Adventure, January 20, 1922 — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

Tides of Hate | 7 turn ball into grape if I must work such infernally useless tools.” He put a double handful of bullets into each musket on top of the proper charge; then with two muskets thrust forward together he pulled both triggers at once, staggered back under the terrific recoil and peered out with an eager smile on his black- ened face. A lane seemed to have been mowed through the press immediately outside the window. Bodies lay still. or moved gro- tesquely on the ground; the air was filled with moans and oaths. But these came only from the injured; over the rest of the crowd a ghastly hush had fallen succeeding the crashing roar of that twin discharge. ‘“That’s the medicine, Nell!’ - Davies laughed, dropping his guns and reaching out for others. ‘“That’s set ’em to think- ing.” “Yes, for a moment,” she replied, grimly at work upon some other device not yet to be discerned in the darkness. ‘‘Listen!”’ "» THE outside air was suddenly mur- fH murous with growing sound, the * sound of men coming out of spell- bound silence and giving tongue to aroused murderous passion. Doggett’s voice was to be heard, but faintly, as if he, though sorely wouhded, still directed the attack from shelter. And another, ferocious, insistent voice joined in.also from a dis- tance, entreating the fiends of —— to put a vim into the tardy pirates. The voice came from a crawling, cursing pirate, red- bandaged and sorely hurt, dragging himself along the sand with the strength of tremen- dous hate. “Shall a pair o’ half-dead men show ye how to tear the pigeons out and flay ’em?”’ it roared; and Nell crept. close to Davies with a little shuddering cry. “Tt’s Rando!” “Rando, hey?’’ was the rejoinder. ‘He wants another taste of the steel, Nell. Here, let me out.” “Stay! Iam all but ready.. Shoot again, another double salvo. Just once more, and then [ll show you a trick o’ mine.” The Schoolmaster loaded again~ and fired. Then the woman peered out beside him, noted the lesser destruction following the shot because of the scattering of the foe, and swiftly ran to the opposite side of the hut and dug out another spy-hole with her dagger. In a moment she was back and, taking his hand, guided it down to the invention she had completed. ‘There!’ she whispered tensely. “Strike a light, Davies. Touch a light to this fuse, and when I unbar the door, do you rush out, turn the angle, and roll this cask o’ powder into the thick of the curs. Medicine? Aye, we ll physic ’em!’’ She slipped flint and steel into his hand, and silently lifted the bar of the door, hold- ing the socket end in place with hand pressure until the fuse was lighted. Tiny sparks flew in what would have been per- ilous proximity to stored powder-kegs at any other time; but now both ignored every spark save that which at last fell upon the tinder at the fuse’s end. The Schoolmaster blew gently upon the smoldering rag until the fuse, which was stuck into the head of the keg, began to splutter. Then he stood upright, the keg gripped fast in both hands. “Now!” he whispered. The door swung wide, leaving the open- ing fair and free before the pirates could realize the change. Then, while yet they stood in uncertainty, afraid of some trap, missing the counsel of Rando and Doggett, both occupied for the moment upon each other’s hurts, the tall form of the School- master rushed out, trundling his infernal cask, and paused at the corner. For a mere breath he paused, twisted the cask, and sent it flying into the midst of the mob with a powerful kick of the foot. Then like a rabbit he turned and regained the hut, slamming fast the door in the faces of a dozen slow-witted fellows. He found Nell at the window crack, and as he joined her, breathing a little harder from his haste, he became aware that she also was breathing agitatedly. He pinched her arm reassuringly. . ‘Don’t!’ she panted fiercely. ‘Look out! Down with you! On the ground, Davies!” She pulled him down, but not before he had snatched a look through the window and seen a hardy ruffian some twenty feet distant stop the cask, turn it about and start it back toward the hut. Then he felt the earth rock, and the hut was filled with dust and a cataclysmic roar which seemed to burst his ear-drums. A heavy body struck the door with a crash, then darkness covered the apertures at door and window, the smell of gunpowder filled the hut, and Gomichdooks (E@)