Adventure Magazine Cover, October 1911 — page 68: what you’re looking at

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

O14 He was silent a moment before answer- ing. But at last he said slowly: “ Yes—they are carrying something. I am sure of it. They have turned a little now and I get a side view. You were quite right, my child. Fancy your having eyes sharp enough to see that, Nora!” “Tt was something white and it moved,”’ she said mechanically. ‘‘Everything in this place is so motionless and still, I think I could see a beetle cross the cliff.” “Tt must be a man, I suppose,” said Mr. Lee. ‘‘ Probably some castaway fisherman. Ill of exposure, I dare say. You don’t suppose——”’ he almost lowered the glass as the unwelcome thought came to him—“‘ you don’t suppose——-_ But nonsense! He sig- nalled a little while ago; he can t have died since then.” Nora wet her dry lips and set her teeth again. ‘“‘It was something flapping in the wind,” she said. ‘‘Dear me, dear me!” said the nervous man fretfully. ‘““We shall know very soon now,” said .Nora quietly. But in her heart still ached ‘the sickening dread. Somehow she had felt sure from the first moment. She argued against it while the men were toiling down the cliff carefully disposing their burden to their best strength. She prayed against it when they put off the launch from shore. She smothered the very thought of it as the boat neared the side of the yacht. Yet wild as the conjecture was, remote as the chance of it might be, she was sure of it when she and her father crossed the deck to the steps. Berwind lifted a white, unsmiling face to hers and made a faint motion with his hand toward her father. Instantly she had turned to him. you can see—it 1s something serious. you not better go below?” Mr. Lee bent eagerly over the starboard side where, beside the steps that dipped themselves rhythmically toward the water, the launch was grappled and drawn up by the boat-hook of the waiting seaman. ‘“What news, Berwind?”’ he cried. ‘‘ What have you there?”’ The Doctor, bending over the motionless rug-wrapped form, had no time to reply. With a prompt obedience that fairly snapped matters into place, the davits were manned andacanvas hammock slung. Mr. Lee and Nora drew back out of the way of the unresisting figure, which appeared gigan- ‘Dear, Had Adventure tic in its supine length, swung for a moment in its cradle, swaying helplessly between the sky and sea. “It is a man,” said Mr, Lee nervously. “Yes, dear, it is a man,’”’ repeated Nora tonelessly. ‘That the man was dead she had no doubt. Then, giving directions as he ran, Ber- wind dashed up the steps and in a moment more was kneeling beside the shrouded form, which the men eased down upon the deck. Mr. Lee, unconsciously clutching his daughter’s arm, leaned forward. ‘“‘Is the fellow dead, Berwind?”’ he asked in a trembling, excited voice. But the Doctor, who at any other time would have considered his employer first, had for the moment forgotten all about him. Without replying, he laid back the canvas fold and, springing open the case of his watch, held the polished golden surface be- fore the lips of the rescued man. WAXY and motionless, with eyes half closed, ‘and white teeth that glistened in a red barbaric scrub of beard, was a face that, even in its sunken placidity, retained the outlines of features that they all had known. ‘““God bless me!” cried Mr. Lee in a vio- lent explosion of horror. “‘Young Stuart!”’ Dr. Berwind, snatching the brandy from the hand of Levine, the steward, who at this moment managed to force his way through the circle, dropped his watch on the length of its chain and, pressing open the limp jaw with his hand, poured in a few drops of the potent liquid. Nora Lee had drawn nearer and she bent above Berwind and watched his hands as he repeated the dose of brandy. At the third time the answering constriction of the throat, though faint, was unmistakable. The lips twitched slightly, the nerves in the eyelids faintly stirred. Her whisper was fraught with a very tor- ture of amazement andrelief. ‘He is alive! He is alive!” Even in that tense and flying moment « SS GE ANG is WAZ DAN) _Berwind’s quick glance had time to question the source of this deep, unconcealed emo- tion; for the girl’s words, statement of in- controvertible fact though they might be, were uttered in a passionate thankfulness. The outstretched hands, the wet, wide-open eyes, the trembling mouth—all these were CO MICLOOOKS (©