Adventure, August 1917 — page 140: what you’re looking at

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

138 then, you are to go back to the fire and get some sleep. Those are orders. And take my coat to put over you. I'll be by the fire, in the notch and won’t need it.” She took the coat. Thanks for that sort of office did not seem to occur to her. ‘Thinks it is her right,”’ thought Loudon as he walked waay. He borrowed the ser- geant’s watch. “T’ll wake you at twelve, Bristol,’ he said. ‘‘We’ll be moving about three. You are going to stay here with six of the best shots and hold the ridge. They’ll make a bluff at crossing it. We are shy on cart- ridges, so don’t waste any. If you only fire once in a while they won’t follow you up so quickly when we send back the runner for you to come in. “T’ve figured out we can spare you fifteen rounds apiece, so go easy. They have probably arranged on some signal and I shouldn’t be surprised if it was the first touch of the sun on the peaks. That comes this side of the island and you may expect arush. The guns will give Toruki the tip if he can’t see the peak from the trail that leads up back of the crater.” “Hall right, sir. Dll ’old ’em. ’Old ’em like ’Oratius hon the bridge.” The little fire burned brightly, the end of its glare resting on the knife-edge. No sound came upward to Loudon as he sat with his rifle ready. Back in the crater the singing fell to desultory chatter and then ceased. Above the purring, gently crack- ling fires only one sound broke the silence— the reverberant, resonant snore of Mrs. Gower. CHAPTER XIII BREWSTER PROPOSES 4 Be STARS swung in their constella- tions, the Southern Cross dipped sea- ward while the islanders drowsed by the fire, occasionally throwing on a dried branch, and Loudon lay in the cleft, the cool sea-wind battling with the land-breeze and fanning him with spicy airs. He was drenched with sleep and weariness and looked at the watch a dozen times in the hope that he could get to the few hours of rest ahead of him. It was just half-past eleven when the green light of what he guessed to be a Cos- ton signal flared on the ridge beyond the Adventure knife-edge. He sighted at the void behind it his finger tightening on the trigger. The light betokened the presence of some one from the schooner. They were well beyond the knife-edge, a reflected finger of the fire traced it from end to end of the perilous passage. The natives below him sprang to their rifles at the sound of his shifting position and squatted, gazing fearfully at the sputtering signal. A voice spoke out of the darkness. “Is that you, Loudon?” It was Brew- ster’s even tones. “What do you want? Speak in a hurry or I’ll fire.” “Wait till you havea talk. Iam all alone. You'll find it worth while.” Loudon debated with himself. Their position was too precarious for them to dis- pense with any information and he might learn something worth while. “Leave your guns behind you and come across the ridge to the fire,” he called. Once their side of the knife-edge, the gambler would be powerless. “‘T have your word for safe come and go?” cies?’ “All right. Brighten up your fire a bit, will you?” Loudon admired perforce the coolness of the man as he stepped across the crumbling lava fin, with little fragments broken off by his feet clattering distinctly in the night silence down into the gulfs on either side of him. He halted in the full radiance of the fire, Loudon keeping his position in the notch, discarding his rifle for the readier auto- matic, prepared to dispose of the gambler at the first sign of treachery. Brewster quietly hunkered down, ignoring the na- tives. “No use playing out a rotten hand, Lou- don,” he said. ‘“‘You’ve had one or two good cards and you’ve laid ’em down. I’ve got all the trumps. Now then, we want that gold and the pearls. You’ve got ’em or you’ve hidden them somewhere. Come across and we’ll give you and the ladies free passage to one of the atolls and leave a boat for you to get away in after we’ve gone. We'll want your words that you won’t leave for twenty hours after we are out of sight and your promise not to give out our descriptions or the name of the schooner.” “That is idiotic. The money belongs to Comiclsoo (© 5}