Adventure Magazine Cover, April 1916 — page 60: what you’re looking at

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

58 process, after so long a neglect, was a pain- ful one. Then she fell upon the petticoats, the laces and ribbons. An hour passed. Another slipped by. Nancy and Cherie were oblivious to their surroundings, intoxicated by the greatest of all feminine delights. From this blissful state they were aroused by a hail and the tramp of feet upon the deck. Mindful of her duties and obligations then, she threw open the door and stepped out, just as Cap- tain Morgan came over the side. The buccaneer regarded her for a long instant as if he had been suddenly cast into bronze. Then off came his wide-brimmed hat, with its nodding crimson plume that swept the deck, what with the great bow he made. 3 ‘““Madame,” said he, taking her hand and kissing it as gallantly as if he had been a courtier, ‘‘the explosion on the frigate just now interrupted me. I have come to re- sume where I left off, and to say that I have fetched the monk along. S’death! Madame, my heart felt near to bursting when first I saw you yonder, and now that I behold you in your proper person I am all the more aflame for you.” But though the softness of his eyes, which for the moment lost their customary hard- ness, bore witness to the ardor of his words, his glances were not so wholly occupied with the scrutiny of the beauty of her face and girlish figure as to be oblivious to the beauty of the ship, which he was quick to note and to appreciate in hull and spars as in the line and color of a pretty woman. To both he gave his frank admiration, and, be- ing no less a seaman than a lover, was so entirely impartial that he bestowed his praises equally upon both, in the same breath, until it seemed, that, with a most remarkable economy of language, as befit- ting a man of action rather than of speech, he made a single word serve a double duty. “‘S’blood, Madame!”’ he cried, with an- other great bow and flourish. “Well rigged thou art, truly, nor over-rigged to wrong you in your sailing. A great rake forwards on, like a French craft, which is as I like, making for the more speed.”’ Leading the way into the roundhouse, as if he felt himself already master there, his exclamations of delight increased with every step he took, until at last he cried: “By our Lady! Madame, we are well met, indeed. Here you have as stanch a Adventure vessel of fourteen guns as ever I hope to see, and ports could be cut on the gun-deck for more ordnance, though I depend not upon my cannon in a fight, so that I can sail my ship to lay aboard, and bring my enemy under the musket fire of my men. Still, I scorn them not, and we can use them. ‘Such another ship as this with us, an’ the frigate had not blown up and bereft me of my largest, and I would take Panama this expedition. Join me in my plans, Madame, and though the larger undertaking be de- ferred until a later time, nathless we shall go away now to the Main and gain a king’s ransom from the rich Spanish cities, you, as my wife, to share equally with me in the adventure, and your men to share equally with my own, on the terms which they well know, as the code of the brethren of the coast—no purchase, no pay. Come, marry me and sail with me.” ‘fAs to the second part of your proposal, sir,” replied Nancy, seating herself at the table where she had drawn up the agree- ment with her English comrades, “I con- fess it hath much to commend itself as well to my taste as to my desires.” Morgan smiled and rubbed his hands with a gesture of satisfaction. ‘‘As for the rest of what you say, sir,”’ she added, “I thank you for the compliment you have paid me, but that can never be.” “Can never be?” echoed Captain Mor- gan. “Nay, sir, it is impossible,” she answered, turning her eyes from his. “I—I—I have promised myself to another,” she faltered, stammering, and daring not to look at him. “S’death, Madame,” answered the buc- caneer nonchalantly, as if vastly relieved, “do not let that trouble you. Were you al- ready married, nathless I would wed thee still.”’ ‘But that would be a sin, sir,” cried Nancy, looking at the pirate with wide- open eyes. Captain Morgan threw back his head and laughed a hearty laugh that shook his whole huge frame. “S’blood, Madame!” he returned, when he could recover his breath. ‘There is no such thing as sin below the tropic, so make your mind easy on that score, my lady, and I will fetch the monk in and have the ser- vice read.”’ Whereupon he whistled loudly. Two of COMmMicboooks (©