Adventure Magazine, December 10, 1924 — page 184: what you’re looking at

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

162 But Parut’s boat gave little attention to what was going on ashore. They could not see to the shore anyway, and the other men of Parut’s gang were taking care that noth- ing happened from that side which would interfere with the white men lurking near the schooner. As they watched the quarter-deck, hop- ing to see the mate go aft, and therefore know where he was without any doubt, Wade and Doxey saw Mrs. Jessup rise abruptly. She turned down the wick of the lantern and blew out the flame. Now she could be seen only as a black silhouette against the lights ashore. “That’s rotten luck!” breathed Wade. “Now we never will be able to get a sight of the mate!’ “Suppose we speak the schooner,” sug- gested Doxey. ‘Let Parut hail in Malay and talk with the native sailors. That may give us some idea of where the mate is; he may order the sailors to keep quiet.”’ “We might try it,” said Wade. “It’ll look natural enough, and dispel any sus- picton the mate may have as to our inten- tions. Certainly, a native boat that was up to anything shady, wouldn’t hail the crew.”’ “And if we were to speak in English,” said Doxey, ‘‘the mate might be willing to talk to us. He’d be surprized to hear a white man speak, because I don’t believe that Jessup has been near the schooner to tefl him there are a couple of beachcombers om Andrus.” “Tf he’d let us aboard, or lean over the rail, we might put a bullet into him,” sug- gested Wade. “That’d make it simple for us; just swarm the crew.” Doxey whispered to Parut to push in a iittle closer to the schooner. VIlt Za» | “SHEER off with that boat!” a It wasa growling voice from amid- i "wt ships of the Gospel Argonaut, and Wade and Doxey knew the command came from Langton, the mate of Jessup’s schooner. ‘“"No come close, ‘wan; just want fish,” called Parut. “You find your fish somewhere else,” came the reply from the bulwarks. Parut broke out in Malay, protesting to the native sailors that they must tell the white man the fishers intended no harm, Adventure and that anyhow, the bay belonged to them and they intended to fish where they liked. Wade and Doxey heard the native sailors telling the mate what was said. “You clear out!” commanded the mate, without bothering to speak through an in- terpreter. ‘Get under weigh—or I’ll blow a few holes through you and your boat. I guess you can understand that.” Parut demurred in whining Malay, while the paddles were thumped on the gunwale to make the mate believe his order was about to be obeyed. The hymn-singing had stopped, and Pa- rut heard the low blowing of a conch-shell from one of the lookout boats of his fleet. He whispered'to Doxey, and gave the word to the paddlers to shoot out past the bow of the schooner. It was then that thev saw the whale-boat was putting off from shore, towed by a native canoe. “His wife put out that lantern as a signal!” breathed Doxey. “Somebody has tipped Jessup that things are wrong out here, or the mate passed the word to bring Jessup back aboard by dousing the lantern.” “IT wonder if this brown idol has given us the double-cross,” said Wade, speaking a code-language that Parut could not under- stand. “Somebody has messed our game.” “‘Let’s lay low and see what’s going on,” advised Doxey. Against the dying lights that flickered dimly over the water they saw the canvas- covered whale-boat making for the schooner under tow. “We can’t let Jessup get away,” persisted Wade. “He recognized me; don’t forget that.” “We might hail Jessup, and you tell him I’ve brought you along, ready to be put aboard in case he decided to take us with him.” Wade did not reply. He motioned to Parut to swing the canoe back behind the schooner, where the mate would not see it, for he was now watching Jessup’s progress from shore. The canoe, towing the whale-boat, was heading so as to come under the counter of the schooner. And Jessup was sitting in the bow of the canoe. The organ, which stuck up under its canvas cover like a great hump on the whale-boat, strung out far astern on a long line. As Parut’s canoe glided in order to bring the schooner’s stern abeam, the towing Comicboolk A) CO =