Adventure, November 1915 — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

50 where the schooner flattened the rope pud- dings that protected her from the wharf timbers. “Ves. Why?” asked Addams. “Looks like we’re goin’ to get a kona be- fore mornin’. Been workin’ up for it all day. How was the wind comin’ down?” “A bit shifty. What’s a kona?”’ “Southerly gale. ‘Sick wind,’ the natives call it. Makes a weather shore out of this © side of the island, dirty weather at that. Liable to blow forty to fifty an’ keep it up for three days.” “Well, we’ll chance it,” said Addams. “That’s the best news yet, Jim,” he went — on, as the dealer started to superintend getting the stores aboard. ‘With the regular trades making a clear run of it to the island it would be a close call to outsail the Lez Lehua with her start against her spread of kites. But the W avecrest is a witch at reaching and close- hauled. We can outpoint them and outsail them working into it. Tl set all hands scratching the varnish off the boom if it’ll hurry up this kona he talks about. Get the rifles? We'll probably have a fight on our hands as it is, but we'll put up a better scrap if we’ve got the gold, than if our men were fighting against odds to get it away from them.” “The guns are up at the cottage.”’ “Take Ah Sing and get his hack. Settle the bill at the Royal and then pick up Selim and the woman. It’ll be dark by the time you get there. Better gag her and get her into the hack as quietly as possible. You can drive mm up to the door. [ll be waiting for you. We’ll stow her in one of the staterooms. There are four of them; Stevens spent money on this yacht. Then you run out to the Moana and get back as soon as you can. I'll watch the loading.” “T’ll have the guns and Selim and the tigress down here in an hour,” said Winton. “‘And [ll be back from the Moana by eight. Is that time enough?” “Plenty. Come down to Lycurgus’ res- taurant on King Street. I'll leave Selim in charge on board, and get a bite to eat before we start. The men will want something, too. I'll phone to Peggy from there. We'll start at moonrise. Ten o’clock. - The tide’s right for then.” At eight o’clock Winton joined Addams in a private box at the restaurant and the latter, finishing his coffee, called up the Adventure Moana on the ’phone. He came back to Winton a trifle disconcerted. “Did you tell Peggy I was going to *phone,”’ he asked. “Yes. Why?” _“She’s gone to her room. Left a message for me. I suppose she’s upset because I didn’t go out. I thought she’d under- stand.” “T think she did, old man,” said Winton. “‘T explained everything and she seemed to. But she said she was tired at dinner. She’s going to be worried about us all the time we’re gone. She needs all the rest she can get.” “Of course she does,”’ acquiesced Addams not over cheerfully. It was not like Peggy to take offense, he thought, and tried to dismiss the unpleas- antness, aS he remembered the tax that had been set upon her frail strength. He him- self was conscious of the strain: So was Jim, he realized, as he looked at his friend’s drawn face and weary eyes. As he had said, the rest of the trip in no way resembled a picnic, and the best place for Peggy was a comfortable hotel and the society of the friendly pleasure-loving Belmonts. At nine o’clock the complement of the Wavecrest was aboard, stowing away the goods that cluttered up the main cabin into some temporary order while they waited for the turn of the tide. _ Their prisoner stayed quietly sullen in her stateroom where Selim had served her food brought from a water-front restaurant. The Arab had freed her bonds and locked the stateroom door on the outside. Addams and Winton were too busy to interview her. The excitement of getting to sea mustered up their reserves of strength into an energy that rushed the work before them. The Chinese worked cheerfully, stowing away the supplies into the lazarette and the plentiful lockers with which the schooner was provided. At half-past nine a faint glow behind the coffin-shaped mud-crater of Diamond Head announced the coming moon. The wind was blowing more strongly on-shore every minute. The harbor craft had set out extra lines and the Wavecrest chafed at her moor- ings. The trade-clouds had gone from their steady vigil of the inland mountain-tops, the stars were obscured by a filmy scud fly- ing high overhead before the southerly gale. At ten o’clock the full moon topped the crater, orange through the atmospheric veil. The wharf was deserted as Addams and GComichboo S (EO) (C