Adventure Magazine Cover — page 91: what you’re looking at

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

Shanghai Fried. Chicken “Come ’eref Where do you think yer goin’? Now looka here; you see that steak? Well, we’ve had all that —— stuff we’re gonna stand. Weain’t gonna eat steak any more. Take it away. We want some fried chicken, an” we want it bad; an’ you’re gonna bring’ us some, pronto. Fried chicken —sabeer”’ “No sabee—le’ go—no sabee!” The steward was furious at the undigni- fied manner in which he was detained. The Bos’ spoke up: — “Ves, you sabee, you yellow crook, come on, are you goin’ to _bring—us some fried chicken, or are we goin’ to take you down to get it?” “No got,” protested the steward trem- bling. “O yes, you got it.” Deck shook him. 3 “T saw you last night; you an’ yer whole dirty bunch eatin’ it in the galley. We want some; an’ we’re gonna get it. The Chinaman regained his self-posses=- sion and smiled blandly. ‘‘No mo’—a’ gone, no mo’.” Deck and the: Bos’ looked at each other. “Come on,” said Deck, “we'll find out whether they\got any more or not, hey Bos’?” As. the Bosun nodded, they rose, and taking the steward tightly by either arm they propelled him to the galley remon- strating volubly. At the galley door they stopped. “There!” burst out Deck, pointing. “What do you. call that?” On a box near the stove sat one of the cooks startled in the act of chewing a meaty drumstick. With a sudden jerk the steward broke from his captors, jumped into the galley, and snatching up an iron poker shook it violently at them,;-shrieking every filthy English name he could remember. Deck’s temper flared up. “Put down that poker, you low-life Chinee bastard an’ shut yer ugly face before F shut it for you!” As the Chinaman raised the poker above his head Deck shot out all the force of his right fist and caught him on the nose. He dropped with a howl, blood streaming down his face. Then, in a flash, he fled lee door on the other side of the galley “He’s gone ed gis the old man,” Deck remarked calmly as the two men stepped a into the galley. Since there was no chicken in sight and the cook had disappeared, they opened the oven doors one after another. Bos’ triumphantly drew forth from one of the ovens a large, dripping pan half-full of warm, brown fried chicken. The bosun placed the pan conveniently on . the baking table. ‘‘Have a hoind leg, Deck,” he invited with the gesture of a king bestowing his. daughter on a worthy prince. “If the old man gets here’ before we’ve done away with it all Oi suppose we'll have to offer him some; um-m-m-m!”’ By industrious egtie the two had al- — a most finished a second leg apiece when the - little, blue-coated, Swedish skipper was pushed in through the door by the gabbling | Chinaman. The steward howled wildly— ‘Der, der—wan’ cheek, no let have he.” Cowering behind the captain he beat his breast and waved his arms in a frenzy at the . deck engineer and the bosun. The little Swede’s mustache bristled, and he frowned sternly at the pair who, unper- turbed, continued eating. “Fell!” he exploded. mean?” : Throwing the bare drumstick on the floor, Deck answered matter-of-factly: z “Tt’s all right, cap’n. We wanted some . chicken for a change an’ the Chink didn’t want to give us any. He said there wasn’t none, an’ when we shows him there was; he picks up that poker an’ starts callin’ us a lot o’ dirty names. So I hit ’im, an’ the goes runnin’ up to ge: you. That’s a 3 “Oh—dot’s all iss it?” returned the cap- tain with sarcasm. “Vee shall see feder dot iss all, Who do you tink you are to order diss man about and hit him? Fot right haf you to get fried chicken? Huh?” “We got as much»right as those dirty Chinks, an’ a —— of a lot more!” Deck blazed forth before the bosun could restrain The Bos’ knew that the old man had a temper shorter even than Deck’s, and he nudged Deck. “Lay off,’ he warned in a low voice; “Fot duss diss “ve'll git ’im sore.” “You haf no rights except fot I vant you shall haf, so long as I am captain uff diss ship. Ondershtand dot?” J —* es ft — ‘ aoa, 74 ° j Zp2e 89 = 2 “ale - a a At lastthe = ~ COmIcHooks.com