Adventure Magazine Cover, October 10, 1921 — page 63: what you’re looking at

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

The Picture _ “No! They don’t believe it!’ I sneered. “But they’re all ready to run for cover at a mention of Gibbins or his drawing. And they were all keen at it round the table when I came in. The truth is they believe it so much that they’re all I stopped. Saket Gibbins stood in the doorway. m | HE CAME in without looking, at ai us and sat'down at the table. The “= China boy brought a fresh bottle of Isuan water, and Fearoyd muttered some- thing about having to get away somewhere, and got out. I picked up my newspaper and pretended to read. - Gibbins drank his mineral water and sat staring at the wall. Presently he got up and inspected the blackboard where the names of men who wanted ships were listed. I knew there were three names there—one of them mine. ‘(Do you happen to know where I can get a mate?” he asked me. I was startled by his voice, and looked up to see him staring at me. There was something pathetic in his tone and attitude—a suggestion of utter loneliness and a knowledge that though he frequented the haunts of other men, he was onlv tolerated. “What rig?” I asked, pretending that I did not know him. The expression of his face changed, as if at last he had found somebody who was not going to run from him—he almost smiled. “Schooner,” he said, and then with some- thing of desperation, as if he might as well have it done with, added—“ Bangor Matd— I own her—my name is Gibbins.”’ “My name is Wilks, sir,” I said. ‘“You’ll find it on the board there. I’ve been laid up with fever a couple of months, but Ill go mate with vou if you think I look fit.” He seemed surprized at my readiness to ship with him, and opened his mouth to speak, but checked the words. I rather ex- pected he was going to explain that several mates had left him, but he said nothing. He gave me a close scrutiny, and with some abruptness moved toward the door. “Meet me at the customs house at noon, sharp—Mr. Wilks. You might get your dunnage aboard—she’s lying off the trans- port dock at the breakwater, loading hay for Camp Wallace in the Lingayen Gulf.” Gibbins hurried away, as if he feared some one might come in, and, discovering 53 that I had shipped in the Bangor Maid, at- tempt to dissuade me. So I got my sea-kit aboard the schooner by sending it out witha government launch, and was at the customs house at noon. I found Captain Gibbins in the commissioner’s room. “You showed up on time,” he reared’ and I thought he was a trifle surprized at seeing me there. “T keep my word, sir,”’ I said, and handed over my papers. He looked at them casu- ally and laid them down on the bar-desk. “T thought you might want to change your mind, Mr. Wilks,” and he squinted a gray eye at me with a trace of a twinkle. I knew he was fishing to find out if anybody had told me about him. “I’m not easily influenced,” I said, and he gave me another close look. “And I’m not over-popular,” he said. “T’d rather you’d have some idea of what you’re——”’ “What I’ve heard about you, Captain Gibbins, is good enough for me.” ¥ “Then somebody has—talked to your” he asked. “T’ve heard some gossip, but my dun- nage is aboard, sir.”’ ‘““Good!”’ he said. “I feel better about _ taking you, now that you’ve heard—a few things. You’re the man I want, Mr. Wilks— you’ve got the proper spirit,’ and he thrust out a hand to me. I shook it, and without more ado we finished up the busi- ness and went aboard the Bangor Mard. feeee I MADE two trips with Gibbins— Sea: and nothing out of the ordinary Sst happened. He was a quiet man and kept to himself a geod deal, reading in his cabin, mostly. Being the only white men on board, there were times when it was dull. But being a great reader myself I rather en- joyed the quiet of the schooner, for I had been in a liner several years and was tired of having a mob of passengers about the decks. On the third passage to Camp Wallace I discovered that our compass was ¢ranky. I never had trusted it, for it had a big bub- ble and was old-fashioned. I had tinkered around with azimuths, amplitudes and lines of position and found the compass good enough. And the deviation-card was cor- rect. There was surprizingly little com- pass error in the old whirligig—till that third passage up. DOOLK C@