Adventure Magazine Cover, November 10, 1924 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

16 these the men could wash their messkits. “This isn’t bad,” said Eadie after he had been served. ‘We only stood in line about ten minutes. And here’s good hot water to wash our mess kits in. If there’s any- thing I hate, it’s trying to clean a messkit in cold soup.” “Right,” agreed Jake. “I mind when I was with my outfit that by the time half the company had washed messkits, there’d be a crust of grease round the side o’ the boiler a half inch thick.” Eadie felt his stomach go after that. The words ‘‘grease”’ did for him. He went up the ladder without further parley. A sailor, leaning over the rail and smoking an aftersupper pipe, consoled with him. “Stay in the open air, soldier, an’ you'll be all right. Stay topside if it kills yuh. It ain’t the sea gets a man; it’s the rotten air in them compartments.” The sailor gazed to seaward and puffed at his pipe. The breeze pulled at the collar of his jumper and blew ashes from his pipe. “What we got for company this time?” he inquired of no one. “If there’s any old camels wors’n this one, I’d like to know it. Git rid of it, soldier, you’re doin’ fine. Play you was drunk last night and you won't mind it so much. Enjoy yourself now, cause tomorrow they won’t let you hang your head over the rail. Can’t break no swill over the side, no ashes, no cigaret butts, no nothin’. A sub can chase a ship across the Atlantic by the cigaret butts the troops throw overboard.” The sailor let the smoke from his pipe blow in Eadie’s direction. That pipe could stand alone, and in addition it was filled with good old pigtail twist, black and powerful. “‘Heave ho!” comforted the sailor. After a while Jake came up and, having asked for and received a chew from the sailor, sat down on the deck beside the white and shaken sergeant. “Feel better?’’ asked Jake. The sergeant nodded. “Let’s take a walk,” suggested Jake. “Tt’ll clear your head.” The sergeant got to his feet and, clinging tightly to the rail, groped his way toward the ladder. After a while he felt better and Jake assisted him to climb to the upper deck where it was breezier and a man might recover in better fashion. The ship was a converted liner, as most Adventure transports were. The need for immediate transportation of American troops to France was very great and anything that could float had been pressed into service. There were some weird ships with weirder crews that carried troops overseas. It was a lucky man that went in an American ship with good old American gobs sailing it. The British boats with their diet of cheese and tea were heartily cursed. ‘There were some others, manned by mixed crews of all nationalities, feeding the troops on gar- bage that a pig would refuse, but getting them to France just the same. It is a pity official visitors to the battlefields couldn’t go on a boat like that. The room that had formerly been the first cabin lounge on Eadie’s ship was now used as the ship’s office, filled with pay- masters’ clerks, yeomen and miscellaneous. The smoking room had shed its paneled wall coverings and was a sick bay, with an oper- ating room in the old bar. The promenade- deck cabins were allotted to the ship’s officers, the cabins on the lower deck were given to troop officers, and the soldiers slept in the cargo space. The best troop space was in the old dining-room, but this had been allotted by the commanding officer of the troops on board to his own outfit, a coast artillery company that were going over to be anti-aircraft gunners. As for the casual companies, of which there were two, Eadie’s and another, they slept in the lower hold, and were supposed to be thank- ful that they had any bunks at all. By the time the two soldiers had made a survey of the ship, Eadie had recovered his peace of mind once more. They went forward to the forecastle head and, hanging to their hats, climbed the ladders. : ’s bells!’’ cried Jake, leaning against the breeze. “It blows fit to take the fillin’s out of a man’s teeth here.” EADIE turned his back to the wind @ and looked about the sea. If any fees land was in sight astern it was too dark to see it. There were four more ships in the convoy, two to starboard and one to port, and one wallowing astern, dis- playing a great high bow when she rose on a sea and giving a birdseye view of her super- structure when she plunged. All the ships were wrapped in darkness, great lumps in the black night, slipping quietly through the seas like blind lost creatures. CoMmichoolk Wh) (© 5}