Adventure Magazine Cover, October 1911 — page 173: what you’re looking at

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

Smuggling at Old Point do, I tells them to face east an’ walk, an’ to keep close to the surf. Higher up the beach the shadows from the hills made dark spots an’ I wanted them where the light was best. My shootin’ seemed to have took all the fight out of the leader, an’ the other two didn’t ’pear to be able to do anything ’less he told them to, so when he starts east they do the same, an’ I foller them, gun ’cross my arm, handy to raise an’ shoot, if necessary. i@ hour an’ once or twice the tall feller stopped an’ complained that his leg was hurtin’, but I told him he’d git plenty of time to rest ’fore long an’, though he growled consid’able, he saw I wouldn’t stand any foolin’ an’ kept goin’. When we got to the big hill that stands in front of the Ditch Plain Station I showed them the path an’ we headed ’cross the beach. It got pretty dark soon as we left the surf, so I watched my prisoners sharp an’ ’twas a good thing I did, for one of them made a break an’ started up a gully handy by like a scared rabbit. He didn’t git far, though, *fore I give him a dose same’s the other fel- ler got an’ yelled that, if he didn’t come back, the next time I shot ’twouldn’t be at his legs. I’d slipped another shell in my gun while we were walkin’ down the beach, so I wasn’t bluffin’ an’ he must have known it, for he walks back like a licked pup. We were close by the Station then an’ I see a light flare up in the mess-room an’ WE KEPT goin’ for a little over an Cap’n Parsons comes to the door an’ sings. out, “‘Who’s there?”’ “It’s me,” I says, ‘“Rorke MacLean. I’m bringin’ over a little company for you.”’ “Well, Pll be darned!”’ says he, as the three men walked in the door, I follerin’ them close up with the gun. ‘‘Who’s them fellers?”’ “Them,” I tell him, ‘‘are a gang that come to my Station, ticd me up an’, stealin’ the boat, which they was goin’ to cast adrift when they got through with it, rows out an’ picks up a lot of stuff that’d been throwed overboard for them to git from a steamer. Now if you’ll tie them up, Cap’n, I'll feel a mite more comf’table, as they’re pretty slip- pery, an’ I’m gittin’ tired of watchin’ them so close.”’ Il19 So he ties them up, good an’ solid, an’ after that little job is done I go in the office an’ phones the telegraph station, tellin’ the operator to telegraph to the mainland an’ get some officers over to the Ditch Plain Station quick as possible. That done, I turns in for a spell, for I was pretty sleepy an’ tired after what I'd gone through, an’ Cap’n Parsons says he don’t mind watchin’ the men. [I sleep longer than I ’spected to an’ when I do wake up it’s broad daylight. I start gittin’ breakfast an’ Wwe was jest scttin’ down—that is Cap’n Parsons an’ I was; we was goin’ to feed the others after we got through—when we heard some one talkin’, an’, goin’ to the door, finds the sheriff an’ his deputy, who’d jest got ’cross from the mainland. All hands has somethin’ to eat an’ then the sheriff takes charge of the smugglers, or boat-stealers, I don’t know which to call them, an’ the last I see of them for quite a spell they’re sittin’ in the cockpit, the sheriff watchin’ ’em, an’ the deputy navi- gatin’ the sailboat. Soon’s we got rid of our company Cap’n Parsons an’ me walk up to Old Point an’, findin’ the surf-boat, anchors her till I could git some men to help me put her in the boat-room. Then we carry the tin cans up to the Station an’ that ’bout winds up the affair. Of course, I have to go to the city an’ testify ’gainst the men an’ all that, an’ while they’re bein’ tried it comes out why they took my boat. It seems that they had come ’cross from the mainland in a la’nch, towin’ a dory that they ’spected to use, but somehow they got foul of an oyster-stake, broken off jest below the water, an’ it had punched such a hole in the dory that she had filled an’ sunk. Their chum on the steamer had made all the arrangements, even sendin’ them a wireless message givin’ the time she’d be off Old Point, so of course there was no puttin’ the thing off, an’ as they had to have a boat an’ knew I was’lone in the Sta- tion, it seemed easy enough to git mine. It was, too, an’ but for the little mistake they made in makin’ me fast there’d been thirty thousand dollars’ worth of opium-- taken into the city, ’thout a cent of duty hein’ paid on it, an’ them three fellers would now be spendin’ the money, ’stead of servin’ time. cComicloooks C©