man has proceed carefully, avoiding the main jungle paths.  His pursuers hope yo capture him -- and his head -- before he reaches the other side of the island, where they fear attack from Baruti's people, who would happily take their heads.  On the far side of the island, the white man hopes to find a dugout which he (hopefully) would be able to get out to sea away from the range of the native sling guns.  From there, he could sail to his heavily armed and guarded schooner -- and safety.

Then the white man stumbles on Ntuvi, who is shocked by his appearance.  Is she a danger?  will she reveal his whereabouts?  He hesitates to kill her, fearing noise will bring those who have been relentlessly chasing him.  He realizes that she, too, is on the run.  Before he can decide what to do, another figure approaches.  It is Kavo, whose feelings for Ntuvi overcame his fear.  But thoughts of Ntuvi vanish when he sees the white man.  Here is his chance to become a great and wealthy warrior; all he needs to do is to kill the white man and take his head.  As Kavo raises his spear, the white man knocks him out with a single punch.

What can the white man do?  Baruti now has over four dozen warriors nearing from the village.  Meanwhile, the natives chasing him are very close.  The unconscious Kavo will surely attack him when he regains consciousness.   If he uses his gun on Kavo, it will alert all the natives to his location.  His hope for reaching the shore and an unattended dugout has vanished.  He only has a few bullets left in his revolver...

All I can say is never underestimate the abilities of a Leinster hero.

A well-plotted, tense story with a vivid background and location from a master.

__________

Guns for Achin was Leinster's first short story collection, published only in England in 1936.  WorldCat lists no American libraries owning the book, and only five copies available worldwide -- in Ireland, Scotland, and England.  No copies are available on Abebooks, or on eBay, or is it listed on Amazon.  It is not available from the usual online sources.  It appears to be completely out of my reach unless some enterprising publisher decides to reissue it -- something that I find unlikely to happen.

Guns for Achin contains nine stories, some of which are readily available for today's reader:

• Kuantan, Klit (I believe this to be a retitling of the short story "Kuantan," which was first published in Adventure, February 15, 1928; reprinted in the British magazine Empire Frontier, December 1929; and in Adventure Novels and Short Stories, April 1939.  There is a possibility thi8s is the story "Khilit," first published in Everybody's, March 1929; reprinted in Short Stories {UK edition}, mid-May 1930; reprinted in Smashing Novels Magazine, September 1936.  there is also the possibility that this is neither of those stories.)
• The Eye of Black A'Wang (This is the first of three stories featuring adventurer Malay Collins; first published in Short Stories, January 10, 1930; reprinted in Short Stories [UK edition}, mid-August 1930; reprinted in Adventure Novels Magazine, February 1937 as by Will Jenkins; reprinted in Short Stories, September 1951; included in the Black Dog Press chapbook Malay Collins:  Master Thief of the East, 2000; reprinted in High Adventure #110, January, 2010.  the September 1951 issue of Short Stories can be read at Internet Archive.)
• The Emerald Buddha (the second of the three Malay Collins stories; first published in Short Stories, February 19, 1930; reprinted in Short Stories [UK edition], mid-June 1930; reprinted in Adventure Yarns, October 1938, as by Will F. Jenkins; included in the Black Dog Press chapbook Malay Collins:  Master Thief of the East, 2000; reprinted in High Adventure #110, January 2010.)
• The Black Sone of Agharti (The last of the three Malay Collins stories.  First published in Short Stories, September 10, 1930. reprinted in Empire Frontier, January 1931; reprinted in Adventure Yarns, August 1938, as by Will F. Jenkins; included in the Black Dog Press chapbook Malay Collins:  Master Thief of the East, 2000; included in High Adventure January 2015.)
• Payung (first published in Everybody's, September 1928; reprinted in Empire Frontiers, June 1930; reprinted in The Trail of Blood and Other Tales of Adventure, 2017))
• The Dream of Sungi Gut (I can find no indication of a previous appearance.)
• Guns for Achin (from Smashing Novels Magazine, December 1936, as by Will Jenkins.)
• Tuilagi (First published in The Danger Trail, April 1927; reprinted in The Trail of Blood and Other Tales of Adventure, 2017.)
• The Village of the Devil Drums (first published in The Danger Trail, Jun 1928; reprinted in Adventure Novels and Short Stories, January 1938, as by Will F. Jenkins; reprinted in Trail of Blood and Other Tales of Adventure, 2017.)

Any further information, clarifications, or corrections will be greatly appreciated.

Jenkins/Leinster was a master of the exotic adventure story.  One can only hope that many of these stories will eventually become available online.