Adventure, November 1915 — page 203: what you’re looking at

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

if; sat Fal M, ' Are eh Gi fi Soldiers of Fortune on the Veld pluck in stepping into the superintendency. His grins didn’t hide his nervousness, for he wished to be out of the trade—wished it furiously. The girl, dictating letters to a stenographer, threw constant chatter to him over her shoulder. But at twenty minutes to twelve the suspense had brought her close to the endurance limit, and to sit and smile and pull commonplaces out of her brain had become a task beyond her wearied strength. If Lapinsky guessed this, he didn’t show it. His eyes were on the clock; his hand was wriggling his diamond shirt stud in- to a ceaseless whirl. Suddenly somebody moved in the next room, uncertain feet tottered about the floor; a knob rattled, as this time Emma had not twisted the key behind her. Then MacKinnon, tousled, blinking in the dazzle of the Spring ‘sun- shine, wabbled to the threshold of the office. There he halted, grabbing at either post. “What’s this?” he gabbled, and shook his head at them like a man awakened from 201 along debauch. “I said this mill was goin’ to shut down—and—and—it’s goin’ to shut down; for there ain’t no woman in the whole——” Lapinsky’s face lit up jubilantly, and his carved ivory imitations made a superb dental advertisement out of the center of his countenance. “No woman,” reiterated the assistant superintendent, picking up the heavy spanner. ‘“‘No woman on earth as——”’ And then she struck him in the throat, saw him slump down and stepped back. Over her shoulder popped the face of a young man—wide blue eyes, a flop of au- burn curls, skin shimmering with pink and white, mouth filled with the laughter of the morning. How much he resembled her! “They’re done,” he crowed delightedly, ““done—and boxed!’ The clock struck a quarter to twelve; Lapinsky shrugged his shoulders and pinched his check book, but smiled and said— “Vell, you got vwm man in der blace!” SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE ON THE VELDT az article by GEORGE ALBERT SCHREINERY Author of “War Day by Day,” etc. HE statement that the late Boer war created two classes of sol- diers of fortune is subject to the question: What is a soldier ~ of fortune? In its more popular acceptance, the term identifies a sort of military nomad, who journeys here and there in search of adven- ture—who is never satisfied with a day on which a life insurance company could safely write a policy for him. Now and then the gentleman has been accused of having strong homicidal tendencies which only the turmoil of the battlefield could still. In Eomichboo KS) 2 0 et » ,& Ves . Eom: