Adventure, February 20, 1922 — page 153: what you’re looking at

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

7 = a ~~ tre ‘ carry greetings to the Hun and dived like a loon. _ The Qo did the shimmy violently, buck- led and heeled over, then rose. A spread of oil, some débris and four mussy-looking Huns, floating up, proved | the case. “‘Requiescat in pieces,’ said two-and- a-half-striper Griffin and departed with his hellcat boat, after another victim. se Once in a storm the Qo had spiked her- ~ self on a reef. Everybody began to wonder what came next after “now I lay me” when another wave boosted her clear over the reef into deep water. Swift action plugged the holes before the sea-water and the bat- teries had got into action with the chlorin gas to any extent, and the crew, remember- ing how she had dodged the Tirpitzian repartee in the a that gave them a star, called the Qo a lucky boat but a —— awkward one. ~ Her stay in foreign waters was uneventful aside from a few such little contretemps, but far from prosaic. American and English chasers and destroyers, whose commanders believed in shooting first and talking later, _ contributed many ash-cans to keep her crew awake and busy. The bow guns on one American destroyer reduced her peri- scope to junk, and twice they were bom- barded at long range in the night, when some vigilant Yank discerned a black streak on the water. Between the Hun subs that played ring- -around-the-rosy with them and the neigh- borly attentions received from the surface boats, life was just one —— t after : another; but the worst of all was what the old Pittsburgh stogy handed them herself. This was the verdict of her crew from commander down, unanimously declared. “No chance to move for fear she will dive or rise when she should run level. No fresh air except at night, on her multiple —— back. Bread with whiskers on it—green ones at that; and canned rations till we all got tin-lined innards. In Winter a skim of ice over her shell and no artificial heat allowed. No wonder we got, sniffy and mean.’ So said Chief Electrician Wall, ashore in _ «New York. = _# nerves you ever heard of, and a grin never. “We all had the darnedest case of the showed unless we did something to a Hun. ‘Sparks’ Conway, one of our listening detail, put it right. “These things get on your A Burned Steak = ,the second day at home. I5I nerves, just like a sliver in your thumb that is too small to find, but pricks every time you pick anything up.’ Sherry hit it plumb center.” Sherry came home outwardly calm, but tense as an E string on a violinthat is tuned to concert pitch. Jessie, his wife, was thin, jumpy, with big, staring eyes that had blue ' shadows all around them. They were glad to be united once more, but every revolu- tion of the marital machine showed that - something had thrown emery in the bear- ings. Neither realized just what was wrong, for neither stopped to consider. “The Cambridge is in port,” said Sherry, and collect fifteen bucks off Bill Reilly or get Bill a hospital billet. That swab has owed me that much since we were at Puerto Plata, pacifying the nigger revolutionists.” ~ He found Bill, and the gunner’s mate dug up the fifteen bucks. “T’d ’a’ paid ye long ago, only you trans- ferred to the Spokane an’ then into a sub,” Bill explained. ‘Goin’ to reenlist?” “Not on your figurehead! I’m no hog, and I know when I’ve got my bellyful. In eight days I’ll be a free man, and I'll say the man who buncoes me into taking on a third hitch is a lallapaloosa.’’. “Bet ye tén bucks you take on again inside sixty days,”’ said Bill. ‘“You’re on. I’m going ashore right now and buy a steak as thick as my wrist and as big as the gaff-tops’l on an English cutter, just to celebrate collecting this money and being so close to freedom. When I win that ten off you I’ll buy another and celebrate again.” : “Yah!” jeered Bill. “You stand no more show of winnin’ that ten than I do of bein’ admiral afore night. Double that bet, heye’’ ‘Sherry declined to double and went ashore. He bought the steak. “Tam going down — “My?” said Jessie as he gave her the steak. “What a steak for two!” “Some big, but I’ve got an appetite for four,” answered Sheridan. anything left but the smell when I finish.” It had to be a skillet broil, since the Con- way ménage allowed no other. A skillet broil is all. right if the cook stands right | over the skillet and flops the steak over every thirty seconds till it is cooked. A skillet Broil is like an American wife—it tolerates no divided or half-hearted allegi- ance. Handled right, and with a big lump ‘ “There won’t be ; Gomichboo