Adventure Magazine Cover — page 100: what you’re looking at

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

90 “He’s in the slaughter-house, out back. Goin’ to kill and cut up a cow ’n her calf. Your crew ate up every mite of fresh meat in town at the banquet yesterday, cap’n. Must have tasted mighty good after a long cruise on salt horse. I’ll bet those British- ers out there’d be glad to get some.” Swift, in the act of leaving the room, started and grinned. The garrulous bar- tender’s words had given him an idea. “Here, buy yourself a drink!” he cried, slamming a gold eagle down on the bar. Thirty seconds later he bounded into the slaughter-house and: seized Tenterden’s upraised pole-axe just as it was about to fall on the head of a fat, complacent cow. “Spare her life, Joel, and I’ll buy her and the calf, just as they stand, at dining-room prices.” ‘“‘They’re yours,” said the versatile Joel. ‘‘Want ’em sent aboard, cap’n?”’ “Help me navigate ’em down Main Street and bring ’em to alongside Ter- williger’s office. I’m going to have some fun with the stingy old hunks.” Followed by an amused and interested crowd, the two herded Asa’s purchases down to the dingy little office, where the captain hammered on the door. “Come out and look at my team, you old monopolist! Finest yoke of draft- cattle on Cape Cod!” The deacon came forth, took one look and burst into high-pitched, derisive laugh- ter. “Hee! Hee! Hee! You poor ignorant sailorman! Callin’ a milch caow and her calf a team!” ““Go ahead and laugh while you still feel like it,”’ said Swift ominously. “Tl back old Sukey and her offspring here against all your horses and oxen. I’m going to make these two into a team that'll haul two thousand ton and leave you mourning in sackcloth and ashes amidst the ruins of your immoral monopoly. Give way, there, Sukey! Heave ahead, younker!”’ The privateersman cheerfully prodded his livestock along the water-front toward the place where Ezra Starbuck’s coasting sloop was moored, waiting for the blockade to - be lifted. “‘Durn his impudence! I'll raise his rates fifteen dollars a ton for that,’ mut- tered the deacon as he went back into his office. “more than a gentle breeze. Adventure ‘| “LARGE sloop standing out, sir,” reported the officer of the deck to the captain of His Mayjesty’s brig Bruiser, off Falport harbor. ‘Looks like a fisherman or a coaster.” “Pick the fellow up,” said the captain curtly. ‘‘He’ll be able to tell us something about that monstrosity in there. Dash it, . Mr. Waldron, the thing’s an _ impossi- bility!” “It’s a Yankee seventy-four, sir,” insisted the lieutenant. “Blue blazes, Mr. Waldron, there isn’t such a thing afloat! I know their whole paltry navy-list by heart and there wasn’t a single American ship-of-the-line in exist- ence at the outbreak of hostilities, three months ago. “They haven’t had time to build one, that’s clear. And all their half-dozen frigates together couldn’t capture a seventy- four—she’d blow ’em out of the water with a broadside apiece if they had the impu- dence to try. Moreover, the Yankee frig- ates aren’t together. but blockaded or cruising separately. And that two-decker ‘in there hasn’t been in action—that’s plain—for there isn’t a mark on her hull nor a rope-yarn missing aloft. She hasn’t been built and she hasn’t been captured, so where in Tophet did she come from, Mr. Waldron?” “T couldn’t say, sir. How’d you like a nice bit of fresh beef or a veal cutlet for dinner tonight, sir? That coaster chap has a cow and a calf on deck.”’ “‘By George, so he has! Mr. Waldron.” A blank shot boomed from one of the Brutiser’s chase-guns. The broad-beamed sloop gave up her clumsy attempt at flight and waited obediently for the brig to run down within hailing distance. “Tl trouble you for that live-stock, my Yankee friend,’ shouted Mr. Waldron through his speaking-trumpet. ‘Fetch up under our lee and make fast alongside, so that we can hoist them aboard.” “All right, commodore,” acquiesced the lean, gangling New Englander at the sloop’s helm. The sea was almost calm and the wind no The brig backed her main-tops’l and the coasting- skipper brought his craft alongside as neatly as he had ever docked at a wharf. Lines were thrown and made fast, and a Summon him, DOOLK (C@