Adventure Magazine Cover — page 74: what you’re looking at

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

b4 “Nuthin’ suh. Nuthin’. Ah reckon it’s nuthin’.”’ Heddon glared about at the men. They watched with indecisive, staring blankness, and were afraid of him, and also afraid of what McGree might do if they tried to jump Heddon. When McGree came to he might curse them if they let Heddon get away; he might do worse than curse them if they had not let him go. Heddon contemptuously turned ie back on them, and climbing one-handedly, jump- ed again to the deck of the Gloria. “Cast off those lines!’ he shouted. “Cut em adrift!” Old Wateman, Raeburn, and Oxenham bent over the rail and sawed at ropes that had their ends made fast to bitts on the deck of the Loftus Mark. Some of her crew watched sullenly, and some, to save their ropes, cast the ends off. For a time the ships still bumped to- gether, as if reluctant to part; then the sterns drifted off, the bows touched—and parted. McGree lay on his deck with men around him. It was two hours before he moved; and by that time the Gloria was out of sight. XIV THAT night Heddon sat on the (Ss edge of his bunk with a bucket of hot water on a stool between his legs and soaked his broken hand. He was in a black mood. Even old Wateman kept.away from him. His face was bruised, blackened, raw, his mouth swollen. Though he had dodged the worst blows, McGree had given him a terrific beating. One hand, his right, was ruined for the —— knew how long; the other was stiff and puffed, nearly use- less now. Heddon thought of what he had heard wiseacres say: that if knuckles bled they would not puff. He lifted his hands and looked at them. The skin was broken, and they were black and swollen. Salvador McGree was the better man. Heddon knew it, and the knowledge hurt. McGree was more than a fighter, too; there was a queer gallant manhood inside that brute body. But the thing that hurt Heddon most was that what he had done had been done for that woman. ‘“‘___ her!” he muttered, glaring at the water in the bucket. Then: “Serves me right—meddling with her. I ought to have known better!’’ Adventure After a time Raeburn came in with a tea- kettle of scalding water and poured enough into the bucket to bring up its temperature. “Anything you want, Will?” Raeburn asked with the air of a man who was ready to dodge. “Yes. Send Sir Galahad down here.” ¢ “Who?” “That fool Oxenham. It runs in our poly, being fools. Tell him to get down ere.” oe right, Will. Want anything to eat?” 6c 0. 1 whe “All right, Will,” said Raeburn sooth- ingly, and scuttled out. Oxenham came, eager and nervous. He was proud of Heddon, almost worshipful. He had been pretty much that way in his boyhood. In games and sports there had been no one like his cousin, Will Heddon. When Heddon had come back from the deck of the Loftus Mark, Oxenham had tried eagerly to praise him, and had been told to shut up. Now he asked: “What do you want, Will? What can I do for you?” Heddon looked up broodingly, and waited as if not to speak; then— ‘“‘Are you going to marry that girl?” “Why—why, what girl, Will?” “Stop that! You know whom I mean. Are you?” “Of course not! How can you think of such a thing?” Heddon glowered at him thoughtfully— “Well, if you were, I’d turn back to Lianfo.”’ “What has that to do with it, Will?” Oxenham asked hopefully. “‘Go back to Lianfo, Will. You ought—you know you ought to go——” But he stopped. There was a look in Heddon’s deep dark eyes that meant he had better stop. “Why do you suppose,’ Heddon de- manded, “that I am going to the Kulicos? For my health?” “Why, I thought you meant to—you know you said—Peggy, because of her. Sell her, you said.” Because his lips were thick with swelling Heddon’s voice came from far down in his throat, growling: “You knew —— well I wouldn’t. I’d like to—wanted to. A woman can sell herself and be a lady, but a man can’t sell comicloool< 1e@)