Adventure Magazine Cover, October 1911 — page 170: what you’re looking at

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

1116 easy enough to git it into the city. No- body’s ’spectin’ smugglers to try such a scheme, an’ that’s what made it pretty safe.”’ Then the Keeper began his tale. 3 *bout this little scrimmage, but, come to think, it happened ’fore you come in this district. Orders from head- quarters was to keep it quiet, an’ I don’t ’spose over half a dozen men ever heard the whole truth of the affair, till a couple of years after it was over with. It happened in June, 1903, the tenth day of the month, to give the exact date, an’ that, of course you know, is jest ten days after the commencement of the inactive sea- son. I was ’lone here in the station an’ kinder glad of it, to tell the truth, gittin’ a restin’ spell, though ’fore that night was over I’d give consid’able to have seen my crew walkin’ in the door. IT had been settin’ in here takin’ it pretty comf’table. Coat an’ vest an’ shoes off, for the night was hot, smokin’ an’ readin’ the paper, havin’ finished my supper an’ got the table cleaned up. Guess ’twas ’bout nine o'clock when I begin to think of turnin’ in, so, as IT always does every night, I goes to the ’phone an’ rings two long an’ one short for Ditch Plain. Cap’n Parson hardly ever makes me ring twice, but, after waitin’ a while an’ not hearin’ him, I jingles the bell again. He don’t answer then, so I turn the handle for the third time. Still no answer, so I try Nag’s Head, four short. They ain’t no better than Ditch Plain, for I called them three or four times an’ not a word did I get. I begin to think somethin’s the matter, for it’s mighty funny when ncither one of them answers, an’ decide to look the line over in the mornin’ for trouble with the wires. I had been standing up ’long-side the *phone all this time, of course, an’ my back was to the door. As I was givin’ the bell crank a finishin’ turn an’ sayin’ a few cuss- words I hears a step in the room an’ turns round, mighty s’prised, an’, to tell the truth, a mite startled, for visitors to Old Point are scarce an’ ’specially so at night. There stands a feller, jest inside the door, calm as could be, an’ half way smilin’. He was tall an’ fair lookin’, an’ had on pretty good clothes, but there was somethin’ ’bout his face I didn’t quite take a notion to. “‘Cap’n MacLean?” says he, kinder in- quirin’. I THOUGHT that you had heard Adventure “That’s me,” I answers, short-like, for I wasn’t a bit pleased at the way the feller’d come in, ’thout givin’ me no warnin’. ‘‘Who might you be, an’ what the dickens are you cruisin’ ’round here for this time o’ night?” I asks him. “Pll tell you in a minute, Cap’n,” he says. ‘““There’s a couple of friends of mine outside an’ first I'll call them in.” Then, ’thout givin’ me a chance to say yes or no he goes to the door an’ whistles, an’ two fellers, who must have been waitin’ close by, comes in. I was gittin’ mad by the minute. First I had sized the feller up to be one of them fresh chaps from the city who come down here an’ think us countrymen ain’t much better or brighter’n cattle, but somehow he didn’t act jest like them, either. There was a slick way "bout him that didn’t suit me, an’ the other two fellers had kinder shifty eyes that wouldn’t look square at a man. I begin to think they wasn’t the best kind of company to have ’round an’ was jest "bout to tell them to git out when he says, soft an’ easy, an’ still smilin’ in that sassy kind of way, “‘I’ve been tellin’ my friends, Cap’n, that this is a life-savin’ station an’ that, no doubt, there is a surf-boat in the buildin’. Am I right?” “Yes, you are,’ I says. ‘“There’s two of them in the boat-room an’I reckon too that they’ll stay there a consid’able spell yet. What you want to do, cut pieces out of ’em for souvenirs, or steal the brass-work an’ sell it for junk?”” Iwas too mad now to stop, so I gives it to them good an’ hard. “I'll tell you the best thing for you to do, young man,” I continues, ‘‘an’ that is for you an’ your friends to move out of here quick as possible. ‘This is Gov’ment property you’re onan’ you're mighty liable to git in a muss, ’less you step lively.” “Softly, softly, Cap’n,” he answers. ‘Jest a moment an’ [’ll explain.” “Explain an’‘be !’? I shouts back. “You'll do your explainin’ somewhere else ’sides here. I tell you, an’ it’s the last time, to git out!” — With that I makes a move for the corner where my gun stands, for I thought I’d feel consid’able better if I had hold of it. Three to one is big odds. But he orders, stern an’ sharp, ‘‘Stop!”’ I wasn’t goin’ to, but when I sees a pistol pointed at my head I does, an’ ’thout any argument. CO MICLOOKS 5}