Adventure Magazine Cover — page 146: what you’re looking at

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

136 a story. He had a powerful vocabulary and liked to use it. “fe came to me one day with his face screwed up and looking as old and wise as Moses. It was my watch and according to his own rules he had no business to talk to me. But he did. ““*T have been thinking quite seriously about my daughter for some days, Mr. Carey,’ said he and laid his fat hands on the railing in front of me. “ ‘Quite a pleasant subject to think about, I am sure, sir,’ I said. “ ‘You may say so, Mr. Carey,’ said he. ‘But to tell the truth I have worried con- siderably about her future. I believe she is old enough to be thinking of getting mar- ried.’ ““ “How old is she, sir?’ I asked. “That made him mad. *¢ She is a good deal older than you are, you confounded spindle-legged son of Satan!’ he said. “T conceded the point and he settled down. “ ‘Now,’ he said, thinking hard, ‘if you weren’t such a good-for-nothing, whisky- drinking, tobacco-chewing sinner, the mat- ter would be quite simple. In that case you might have married her.’ “Oh, no,’ I hastened to assure him. ‘T am not good enough for her, sir.’ “No, you aren’t,’ he said. ‘You needn’t tell me. I know it.’ “Lord, how I thanked heaven for my sins that night! That is the only time since I lost faith in Santa Claus that I really believed in a kind Providence. “Well, the Old Man stayed with me in spite of my sins. In his mind he was thumb- ing over the list of eligibles. “Old Hawkins is married,’ he said grudgingly. “That lets him out. And the second engineer comes of a consumptive family. That lets him out. He might have a bad influence on the succeeding genera- tions.’ ““¢That narrows the field cousiceranly, sir,’ said I. “ ‘There is Joe Davis,’ he said. ‘““*To be sure there’s Joe Davis, sir,’ said I. ‘A fine fellow and an ideal husband.’ “That made him mad again. Maybe he thought I was trying to be ironical. But I wasn’t. I meant every word of it, then. ‘“**He’s worth five of you, you everlast- ingly —— descendant of a wharf-rat!’ he said. He was always exceedingly polite Adventure when he got mad. But one got used to it and didn’t mind. “He is all of that,’ said I. ‘As a husband he is worth ten of me. I always was a bit wild. I prefer a wife in every port.’ “T wanted to rub it in so as to make sure I was forever out of the running, you know. “He relented at once. ‘“**T am sorry it is so, Mr. Carey,’ he said. “You are a fine sailor, and it is a pity you aren’t a fine man. It is probably inherited.’ ‘“**No doubt, sir,’ said I. ‘I have heard say both my father and grandfather were a bit wild. Probably chronic in the family, sir.’ “Probably, probably,’ he said, thinking hard. ‘But now this matter about Joe Davis, Mr. Carey. It is a delicate subject. The question is how it may be arranged. Maybe you, Mr. Carey, may be able to give me some hints from your own somewhat extended—er—experience?’ | “Glad to do what I can, sir,’ said I, trying desperately to live up to my reputa- tion. ‘T’ll think it over, sir. She might try to show. that she is sweet on him—I mean, to show him preferences, sir.’ ‘““*Good idea, capital idea,’ said Brink- man. “Thank you, Mr. Carey.’ “Not at all, sir,’ I said. ‘Glad to be of some use.’ Nags? “A COUPLE of days later Joe Davis : bumped into me on the bridge. It RS was my watch and he had no business there, of course. ‘Aha,’ I said to myself when I laid eyes on him, “the plot thickens.’ The poor boy looked as if he’d had a con- tinual nightmare for two weeks. “What is the matter with that blessed female?’ he said with tears in his round owl- eyes. That is what he said, but he meant something else. Joe was always too moder- ate in his language. “What female?’ I said. ‘Besides it is against the rules to talk on the bridge.’ I felt like the villain in the piece. A mighty uncomfortable feeling. But that wore off. “What female?’ he said crossly. ‘Is there more than one? Are you seeing double or am [I blind in one eye?’ “Well, well,’ said I. ‘Don’t get excited. What is the trouble?’ *¢ ‘She’s gone nuts!’ said Joe in a wild sort of way. ‘She won’t let me sleep; she won’t let me eat. She ogles me as if I was a birth- day cake with cream frosting, and she sticks in Coin DOOKS (© inn