Adventure Magazine Cover, April 1916 — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

50 “T will make you Chief Captain by Land, at 8 shares.”’ “Thou art embarked upon a course of folly, I tell you,” he replied, and shook his head again. The men crowded about the paper now, and put their names upon it, most of them with a mark, and all of them with much labor and many twists of the tongue, as if they had been writing with that organ in- stead of a quill. “T regret your decision, Captain Stilling- fleet,’’ said Nancy to him again while the men were busy, flashing at him one of her most winning smiles in which were blended, with an incongruity that was wholly femi- nine, raillery and scorn—and admiration. “IT would have you for my mate, an’ you were willing.” Such a look lay in his eyes then that her cheeks crimsoned under her tan, as he said, speaking very slowly and softly, his voice full of that deep tone which seemed to touch some hidden chord in the very depths of her soul: “I would be blithe to be your mate—and by the living God, that I shall be in my own good time.’”’ She lowered her eyes. ‘‘As for embarking in this mad piracy, I wash my hands of it, but I will speak more at large with you upon that subject later, and, mayhap, I shall drag you back from the pit into which you are rushing headlong.” ‘““My thanks, sir, for your concern,” she answered, regaining her composure and nod- ding to him lightly. ‘And now, men, you will muster before the mast and be told off in your proper watches.”’ With a parting cheer they vanished, slap- ping each other upon the back, as happy as schoolboys. Nancy would have followed them, but Captain Stillingfleet detaining her with a significant glance, she remained behind for a moment to speak with him. “Look ye, young woman,” said he when they were alone, leaning across the cabin table and compelling her eyes to his own, “it is my duty to warn you that you are putting your head in a noose.”’ She shrugged her shoulders and turned to go. He stepped between her and the door. ‘Listen to me, you must and shall,’”’ he continued. “ “Must’ and ‘shall’ are words I like not, Captain Stillingfleet,” she replied. ‘I have made my decision and nothing shall shake me in that determination. As for piracy, Adventure as you call it, for more than a hundred years we English have fought the Spaniards below the tropic, whether our countries were at war in Europe or no. What won honors and glory for that brave knight Sir Francis Drake hath no terrors for me.”’ ‘Nay, child,” he answered, “‘but Charles rules at Whitehall now, and times have changed.” “‘And will change again.” “By St. Bride! You talk like a Puritan. I say times have changed. I know that Governor Modyford at Jamaica hath or- ders to put down privateering against the Spaniards in the Indies, for I have seen those orders with my own eyes, in London, before they were sent here to him.”’ “Then I will carry on a war against the Spaniards on my own account,” said she at this, bristling up. “With thirty English at my command a ““Moreover,” he interrupted, ‘“‘this Span- ish Captain from whom we have taken this shi » ‘“‘An English ship,” she reminded him. ‘“‘Ay, an English ship, true enough.” ‘Although thou weren’t enough of a sea- man to discover the fact for yourself.”’ He bit his lip, then went on: ‘‘An English ship — placed at the Cap - tain’s disposal by King Charles himself. For this prisoner of ours—I should say yours—as he hath told me, is the Don Luis de Espinosa who hath long been his Majes- ty’s confidential agent in Spain, who shared his exile in France and Holland, and who hath now concluded his business in New Spain, where he hath had large interests and honors under the Spanish crown, and is now on his way to England to settle down as an English gentleman on certain estates in Devonshire that have been bestowed upon him by His Majesty, none others, in- deed, than those belonging to the rebel Chillingworth, of whom I spoke to you not long since.” ‘‘Prithee, and what is this to me?” asked Nancy with a drawl in her voice, a vast in- difference, as if the blow had not told home. ‘And so,” added Captain Stillingfleet, ‘““‘by going home to England we would have served all our interests and pleased the king to boot.” ‘““Would we have served the interests of the men? You yourself did tell me that half of them would hang on Tyburn did COMmichoooks CO