Adventure Magazine, Mid-September 1917 — page 171: what you’re looking at

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

On the Account “A likely man enough, though I cared not for his eyes. They look too like a shark’s for my taste. And I have a fancy that I have seen him before. ’Tis your nick again. Take up the box.” “T calla five,”’ said Bane, rattling the dice. “Shell out. I shall win all your stakes yet. This is my lucky night.” Tom the Turtler glanced up at the lighted window as he left the tavern. The last round had put the old buccaneer to sleep. He walked down to the beach where the boats of the pirate lay. The brigantine was anchored in the bay. He walked moodily along the edge of the tide, his hands deep in his pockets. Pres- ently his fingers sought and found a coin, the piece-of-eight that Bane had given him as earnest-money. With a swift jerk he sent it skittering across the placid water, sending up tiny splashes of phosphorescence as it skipped. *“*“On the account.’ ’Tis an apt phrase,” he mused. “And the reckoning is a long one. But it shall be paid, to the full.” He seated himself on a rock and looked at the trim hull of the Venture for a long time, motionless. But his eyes saw no ves- sel, but the vision of Green Key and the coral slabs above a lonely grave where the jungle vines had laid pitying fingers. CHAPTER VI THE KISSING PALMS } en down the wind a ship blazed furi- ously, the flames, pale in the afternoon sun, fanned by the mounting breeze. Three miles to the south sped the Venture, her decks yet cumbered with the spoils of the prize. And, after her in swift pursuit, with all the sail that her slender spars could bear, raced H. M. Corvette Juno, overhauling the pirate fathom by fathom. Captain Sawtrell, commander of the king’s ship, walked his deck and whistled softly for a continuance of the wind. His first lieutenant saw the puckered lips and guessed their meaning withasmile. It was yet three glasses to darkness. The chart showed that the chase was heading straight _for the Jumentos, less than seven sea- leagues distant. If the Juno could get within gunshot before sunset, as seemed in- evitable, he had metal enough aboard— new guns out from England—to blow the brigantine out of the water. 169 The corvette was flush-decked and schooner rigged. She had but one tier of guns but they were handled by a picked crew. The vice-admiral had grown tired of chasing Bane with craft slower than the brigantine and he had requisitioned Sawtrell and the Juno to rid the seas of the Venture. As long as Bane was free to ravage, others were likely to emulate his example. There were plenty of men among those recently pardoned at Providence who itched for the old life and made a hero out of Bane, laughing in their sleeves at Rogers for letting him escape from Nassau. Sawtrell’s orders were explicit, he was not to return until Bane was captured, and already the end of the cruise seemed in sight. ‘‘What’s wrong with the fool?” Sawtrell asked his officer. “‘There’s no passage through those cays?” ‘“‘None marked. The water shallows to six fathoms a league from the line of break- ers. Ive sailed along their front and seen naught but spouting reefs. Maybe he plans to beach her, since we have the heels of him 9) ‘‘We’ll pound him to pieces before he can get his men out of her, if he does. We can try a shot soon. We must have caught him napping, too busy looting to keep a lookout. Better get the bow-guns ready, Hardy; we'll try for his spars. He keeps his course, the rogue.” Aboard the Venture, Bane measured the decreasing distance with an anxious eye. The brigantine was foul-bottomed and the corvette was entirely too fast to his liking. The merchantman had been richly laden and all hands had worked to transfer the cargo. The lookout had taken the cor- vette for a trading-schooner until she was close enough to show her white gun-ports and a tack had revealed the red ensign. The brigantine, according to British no- menclature, was the same type as an her- maphrodite brig, square-rigged forward and schooner-rigged aft. With the wind as it was, slightly forward of the beam, sail- ing on a broad reach, the corvette with her fore-and-aft rig had ‘the better of the Ven- ture. Before the wind the craft would be on fairly equal terms; close-hauled, the cor- vette would still hold the advantage. The wind was westerly. To run would bring the brigantine into the angle where the Jumentos joined Long Island on a course between the reefs and the guns of CoOMmiclsoo CO