Adventure, August 3, 1919 — page 82: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

72 : Adventure addition to taking the chance of goi to prison, and he would know the mie of the insurance policy. Yet Silas clung to the Sa a yi the captain to help him. If he d only “get around” Wil- liams in some way. There must be a way, for every man has his weak side, or else there is something he wants so badly that he will do anything to get it. (ie SO HE reasoned. Yet, when the Pr weakness of Captain Williams came “ into the office next morning, Silas nearly missed his opportunity. She came early, her good looks and pre- tended embarrassment signaling for help— which three clerks immediately attempted to give her. But Silas prevented, them. That is, he happened to come into the office at that moment, and the clerks scurried back to their desks as he brushed past the girl on the way to his roofh—leaving her standing in the middle of the floor, appealing to the universe with a studied pose. The clerks peered over their desks at her, re- markably like three scared mice peering out of their holes at a tempting piece of cheese which the proximity of the cat prevented them from appropriating, until with a shrug she turned and walked boldly into the private office, astonishing Silas by asking sweetly when the Psyche would be in port. “How did you get in here?” he barked. The girl pouted and indicated the door with a gesture. “Well, what do you want?” “When will the Psyche come in?” “What do you want to know for?”’ “Because—because Captain Williams is— is a friend of mine.” A remarkable change came over Silas; He became almost polite, closing the door and dragging a chair to the desk for the dy. “Sitdown, won't you? So you’reafriend of the captain’s, eh. Very lucky man!” And he giggled in the senile way of men unaccustomed to women. *Yes—we—we—you see—”’ She blushed with the acquired art of long practise. “T do see—you are going to marry him, eh?” “Perhaps,” she stiffened slightly. 4é Ump. , f Silas was thinking hard, but the girl, “Tt’s the way I’ve been | t up,” che hinted, She bad bees: Mhomtent oe" in the unpleasant environment of a cheap saloon—a “‘tied house,” owned by a ery—ot which her father had been the ostensible proprietor. “I’ve had so many good offers that the wages of a ship-captain look kind of small, But, oh my, what 1 saying—you must think I’m oreful, talking to a stranger this way.” “Not at all, my dear.” Silas found him- self thinking he needed a new suit. . “So,” she further elucidated, “I am making him wait till he gets better off,’’ Greater luck can no man have than that a woman will bare her fool soul to him, but the somewhat fascinated Silas missed the revelation, seeing only a pretty girl whose power over the captain of the Psyche could be used advantageously. “You won't tell him I was here,” she rattled on. “He’s so jealous, you know.” She wondered what it would be like to be married to a man worth a million pounds, even if he were old. ‘No, I won't tell him you were here.” Silas held her unresisting hand. He had never known a woman like her, which was perhaps unfortunate, because there was no memory she could revive to bring back the taste of rotten fruit—which most men have lipped and remember only with feclings of the deepest shame. He was sorry when she left, and she had shown him that Williams could be handled. Later on he recollected that he had not answered her question about the docking of the Psyche. She was too good- for Williams, anyhow! But the captain was an honest man, and Silas was nervous abott broaching the subject. He waited until the Psyche had been in port two days. Then, in the middle of business details, he suddenly cemarked— : “Hear you're going to get married?” The captain flushed but said nothing. “Girl want to wait till there’s more money in the bank?”’ suggested Silas crudely. “Something like that,’ admitted Wil- hams gruffly, his face showing how the woman had fascinated him, how he craved her. “Well—” Silas seemed to sneer—“‘if I 8 a —_ ~ €omicbooks.com ; :