Adventure Magazine Cover, April 1916 — page 95: what you’re looking at

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

Dory-Mates p’izen now! I wonder how he’ll die? Will he git suspicious, an’ make for me afore he goes? Or will he crumple up quickly?” For fully ten minutes he waited, every nerve on edge, for the hoarse cry or the sliding thump of Collins’ body into the slush and water on the dory bottom. Heavens! The man was a long time feel- ing the effects of the poison. It was strong enough to kill a man in a few minutes, he knew, and the water in the dory-jar was highly charged with the stuff. The sea was running wild and the foaming crests gleamed phosphorescent in the dark of the night. Anderson lolled in the dory’s stern and watched Collins like a hawk for half an hour, and when he heard Westley singing to himself, he felt that something was wrong. | “He couldn’t ha’ drunk that water,” he murmured to himself. ‘“‘He’s wise, an’ made a bluff. I wonder ef he knows how I hate him——” “Oh, thar, Tommy!” came Collins’s cheery voice. ‘How ye makin’ out?” ‘All right!”’ growled the other. *Ain’t feelin’ th’ cold?” 6 ‘Naw!” Westley resumed his singing, and An- derson cursed him under his breath. “How kin that swab sing,” he muttered, “when I kin hardly speak with th’ dryness o’ my tongue an’ mouth, —— him!” ~ THROUGHOUT the long night the dory pitched to the drogue, and ice formed on the gunnels and thwarts. Collins sat on the for’ard thwart and kept an eye on the buoy-line holding the drogue, and occasionally busied himself clearing the ice away. Anderson, burning with thirst, lay hud- dled up aft, his mind a whirl of conflicting thoughts and strange schemes. In a daze he watched his dory-mate, and his hate for the unsuspecting Collins grew until it al- most consumed him. “He bluffed me, by Judas!” thought he. “He never drank that water, or he’d have been a dead one by now. God! How thirsty I am!”’ He broke a piece of ice from the gunnel and began to suck at it. It was salty, so he threw it away with a curse. out his pipe and attempted to smoke, but it only seemed to increase his thirst, so he stowed it away again. He pulled 93 The tardy daylight came at length, and Collins rose to his feet and stretched him- self with a yawn. ‘““Hoow ye feelin’, dory-mate?” he said cheerfully. “All right,” grunted Anderson. ‘“‘Cal’iate we’d better hev a small drink an’ a bite, an’ make a move. What d’ye say?” The other nodded, and rising to his feet stamped his rubber boots and swung his arms. Though heavily clothed, both felt the cold. Collins carefully opened the little paper parcel and handed Anderson a doughnut. “‘Pass me th’ jar!”’ said the latter. He turned his back to Collins and placed it to his lips. Fear of the poison which it contained restrained him from allowing a single drop of the precious fluid to moisten his parched tongue, though the temptation was frightfully hard to resist. With a great show of wiping his lips, he passed the jug over to Westley. ‘“‘Aha! that feels better,’”? he remarked hoarsely. The other was chewing at a doughnut, and washed it down with a swig of water from the fateful jar while the other watched him swallow. It was only a small gulp, but after finishing the doughnut Collins took another one, and without replacing the cork, handed the receptacle to An- derson. ‘“‘Hev another little swig, Tom!” ‘‘Naw, I’ve had enough.” He was vainly trying to swallow the doughnut, but the food tasted like sawdust in his mouth, and witha muttered oath he blew it out again when Collins was hauling in the drogue. | ““He’ll croak this time,” thought he. “He didn’t bluff in that drink. I c’d see it goin’ down his throat - ‘‘All aboard!” cried the other. “Lay to yer oars, Tom, old son. We'll head to th’ no’th’ard.”’ Both men shipped their oars and com- menced to row. It was twenty-four hours since Anderson had a drink or anything to eat. He was feeling the pangs of hunger and thirst—thirst especially—but he pulled stolidly and awaited the tragedy which he knew must happen soon. Collins may have made a bluff at drinking yesterday, but he surely drank that morning. Several times he glanced over his shoul- CoOMnmicboooks CO