Adventure Magazine, December 10, 1924 — page 180: what you’re looking at

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

158 “How do you mean?” “Just this way: That he’ll pretend to want us aboard on the terms I offered. His plan would-be to get us over the side of the Gospel Argonaut, and brig us.. Then turn us over to the authorities. He knows there’s a reward for both of us.”’ “By George, I'll bet you’re right!” ex- claimed Wade. ‘And that’s why he took you up on working your passage if I could be taken to the first port. He saw his chance to let us capture ourselves!’ Doxey nodded. “But if he decides against taking us, we’ve got to decide to take ourselves. If that schooner sails in the morning, we’re aboard her. And that means she'll be ours.” “Get Parut up here, or hunt him up. Look out that you don’t fall afoul of Jessup and his mate. We'll risk everything on this throw. Parut and his gang of pirates wouldn’t like anything better than to cut that schooner off, and then hang the job on us, after they’ve killed us. We can’t walk into that trap. First, we’ve got to be aboard the schooner, and promise Parut that we'll lay her on a reef for him as she sails but. Then the game for us is to sad) out, and give him the slip. Rather, let Jessup and his mate sail her out, for if we stow away in the Argonaut, we won’t show our hand until we’re off the land and well clear of Parut and his gang. But he’s got to help us get aboard for what he thinks is a cutting off job.” “He'll fall for it,” said Doxey. ‘As you say, he’ll know that he and his gang play safe, after they’ve looted the schooner, kill us and save our skins for the coast guard cutter. Hang it on the couple of white beachcombers. It’ll be easier than Parut thinks, for the cutter skipper’ll recognize our bodies. That’ll be evidence enough for him who pulled off the piracy, and Parut’ll get away with the goods and a whole skin.” “One thing we’ve got to bear in mind,” cautioned Wade. ‘‘If Jessup already knows us, the instant we show our faces aboard the schooner ready for action, it’ll be no quarter for us. We’ll have to kill without hesitation unless we see we’ve got the drop. And we can’t make any effort to save the woman.” “All hands and the ship’s cook,’ said Doxey. ‘‘We’ll never be able to handle his native crew unless we show ’em we mean business from the jump. And if they see Adventure we've killed off the whites, they’ll under- stand well enough that we can’t bother with how many dead natives we spill around the decks. We might as well hang for wolves as for lambs.” ‘Skip out and look up Parut,”’ advised Wade. Doxey took a drink of water, filled his pocket with a supply of native tobacco and set out without more ado for the glade and the native village. VI ¥ &} WADE lay in a clump of young ~@20 bamboo near the beach end of the glade. Here he had a view of the bay, and he was watching the Gospel Argonaut. It was well along in the afternoon. The schooner’s white awnings glistened like bits of marble set into the blue background of the water. Under the quarter-deck awning, Wade could see the figure of a woman re- clining in a deck chair. She appeared to be reading a book. | The whale-boat was still drawn up on the beach, and so far as Wade could judge, Jessup had not yet returned on board the schooner. Neither had the mate gone ashore; at least, the schooner’s dingey was still in the falls. And the native crew seemed all aboard the schooner still, for the foredeck had plenty of brown figures under its tarpaulin awnings idling away the time. Doxey, according to plan, was on his errand in the jungles behind the native village, dickering with Parut and his gang of cut-throats. There was every indica- tion that the conference was going on in secret out of sight and sound of the village, for every fishing boat was drawn up on the beach and the bay was deserted of natives. It was mostly with the owners of boats that Parut held his power, for these fishermen were really secret pirates. Small game they played for, however, looking for their -pickings from native craft which ventured into their waters from neighboring islands or anything that happened to be helpless after a storm. They never struck at any- thing that could fight, always made sure of just what they had to fight by pretending to be honest fishers, and never let anything alive escape once they struck. Along the stretch of beach between him and the village, Wade could see scores of CoMmicbook Wh) CO 5}