Adventure, June 1911 — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

214 “Don’t you wish,” he asked, ‘‘that you’d gone home that day you and I shot their outpost through the middle? ”’ “You just bet I don’t!” snapped Jenks. ‘Why, man, all I wanted to do was get home an’ ’tend to my farm! I never seemed to think the country needed me! Some re- porter chap was in here the other day— few days after they give me this”—and his hand strayed to the medal on his breast, ‘an’ he ‘lowed that maybe we wouldn’t : have got up that hill if I hadn’t picked up that there flag! Now I don’t believe that; there was a sight of the boys right behint me, an’ one of ’em ’Id ’a’ done it if I hadn’t —but that ain’t the point! A feller’s pretty small potatoes after all, and the country’s a middlin’ big thing. It’s a darned sight closer to ye than I used to think, too! It’s kind of like a feller’s dad, a nice old party like the feller in striped ‘pants an’~a long whisker in the papers. He’s yer boss, an’ Adventure that’s all there is to it! -But when ye get to thinkin’ about it, you just plain want to do what’s up to you to do! Maybe ye have to give somethin’ up. I had to leggo of an arm an’ a leg! But it was up to me, an’ I done it! An’ ain’t I gettin’ took care of *bout as well as the next one? Yes, sir, Old Man White done me a good turn! I ain’t kickin’ none!” And Jenks looked through the smoke of his cigarette at the mass of red roses beside his bed. The war correspondent shook Jenks’ hand and (after a nod from the doctor) dropped several packages of cigarettes on the foot of the bed. Then he walked out of the room feeling unaccountably good, and warm and thankful at the very core of his being~-not so much toward Jenks as toward a grotesque picture of a man in a swallow- tailed blue coat, a pair of red-and-white striped trousers and a long goatee. ODONNELL,SURFMAN NUMBER SIX BY FREDERICK ARTHUR DOMINY T WAS a gloomy group that lounged about in more or less comfortable attitudes on the boat- room runway and moodily pulled at pipes that hung dejectedly from the corners of their mouths. In the Keeper’s office a rumble of voices could be heard and, from the expectant glances the men on the platform occasionally cast at the closed door, it was evident that they were waiting a verdict of some description—and were already convinced that it would be unfavor- able—from the occupants of the office. As the suspense became more and more unbearable, Billy Bennett removed his pipe, expectorated with remarkable accu- racy at a fly in front of him, and then, as though displeased with his skill, shook his head dejectedly. “‘Ain’t no use shakin’ your head that-a- way,” growled Saunders, Surfman No. 2. “It’s done, an’ it can’t be undone. I don’t mean drowndin’ that fly,” he continued, al- though nobody had questioned his mean- ing. ‘You all know what I mean. Ed Baker’s leg is broke, an’ the Sup’enten’ent won’t let us take on the only man we'd have a chance with, as a sub, but sends us that el’g’ble list to pick from, an’ we've got ‘bout as much chance of winnin’ that cup as a snowball has in some places I could mention.” His air was the air of a man eager to pro- voke a controversy, but affirmative grunts were his only reply, and it was evident that no one had the spirit to argue the question, so he hitched into a more or less comfortable attitude against the door-casing-and gazed surlily at the surrounding sand-dunes. Something had occurred to upset the usual smooth and cheerful tenor of life at Zachs Inlet Life-Saving Station, that was evident, and in consequence, the crew of that station were a most disheartened set of men. COMICHOOKS (C@