Adventure Magazine, December 10, 1924 — page 64: what you’re looking at

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

42 The sailmaker and carpenter, rismg as the skipper appeared at their door, looked at him in silence. He turned at once away, back to the night-gloomed deck, and was immediately followed by both of them. When the three old men came aft together one behind another, the mate and the second mate were talking on the poop. Elias, passing through the saloon, spoke to the steward— ‘Tell the second mate to-get his supper.”’ He entered the cabin and sat at his wife’s side; the carpenter standing at the bed’s foot while the sailmaker went forward again, to return in a little while with a roll of sail cloth tucked under his arm. They worked together, without any words. By and by the sailmaker and carpenter went away and left Elias alone with his wife; a needle in his right hand, a palm upon his left, and twine over his shoulders. Long ago Elias, too, had been a sailmaker. Now he used his gentle craft again. The sailmaker and carpenter seated themselves, side by side, on the after hatch, under the stars, ready should they be needed; the sailmaker staring up to the loom of white canvas above them; the carpenter’s eyes upon the planks at their feet. The decks hidden by the night, the sea talked in whispers around the silent ship. Bye and bye the poop bell clanged again, and was answered at once by the bell at the fo’csle break. The after and the for- ward bell spoke to one another, though aloud, discreetly. A sailor walked aft to relieve the wheel. Upon the poop the two mates were talk- ing in low voices, and, his shadow dim against the lower stars, the relief for the wheel passed close to them. “T’ll bet he puts her in the nitrate,” said the mate to the second. A moment later the wheel relief, taking the wheel over, spoke to the helmsman, “Der olt vooman iss dead. Dey buries her in de nitrate.” entered the fo’csle, where his ship- mates idled in their bunks and on their sea chests. Victims of the booze and of the boarding master’s crimps, they looked up at him from faces that told of nights in sailortown; df sleepless nights of liquor and of women. Women’s pictures THE helmsman went forward and Adventure were hung upon the bulkheads above the frowzy bedding in some of their bunks. Here and there a bottle was hidden away, beneath a mattress or in a canvas seabag. They returned to their talk, jibbering in many lingoes—Chilano muttering to Chil- ano, white man to white. ‘““*T’old woman’s kicked it,’ said the helmsman in the doorway, and they all looked up again for a moment; then re- turned to their talk. “?Ee’s goin’ to stick ’er in the nitrate,’ said the helmsman, in the doorway still, and again they all looked up at him. “Wot for in the nitrate?” asked a young, pimply-faced man. ‘Preserves ’em,”’ grunted a man, who, half naked, sat rubbing dubbin into a pair of big leather sea boots. They stared at the helmsman and at one another, only the four Chilanos continuing their talk. *“‘Corpuses is bad luck,” said one. “You knows it, they is,”’ said the pimply- faced man, and a sort of quiver ran from one to another of them, so that the four Chilanos looked up to listen. “°F figures to bury ’er ashore w’en we gets to ’Frisco,’”’ said the half naked man drawing a sea boot upon a sockless foot. “Vee nedder coom to shore, poys—dot sure,” cried a big sailor, who rose upon unsteady feet. ‘Dot ain’d right,’’ he added ““Vot we goin’ to do?” he asked, glowering round at them, seated all about him. “De mate iss fat.like a girl,’ said one, and they all laughed; the four Chilanos j joining in the laughter. The helmsman stood staring at a woman’s picture in one of the upper bunks. “Vell, vot we goin’ to do ’bout it?”’ asked the big man, and sat down heavily. “Here’s the mate,” said the helmsman, as from the deck behind him the mate’s voice called, “Clue up the for’ t’gall’sl.” The weather was become squally from the south, the ship slipping along with a high slap of water all about her. They piled out and made for the top- gallant gear; the pimply- faced man loiter- ing to reach a bottle from under another’s pillow and steal a long swallow. He fol- lowed them to the deck upon unsteady feet. “Four of you aloft and make it fast,” said the mate, when the sail was clued up, and the pimply=faced man climbed to invisible CoOMmicbook ) CO =