Adventure, June 1911 — page 33: what you’re looking at

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

O'Donnell, Surfman Number Six -Charley could contain himself, no longer. As he saw a wet hand grasp the gunwale of «the judges’ boat and then O’Donnell’s face peer over the side, he yelled again with delight, and, dashing into the shoal water, half carried, half dragged, the victorious swimmer ashore into the midst of the wildly hilarious Zachs Inlet crew. O’Donnell was the only self-possessed man in the crowd. Serenely grinning at the behavior of the others, he let them pull off the bathing-suit he had worn and fairly quarrel over the honor of rubbing him down, and listened indifferently to their praises of his newly discovered ability. Only once did he speak and then it was to remark smilingly: ‘‘Sure, boys, I told you I could swim a bit, but it’s jiggin’ that’s my long suit!” When calm had in a measure been re- stored during the walk across the beach, they clustered around the score-board to view the revised score. Now the points were so evenly divided among the stations that the shooting-match would decide the matter, and they were fairly confident of their chance in that. Parker of Gilgo had finished second, and Pike of Napeague third, in the swim, so that the board now showed the points as follows: Napeague nineteen, Gilgo eighteen, and Zachs Inlet | seventeen. . Little time was left them to discuss this situation, however, for the judges were calling for the trap-shooters, and they hurried to secure favorable positions from which to watch this event. Each station was represented by a team of three men who were to shoot at twenty: birds each, in series of five, and the highest individual scores were to decide the con- test. Keeper Rorke, Hulse, and Bennett were the Zachs Inlet entrants, and the Keeper was the first man called. His start promised well for Zachs Inlet, for he broke his five birds in as many shots, but this ad- vantage was not held long, for Howell of Napeague duplicated his feat, although the Gilgo man, Lee, had to be content with four kills. _ Then-the next three men shot, but Hulse broke but three, while both N apeague’s and - Gilgo’s representatives scored four each. Now it was up to Bennett to retrieve the lost points, and his mates were confident that he would do it. But where was Billy? 219 The scorer was calling his name and the other shooters were. showing annoyance at his tardiness. Reynolds had been scanning the faces of © the crowd in an unsuccessful attempt to find him. ‘‘Come to think of it,” he whis- pered to the nearest man, “Billy didn’t come back ’cross the beach with us, did he?” “Don’t believe he did, though I hadn’t missed him,” was the reply, and then it was discovered, upon questioning the remainder of the crew, that none of them had seen Ben- nett since leaving the bay. “Drake, you go tell the Keeper that Billy’ll be there in a minute, an’ to get them to go on with the shootin’, an’ the rest of us’ll hunt him up,” instructed Rey- nolds. So the judges were informed that Bennett would be ready to shoot in a short time, and Pike of Napeague faced the trap. tus) REYNOLDS, Saunders and O’Don- fx) nell hurried across the beach and covered that another calamity had over- taken Zachs Inlet. Very white and still, Bennett lay at the foot of the bluff down which they had so wildly rushed to welcome O’Donnell. He looked up at the others with a wan smile. ‘‘Thought you’d miss me *fore long,’”’ he said. “But what’s the matter, Billy?” Rey- nolds inquired. “Guess I must have turned my ankle when I fell down the hill,” he replied. “TI yelled at you fellers when I did it, but you was so worked up over that swimmin’ race you never heard it. Then I tried to hop along after you left, but my leg hurt so I guess I must have fainted.” “Well, this settles it!” ejaculated Saun- ders. “If we ain’t been runnin’ in the darndest luck! First Baker broke his leg an’ now Billy here’s bunged up so he can’t shoot. ~ Jest when we thought we had a chance, too!”’ he added mournfully. “But it ain’t no use!” And it did look as if the Zachs Inlet crew were hoodooed, but, as Reynolds remarked: “It ain’t of no use crying over spilt milk. That shootin’-match is all over, far as we are concerned, for there ain’t another man in the crew that can break one of them clay birds out of five. We'll carry Billy over to the station an’ then report to Keeper Rorke.”’ So they carried their crippled mate across Co JOO ANG SoCO upon arriving at the bay-side dis- ©