Adventure Magazine Cover — page 94: what you’re looking at

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

v - — : > es , 2 . ~ ; ¥ — _=crying, “Aee, aee! } livin’, but there ain’t enough in it. . Their cigarets glowed like two red eyes Allat once the Chinaman became radiant, Me sabee, me sabee. When sip sailP—aee!”’ “Whew!” whistled Deck. last.” The Chinaman in the rade was all excitement. “How muts?” he demanded with gestures toward himself and toward the wad of cou- pons in Deck’s hand. ‘““Me—you; when sip sail; how muts?” “That,” said the Deck engineer removing five coupons from the pack. Returning the rest to the bosun, who stood peering over his shoulder, he waved the five pieces of green paper to and fro in front of a pair of greedy Chinese eyes. As a dirty hand stretched forth to grasp them Deck drew them back out of reach. “Hold on, don’t lose yer shirt there, young feller. You see these here bills? When you git back with the news they’re yours, an’ not before. Sabee?” The Chinaman dropped-his hands dis- consolately. Even if he could not under- stand ali the words, he “‘sabeed”’ the Irish- man’s meaning. He stepped back from the door, bowed three times very meekly, and “He gets it at pattered out of sight down the corridor. Deck heaved a sigh. “Got the makin’s, Bos’?”’ he asked. Silently he and the bosun rolled and light- ed their cigarets. This done they seated themselves side by side on the straw in the corner to smoke and plan their campaign of retaliation. “Oi don’t think We want to beat the little Squarehead up,” said the Bos’ seriously in reply to some wild propositions by the deck engineer. ‘“‘No, I ain’t afraid of ’em, nor any man e’d only begettin’ ourselves arrested agin, for which Oi am not over-anxious; an’ he’d probably recover with nothin’ more than a broken nose or the like. Ne, Deck, we got to think of a better way than thot. Let’s see now; what would get the skipper in worse trouble than inything else, an’ keep us out of it, hey?” if I know.” Deck wrinkled his forehead. ‘What would?” For some minutes both men wrestled with the problem without speaking a word. in the corner of the dark cell. Suddenly, one of the eyes disappeared as the bosun Adventure removed fis: cigaret from his mouth and spoke. “Say, Deck, suppose we was to hold up — the boat jest whin she was all ready to sail.” Deck’s tone of voice became listless. “All right, but how are you figgerin’ on doin’ it? That’s what I want to know.” “Hark now to me, Oi’ve an oidea, Deck.” ” And Deck “harked” and argued and dis-. cussed until the bosun yawned. “Now we got tin days in here, an’ Oi can’t see no use in losin’ sleep the first noight. Oi’m goin’ to hit the deck; an’ Oi’d say. it was a good oidea fur you to do the same.’ yo ae | The Bos’ rolled over, face to the wall, and wriggled his long body down into the straw. “Come on, Deck, they ain’t goin’ to bring no sheets and pillowcases—not tonight.” With a disgusted snort the déck engineer “stretched himself out beside the bosun and soon both men were snoring rhythmically. a “SAY, Bos’, you don’t suppose these Chinks has got their dates mixed, do you? A fine hole we’d | ion in if they forgot to let us out now. It’s been the jongest ten days I ever want to spend, an’ I ain’t spent it fer nothin’.” Deck was striding nervously back. and forth in front of the cell door talking to the bosun who sat on the straw in the corner rolling a cigaret. + it, Bos’! they was wallopin’ four o’clock on the Chinee dishpan in the yard half an hour ago. If the ship sails tonight, an’ that greasy Chink swore it did, we got to get out o’ here an’ down there pretty pronio. We can’t let the little Squarehead get away, now we got it all cooked up fer him, just because them Chinks is too careless to let us out. We got to get out somehow ; — quick too.”’ All at once he stopped short before the door and pressing his face close to the grat- ing gave a low “‘Pssssss—.’’ He had spied a lone Chinaman coming down the corridor *with a large ring of keys in his hand. - As the jailer halted, Deck reached into his pocket and fluttered all the remaining coupons before the Chinaman’s eyes, re- peating softly, ‘“‘Here—open, open.” The Chinese face remained expression- . less, but there was a jangle of keys, a grat- ing, and the heavy wooden door swung in- ward. At the sound the bosun had dropped his cigaret and risen quickly to his feet. SS (e(0) JOO com