English: Suddenly he flung himself upon Tom, and clutching the boy by the throat, tried to throw him over the ledge.

To his dying day Tom Tyler never forgot that brief struggle. Twice he had the advantage and could have pushed the wretch over the edge of that awful precipice, but Tom was too merciful for that. “Back! Back!” he shouted. “Stand away from me, or by Heaven I’ll pound your brains out against the rock.”

With a wild laugh Tyzac suddenly sprang away, and stood chuckling to himself near the chain.

The lantern had fallen upon the ledge during the struggle. Keeping his eyes fixed upon the mad mulatto, Tom stooped to pick it up. Even as he did so, Tyzac seized the chain and jerked it from its fastening.

“Good-bye! The gold is mine! You can stay where you are and starve,” he yelled. Clutching the chain with both hands, he threw himself over the break.

Instantly the chain parted close up against the bar.

“God have mercy!” gasped Tom.

And Tyzac, with a wild yell, dropped out of sight into the yawning gulf below. ––––––––– Two Yankee Boys among the Kaffirs; or, The Search for King Solomon’s Mines by Allyn Draper (a pseudonym or "house name") in Pluck and Luck magazine No. 440, November 7, 1906.

This is one of at least three printings of Two Yankee Boys among the Kaffirs. The story was reprinted in Pluck and Luck No. 1241 in 1922. The story appeared a decade earlier in the January 16, 1896 issue of the Happy Days story paper, under the pen name Gaston Garne.

In the 1906 illustration seen here, the two figures appear to be firing their pistols at attacking natives. In fact, as the caption suggests, their target was not the natives, but rather, another treasure hunter, one armed with “a long rifle”:

”He was armed with a long rifle. This, as the Kaffirs began throwing their assagais toward the derrick, he leveled at Tom. … Still holding on to Jack for dear life, Tom, as best he could, raised his revolver and fired.”

The 1896 Happy Days cover illustration clearly shows Tom and Jack firing at a caucasian man armed with a rifle rather than at the natives.

See the 1896 cover illustration here: www.flickr.com/photos/120455372@N04/15609947597/

The word “Kaffir” is a formerly common term for Africans of South African heritage. Today the word is considered disparaging to the point of being legally actionable in some countries, but it was a common, neutral term of reference without negative connotations in the era of adventure writer H. Rider Haggard, upon whose novel King Solomon’s Mines this story is loosely based.

Some Pluck and Luck stories attributed to Allyn Draper have been confirmed to have been authored by Francis W. Doughty (1850 - 1917), a prolific pulp story author whose work was published under a plethora of pseudonyms. Read a short biography of Doughty at the SF-Encyclopedia web site: www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/doughty_francis_w

Approximately 1600 issues of Pluck and Luck magazine were published weekly or bi-weekly from January 1898 until March 1929. Early issues often reprinted stories from Happy Days and other serialized Frank Tousey Company publications. Beginning sometime in the mid ‘teens, Pluck and Luck was comprised almost exclusively of reprints of earlier Pluck and Luck stories, with the addition, by the late ‘teens, of short articles about “radio” and other contemporary technology and current events news. Additional information about this publication may be found at the Dime Novels Bibliography web site at DimeNovels.org.

Thanks to Joseph Lovece of www.steamman.net for posting the 1896 Happy Days story paper cover and for informing me that Allyn Draper was a pseudonym of Francis W. Doughty.