Adventure, February 1917 — page 96: what you’re looking at

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

94 He would never recover. If he had known anything about the ‘‘Park Lane Tragedy” — and Campbell, sometimes, had been a little inclined to guess that he did—it would not come out. . To Samarai, then—and the wireless. Nothing could have been simpler, only for the wind. The wind would not blow. It remained dead, obstinate calm for six days, and then blew in the wrong direction. Campbell lost his patience. “There is no reason,” he said, “why the ‘Slade fellow shouldn’t tow her down. He'll get paid out of the sale of the boat; she’ll have to be sold, And I shall get to Samarai at the same time. What a - country this is to get about in! A hundred miles or so from a place, and you might as well be in the moon!” | He tapped his boot thoughtfully. Cap- tain Campbell, R. N., did not much like using “‘the Slade fellow” for his own ends. It seemed hardly— But then, Page could not be left indefinitely without medical help. Yes, the Black Snake would certainly have to tow. She was such a high-powered launch that there would be no difficulty about the practical part, anyhow. ‘2 Having made up his mind, Campbell felt his spirits rise. It would be pleasant to leave this uncomfortable little hooker for the rest of the day, and go up to theplan- tation house. His sense of honor had kept him from accepting the Slades’ invitation to stay in their house; but now that he real- ly hadtogo... The cabin lately occupied by Harold pos- sessed an ample looking-glass. Campbell got into a good light before it, slapped down his hair with the hardest of brushes, changed his crash coat for one as white and smooth as the icing on a wedding-cake, tied a dark- ‘blue tie, chose out a pair of shoes that were _ worthy of the coat, decided that the trou- gers were not worthy of either, and thought he would shift all through, and have another shower. ‘Three changes and baths in the day was none too much in such weather. Then the hair-slapping had to be gone ‘through again, and the tie re-tied. And then the Captain was ready—a sharp, hard smart-looking king’s sailor as ever trod the deck of a fighting ship. He had another good look in Harold’s glass and decided that he carried his years extremely well. “T wonder how old the fellow Slade is?” . ran his thoughts. ‘Getting on for forty, ie difficult. : head. Adventure anyhow. Adventurer—no profession, no people. Where does he get that clinking launch from? Mysteries there, if one cared— But he can go and be eaten by sharks for all I care about his affairs. “T wonder what a woman like that, fa- miliar with decent people, can— But then they’re all ready for romance, and love in a cottage, and following the baggage wagon, and going to the end of the world to live on a desert island, with Him—until they find out what it’s really like.” “She ought to have found out by now,” ran the busy thoughts, as he took his pipe- clayed helmet off a nail and set it on his “She ought to be nearly sick of it— nearly ready for— I wonder, are they mar- ried? Oh, Lord, who cares, and what is it to me? All I’ve got to do is to-sheet old Godfrey’s death home to her, if I can. Crime is crime, and punishment’s punish- ment, and that’s all there is about it. And don’t you, Chris Campbell, sir, make a fool of yourself. Doyouhear, sir? Aye, aye, sir. Then carry on.” He lifted the betel-chewing boys out of the forecastle with.one blast of sharp com- mand. They tumbled, they hopped, they flew. The dingey was in the water and being rowed across to the beach before any man of them had recovered his breath. But this was the way of the new Taubada. Oh, how much better had been the ways of the old one! (aq, SLADE and Edith, sitting in the (gee, garden in the cool of the evening, ~ saw the smart white suit coming up the track. ‘‘Let’s move back,” said Edith. “I don’t want to go in and talk to him. Come fur- ther out to the forest.” They went. Under the pillared roof of the banyan trees they stood and watched, arm linked with arm. The sun was swinging low to the molten- silver sea; among the thousand trunks of the banyan tree its rays shot reddened spears. The goblin birds of Papua began to mutter and moan in the bush; one would have thought they feared the coming of the night. _ “Dark!” they seemed tocry. “Dark! It is coming, surely coming; who knows if it will ever lift to day again?” A change had passed over Edith. It Gomicbooks (CO) S|