Adventure, January 20, 1922 — page 54: what you’re looking at

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

52 the vast Pacific with hearty spirits below deck and rising hopes aft. “Whatever ‘twas pitched iron into John Cook, sure ’tis neither has passed us now,” laughed Davies, watching astern where lay the Straits’ entrance. ‘Id like well to be sure whether ’twas the bulldog, or Swan, or other ship.” “°Twould be a shame if ’twere Cook’s finish,” cried Nell Clark fiercely. She had recovered from the effects of those cruel days beyond the Straits, and glowed with ruddy health again. Her fine eyes snapped as she half-drew a long knife and slammed it back into the scabbard to emphasize her words. “There’s a long score against John. Steve Carr says he wants to see the color 0’ his liver. ll see what sort o’ poison runs in’s veins for blood. And you—you don’t love him, do you, Ed Davies?” “Not much, since he let fall that he meant to hog all my booty for his own if he found it.” Davies smiled grimly as he recalled how first of all it had been John Cook who had given out the word that had set the hunters on his trail during that terrible Nicaraguan retreat; how secondly it had been only through hearing of Cook’s proposed venture and daring to join in it without asking by-your-leave of Cook that he had secured ship and men for his own voyage against L’Escuyler; and how at length Cook and Swan together meant to sail under the cloak of honesty, protected by the men whom Swan had deceived into fitting out his ships at home to hunt down pirates, and band together against the Frenchman and Ed Davies after the Nicaraguan towns had been sacked and the lost booty of the lake found. . And Ed Davies loathed with all his steel- true freebooter’s heart the sort of pirate who, like Swan and John Cook, pretended repentance in order to gain strength against . erstwhile comrades. As for his feelings against the Frenchman he regarded his former companion as a legitimate, open enemy. He was by no means sure that L’Escuyler had stolen their mutual booty on that night beside the great lake; in fact he believed that he had not, elsé why the need for this other voyage, unless as a clever blind and bait to get help from other rovers in an ambitious descent upon the west-coast cities? Adventure But one thing he knew, which was that the Frenchman had accused him, Ned Davies, of spiriting away that golden treasure, and that sufficed to bring to a boil all the bitterness acquired during that awful march to the gulf coast. _ Besides, the Frenchman had boasted that the secret was his, thereby gaining the help of Cook and Swan. ‘What tickles ye.so ye laugh so shakily?” demanded Nell, piqued at his silence. “The whimsy struck me, Nell, that an honest mariner may ha’ sport as well as a rogue o’ the Black Flag, what o’ my reck- oning wi’ the Frenchman and John Cook’s promised reckoning wi’ me over the wench we robbed him of.” “That was but the beginning of my reck- oning with him,” returned Nell sharply, and dodged aside in alarm as a tumbled bit of feathered life swooped out of the compan- lonway and settled on her shoulder. “John Cook took his hook; He’s hidin’ out on Aves!” screamed Bravo, making his first appear- ance since the snow began to fall. The bird’s advent proved the forerunner of mild weather with a kindly southwesterly half-gale that drove the ship booming up the coast, daily and hourly winning into warmer seas and bringing bluer skies. Never a gleam of canvas astern or flash of topsail ahead marred the unbroken plain of ocean. The Cadiz was in truth a solitary ship upon a lonely sea. From time to time Davies ran in to sight the coast, and the frowning, bleak cliffs sent a shiver through the nerves of men who had been told that this vast western ocean was a region of pleasant groves and golden beaches, of rich Spanish cities and wine- laden ships, of dark-eyed wenches who freely loved the salty sons of the sea. Davies secured a good verification of position one noon on the latitude of Callao, and thereafter alert watch was kept, for hereabouts John Cook and Swan were to cruise in wait for the Frenchman. Those were the days before the chronom- eter made navigation easy. L’Escuyler would do the same as the others—sail north until he made the parallel sought, then run it down, eastward, to his desired landfall. So at any hour, once upon that latitude, the ships hurrying to the rendezvous might fall in with each other. Go NOOK = a (C@