Adventure, August 1917 — page 96: what you’re looking at

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

94 When they dropped anchor at one o’clock they were eight miles off shore, with twenty feet of water under them. Silently, one by one, fifteen men entered the dory—McConaughy, Jock, Evan, the Hon. Herbert and eleven of the crew. Lord Claragh’s engineer was left in charge of the Mona, with orders to show a light, when the dory flashed a green lantern twice. This was to guide the landing party back to their ship. The wind was blowing off shore, and for the first five miles McConaughy ran under power. Then he shut off the motor, and they took to the cars. It was two, when they sighted the white sands of the beach of R6m through a ragged gray blanket of North Sea mist. Without a sound, save the easy crunch- ing of the gravel under its keel, the dory ran up on the beach, and the landing party leaped out into the shallow water. One man was delegated to stay by the boat, the rest followed McConaughy through the sand-dunes that came close to the surf- line. When they were safe amongst the marsh-grass he halted them. “Mr. Grant an’ maself will go for’arrd,” he said. ‘The rest o’ ye will bide here until we give the worrd to advance. Mak’ no noise.” . “But, I say, Captain,” interrupted the Hon. Herbert, “surely you are not goin’ to do a chap out of his fun, are your? My governor was most particularly anxious that I should be in this thing, you know. Really, I thin is ““Ve’ll see all the life ye can digest before the night’s done,” McConaughy reassured him grimly. “Stay here wi’ the otherrs.” The Hon. Herbert shrank back into the group and said no more. There was an edge to McConaughy’s voice that—well, other men than the Hon. Herbert, with far more will-power, had bowed to it. After a brief word with Evan, who was to command the party, McConaughy and Jock stole off through a gulley between the dunes in a southerly direction parallel with the coast-line. As they climbed high- er, they found the mist thinner. They walked for some twenty minutes before McConaughy saw what he was after. On top of a sand-ridge to their left, well above the water-line, loomed a dark, irregular succession of quadrangular shapes, masked in marsh-grass and stunted trees and Adventure bushes. Away off to one side stood a heavy, squat tower of steel, with a quaint conical cap like a _ candle-extinguisher. McConaughy nudged Jock in the ribs. ‘“‘That will be a battherry,’’ he whispered. ‘Sma’ guns, though,’ amended Jock. “‘D’ye see the size o’ the pits, noo, skipper? Four-incherrs, maybe, or fives.” “Ay. They wouldna ha’ big ones here, for big ships canna get in. We ken that.” “There maun be sentries or pickets. Where wad——”’ “ A clash of arms in the bushes above them cut the whisper from Jock’s lips. Looking closer they made out dimly the bulk of a black-and-white striped sentry-box, with a small clump of pine-trees growing be- tween it and the sea. Jock held his breath, but the sentry only shifted his rifle, moved about restlessly and then apparently re- sumed his nap or whatever he had~been disturbed in. “Do we scrag him?” hissed Jock. McConaughy pondered the suggestion. “No,” he said at last. ‘I want a prison- err to tak’ back wi’ me—parrt forr the inforrmation, parrt as recompense—” he grinned, but Jock could not see his face in the darkness— “for the losses we may sufferr. If we scrag him now we may mak’ a noise an’ give the job away ahead o’ time. We'll wait an’ tak’ him when the otherrs are up.” They crawled off cautiously along the way they had come, and after putting a few dunes between themselves and the sentry, broke into a run. A low challenge warned them they were approaching their friends, and McConaughy answered re- assuringly. “Come wi’ me,” he said, without giving the Hon. Herbert a chance to ask questions. ‘“‘There’s no time to be lost. Be carefu’ how ye step, though. I’ll brain the man that stumbles.” It required more time for the larger party to gain the foot of the dune whereon the sentry was perched. Here McConaughy left them again, and taking only Jock with him, circled the dune in order to come up on the other side. They crawled on their hands and knees through marsh-grass to the edge of the clump of trees. The sentry was standing in the entrance to the sentry-box, one hand holding his rifle, the other rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He was a thick-set, bearded CoOmiclsoo C© S|