Adventure Magazine Cover, April 1916 — page 37: what you’re looking at

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

Days of How long she laid there against his great brawny chest she did not know, nor did she ever know. Hours—weeks—mcnths. It seemed to Nancy as if she had been there, sobbing hysterically in his arms, forever and ever, when finally she pulled herself away from him. Two of the mariners had come to the wheel, and the Devon man, in that voice that thrilled her whenever he spoke, was giving orders as calmly as if he had been a bargeman on the Thames on a quiet Sun- day afternoon. ‘“‘Now, boys,”’ he called out—he had her still in the hollow of his arm, his free hand at his mouth—“‘bring her up a little to the wind. Cut all her lee fore rigging. Cut the main to’mast and mizzen lee rigging. Now lay to windward. Look lively there, you old standers! Cut all your weather fore- rigging.” The men leaped at his bidding, and with this the.foremast went by the board, and took with it the main topmast and mizzen topmast. The wreckage cleared the ship with a little quick work and was soon astern. The Baptiste righted herself. Much of the canvas on the main and mizzen had blown itself out of the bolt-ropes. The men at the wheel kept her dead before it until they began to cut away, and then they let her come to a couple of points. With the coming of the first faint streaks of dawn they made their way into the great cabin, and the Devon man, as Nancy called him to herself, went off to search for a ship’s biscuit, and came back empty handed, with a face that was very grave, although he tried to conceal from her the alarm that he felt. The ship was laboring less now, and the fury of the storm abating considerably. The sun came up in an almost cloudless sky, with the bosom of the Caribbean undulating in long, easy swells of turquoise blue. They dried their clothes by walking on the deck, with Three-legs, who had come up from some retreat in the hold where he had sagaciously stowed himself, barking and whining at their side. But especially did he whine, and growl, too, when they walked forward. Then he would scratch grotesque- ly with his one forepaw at the forward hatch, uttering sharp, excited yelps. Barney gave Nancy a sidelong glance full of meaning, but the girl placed her finger against her lips and nodded to him to be si- Morgan 35 lent. The hatch had been battened down, and she judged that Yellow Eyes would be safer for a while where he was than on deck with the men who had learned from Barney how the dumb man had sought to betray her secret to the French Governor. The ship was a derelict, her masts carried away, with scarce a spar left large enough to rig into a jury mast. Nancy and Bar- ney, with the dog, walked aft through the wreckage with which the decks were strewn, and the girl began to consider the situation in which she found herself. The mission upon which her father and Sidney had sent her was as fresh in her mind as it had been on the night she had quit their lodgings in Lille; and she still hoped with the buoyancy of youth that she would be able, somehow, some way, she did not know how, to get to London in time to give, to those who could use it for the cause, the secret information which she had been charged to impart. The Devon man and Jim Rimble had gone below. The former now came back to where she and Barney stood, and she saw by the look in his eyes that he was anx- ious. ‘‘What is it, my friend?” she asked. “TI see by your face that you are sorely troub- led.” “T may as well tell you,” he answered. “For, although I would spare you if I could, God knows ’tis not a thing can be concealed. We are in a bad way. ‘The old tub has strained her seams, and we are half full of water. That is why we ride more easily now. For another thing, there isn’t a mouthful of food aboard. Cleaned out, she is—not a speck of grub. And I warrant you we have made good search. We have come to sea in our coffin, I greatly fear me.”’ ““Oh, it can’t be as bad as that.” Nancy smiled, and touched him lightly on the arm. “T am sure you will find a way out of our difficulties.”’ “How?” he asked, shortly. “Why, we can sail back to Tortuga, if the worst comes to the worst,’ interjected Barney hopefully. ‘“There’s plenty of grub there—roast ox, and everything.” “Sail!” he cried. ‘“‘What with, lad. Can you hold your ’kerchief to catch a breeze? No, I tell you, here we rot. Forgive me,’ he added quickly, turning to Nancy. “I do not mean to frighten you, but our condi- tion is indeed desperate. And here come the men! I fear I shall have mutiny on my CoMmichoooks CO