Adventure Magazine Cover — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

78 with beauty; one, the youngest—Charlotte: he remembered her name from the time he had written Stockton’s letter for him—was blonde, with a laughing mouth, dainty of features, very young, but her face was shadowed with the look of the woman within her, age-old, instinctive, intuitive; out of the picture her eyes looked straight at him, and in her eyes was an expression, almost of recognition. Hers was to be the magic gift that would place some man, almost any man, in bondage. There was no escape from the glow of beauty, itself a mere nothing, a shimmer on the flesh, a luster, impermanent, impalpable, evanescent. Heddon touched the body. It was cold and rigid. : He went outside and called, but the native did not answer. Heddon found him in the cooking-shed, squatting in the shade, a palmful of sugar in one hand, a pipe in the other. He seemed to understand nothing that Heddon said until Heddon took him by the neck and marched him into the room where Stockton was. The native eyed the body curiously, licked his palm, sucked at his pipe. He told Heddon that after breakfast Stockton had sent him to the store. ‘That was the last time he had seen Toktoni. The native stood by, noisily licking at his palm, keeping his eyes on the body. He was curious, not otherwise concerned. “Stop that noise—get out!” The native gave a start and turned to run, but Heddon caught him with out- reached hand: “Wait. You understand tabu? Well, I’ll put a ¢abu on this room when I leave, and you keep out. If there’s anything taken from this room, you'll have bumps all over you. Get out!” The fellow bounded through the door. “And they send white men and women down here to pray for things like that!’ said Heddon bitterly, looking after the black. “Tf it’s a soul that gets you to heaven, there’ll be more dogs there than men!” ‘<—we} HEDDON returned directly to \BH Stockton’s store. The men there were on the look-out and saw him coming; also they had watched in the direc- tion that Yankee Saunders had gone, but had as yet seen no one returning. As Hed- don came near they withdrew from the doorway and settled themselves at the Adventure table; and when he entered they eyed him in awkward silence. Heddon sensed something suspicious in their manner and regarded them carefully; then he stood with his back near a wall, jerked a chair around in case he needed to break it over somebody’s head, put his foot on the seat of the chair, and leaning an elbow on his knee looked from face to face, then said: “Stockton is dead. Shot himself.” Jenkins jumped up excitedly— “What? Stockton—shot himself!’ Some swore in their surprize. Some sat in silence. The man who was sleeping on his back continued to snore. One man said heavily: “Best thing. If my blinkers went out, it’s what I’d do. He weren’t a bad feller, Stockton weren’t. But he were close. Blast ’im, how he did squeeze the dollar!” ‘“‘Too stand-offish for me,” said one. ‘“‘What’s to be done with his store now?” said Jenkins, with a critical look along the shelves. Then, off-handedly: “He was owin’ me quite a bit for back pay an’ money I lent him.” The men slyly looked from one to another and grinned guardedly—clever head Jenkins had on his neck. “Ts there any kind of a warship off the Reefs?” asked Heddon. They eyed him a little strangely. One after another shook his head, looking at the ceiling or at the floor, or into pipe bowls, as they shook their heads. “No,” said Jenkins, emphatically. ‘We ain’t seen none for months. Why was you askin’?” “No,” said another in reassuring tones. “No gunboat been near here. They quit comin’, I think.”’ “Why was you askin’?” Jenkins inquired again, with an effort to appear unconcerned. ‘Her captain,” said Heddon, ‘‘could sell out Stockton’s stuff at auction and send the money to his family. Stockton has a family down at Sydney.” “Fam’ly? He didn’t have no fam’ly!”’ Jenkins shouted indignantly, as if repelling false claimants. ‘I know he ain’t got no fam’ly. I asked him one day if he ain’t married, an’ he said, ‘No.’ You don’t run in no fam’ly on us as he owes money to— does he fellers?”’ , Some growled vaguely and shook their heads. One muttered— DOOK 1 O)