Adventure Magazine Cover, November 10, 1924 — page 36: what you’re looking at

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

34 “Let him sink!”’ “Save him!” - “Aw, he’s got a life belt on, ain’t he?” “There he i is, there he is! Grab him! Don’t let him drown.” - The attempt of many to rescue the pug, and the attempt of others to maintain their seats on the raft was too much for the craft’s factor of stability. Its center of gravity, center of buoyancy and metacen- tric height wound themselves around each other and the raft, up-ending with treacher- ous swiftness, slid her shouting cargo into the cold unfriendly sea. Eadie went down to a lung bursting depth. He came surging up again, skin- ning his head on a bit of wreckage and be- gan to paddle about. He could see nothing but the upper part of the ship, for he was in a valley among the seas. The tips of the leaning masts were gleaming with fire, and when Eadie had taken a second look at them he decided that it was the sun glitter- ing on them, and that daylight must soon arrive. He mounted the crest of a long roller and here he could view the many swimmers, a great multitude of empty rafts, ‘‘dough- nuts” clustered thickly with soldiers like gulls on a log, a few boats—most of the boats had gone to starboard, for the list on the.port side hindered their launching—and away off toward the streaky horizon, what appeared to be a destroyer coming up hand ever hand. This last was indeed a cheering sight, and one that did much to revive the weary ser- geant. He was very tired and cold and he had a strangely persuasive idea that he might lay his head down upon the surface of the sea and be instantly and comfortably asleep. A man drowns easily in mid- ecean. Another destroyer slid around the stern of the transport, and her crew began tak- ing men from the water. Boats drew up alongside and the sailors on the destroyer reached down eager hands. Others cast ropes out to swimmers and hauled them in. Eadie shouted two or three times, but it weakened him and he desisted. He felt that he had inhaled about all the North At- lantic that he could hold and he had better keep his mouth closed. He watched the destroyer with eager eyes, although he was surprized to discover that he did not care very much whether she Adventure rescued him or not. The great rollers had a hypnotic effect. They waved before his eyes like the slow heaving of a drapery blown by the wind. They swayed gently up and down, up and down, black against the white of the horizon, beckoning, flutter- ing, long sleeves on arms that reached to cradle him—sm’ f—glug—water in nose and mouth. Eadie was seized suddenly, dragged into air by the back of his shirt, his arms nearly cut from his body, clutched by another force, rushed through the icy air and cast upon something hard. He could feel that he was upon a deck, a hard wooden deck, but other than that he knew nothing. He opened his mouth to gasp, and salt water ran out in volumes that -astonished him. Another bundle was thrown across Eadie and then the sergeant propped his head on his chin and took a look around. He was on a destroyer. She was low in the water and forward he could see a slen- der gun and a bit of ferecastle. Two men stood near him and others were along the deck, holding to life lines. They fished men from the deep with boat hooks. Other men seemed to be reaching into the sea and drag- ging bodies out. In reality they were tak- ing them from men who were lashed to lad- ders at the water’s edge, and who would seize a man and pass him to a man on the ladder above, who in turn passed him to the man on the deck. Fishing was good. This was the destroyer that Eadie had seen coming up. She rolled like a porpoise, for she had no way upon her, and had swung into the trough. Her commander had shut down his engines to avoid man- gling anyone with the screws. Suddenly there were excited cries from the sailors, a distant hurley-burley of voices, and Eadie, looking up, saw what seemed to be the half of a drawbridge slowly rising into the air. It hung while a heart might beat five times, then slowly, silently, like a sword being sheathed, it slid from sight. There was a tumult of distant cheering. Score one for Kaiser Bill. A man approached and gave Eadie some- thing from a small tin cup. Eadie drank it, although it smelled repulsive and was cold. The sergeant wanted no cold drinks. This one, though, contained warmth of its own. It reacted on the sergeant’s interior with no less effect than would have been created by a red-hot bar shoved ‘down his throat. It CoMmichoolk A) CO 5}