Adventure, July 1, 1928 — page 157: what you’re looking at

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

THE THRALDOM OF SINGAN Somehow or other he must wake Quental, who was the only man on board who knew the truth. In something not far from panic the American returned to the deck and again made frantic efforts to break into the captain’s cabin. Failing both in that and in getting any sign of life out of the drugged, unconscious man, though he shouted through the porthole at the top of. his voice, he hastened for’ard. He walked rapidly, without the least effort, though limbs felt heavy as lead—more or-less as a man thinks he walks in a nightmare. When he came to the fore- castle he groped his way in the darkness, his nostrils offended by every conceivable smell that ever came out of the East. Quental’s crew had been made up of lascars, Malays and Chinese. Here were the composite odors of tar and opium, of retten fish and ghee, of garlic and per- spiration, mingled with human breath scented with betelnut. Eade struck his head against an iron stanchion; and then, stumbling over a box, saved himself from falling only by bringing a hand down violently upon a greasy, naked chest. There was an oath. At once the place was Babel. Eade *shouted in English, and although they couldn’t understand him, they recognized the language; and it was that alone, perhaps, that saved him from a knife. When a lantern was lit, he saw and recognized the serang, to whom he was able to make himself intelligible, since the lascar boatswain had served on board a British ship plying between London and Bombay. “Come here,” said he. “I want you.” The man followed him to the main deck. He heard what had happened without emotion, though he nodded his head from time to time to let the Ameri- can know that he understood. It took Eade a long time to impress upon the lascar the importance, even the necessity, of waking up the captain, and that with- out delay. With some reluctance the serang went 151 back to the forecastle, to return in less than a minute carrying an ax and ac- companied by several inquisitive mem- bersiof the crew. For all that, he dared not break down the door himself, but left that to Eade. One blow was enough to shatter the lock and splinter the woodwork of the jamb. The noise caused Quental to sit up and half open his eyes. When Eade entered the cabin, the captain looked at him with a dazed, silly expression. John Eade caught the Portuguese by the shoulders and shook him so violently that his head rocked backward and for- ward on a limp, scraggy neck, rather like that of a dead fowl. “Pull yourself together, you darned fool!” he cried. ““Look at that knife, and realize that you're lucky to be alive. More than that, Madame Scala has vanished and that Chinaman has escaped!” These three items of stupendous news took time to filter into Quental’s drugged and sluggish brain. He stared at the knife with an inane expression, and then gave a kind of snigger, proving thereby that even yet he failed to realize its significance. Eade repeated what he had said, shout- ing word for word in the captain’s ear, Quental now sitting up upon his bunk with his dirty, skinny feet upon the floor. “Liu Tang!” he exclaimed at last. “Escaped! Mister, I think you make joke, yes?” He had gone white in the face. Eade seized him by a wrist and dragged him to his feet. “Come and see for yourself,” said he. “You'll come to your senses all right, when you get the shock of your life.” ORCIBLY he dragged the captain kK along the deck of his own ship, and then pushed him stumbling down the companionway. The exercise had the desired effect: Quental began to regain the use of his limbs, his memory and his voice. When he saw the open door of the cubbyhole, it was as if he had received a comnlicloooks.com