Adventure Magazine Cover, March 20, 1925 — page 101: what you’re looking at

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

The War Cats of Dugan O’Day doing no damage. One carried away a bit of the rail. Each time Dugan, sitting on the end of the base, was tossed off the deck— and he laughed. Another and another, hissing through the air to thump against metal or stout plank- ing. With every cat on the main deck sprung, Dugan flung himself down on his stomach to present a smaller mark to the rifleman, for slowly the Henry B. was back- ing off. Then he raced to the poop, for the tug was turning around. Carefully he estimated, trained one of the cats and blocked it. Just as the tug steadied, with her stem pointed quartering away from the Blackfish, and the water boiled under her stern as the propeller turned forward again, he fired. Metal clanged and grated against metal for an interval; there was the water-dulled sound of something breaking. Dugan leaped, he laughed, he shouted with glee. For helpless on the slowly ebbing tide floated the crippled Henry B. His last shot, by the grace of the saints, had broken her propeller! For a minute or so she kept steerage way, then she seemed to turn broad side on to the current at the mouth of the pass, and Dugan heard the splash of her anchor, dropped to keep her from grounding. Quietly she swung around until her bows pointed straight toward the Blackfish. She was, perhaps, a hundred yards away. Descending from the poop, Dugan stum- bled over the sprawling body of the mulatto, and for a moment he debated a fine joke. He would pick the body up, load a cat with it, and return it whence it came! Quickly he knelt and grasped the still warm corpse. It wilted and slid from his hands. Desperately he struggled with it, forgetting in his lust to conquer the thing with brute force what little he knew of handling men in that condition. Minute after minute. Gasping and panting he sat on deck, wondering how he could rig a block and tackle to hoist the body to a cat on the poop. He was a man of one idea. But in the end he had to be confent with casting the mulatto overboard. Calmer, then, he reloaded half a dozen of the cats with chains he had ready for the purpose. He found and reloaded his pistols. Just as day was breaking, and in spite of 83 his firm resolve to stay awake, he fell asleep. And, as had happened almost every time he tried to sleep, a hail awakened him when it seemed he had hardly closed his eyes. The sun was barely an hour high. THE hail came from a smartly dressed man in the bow of another = steam tug. “East and West Insurance Company,” said the man, as Dugan came out in sight. “T’ve come to take care of this Black- jish.” “And you’re welcome, sir, you’re wel- come. It’s a —— of a job I’ve had taking care of her.” Then he laughed softly. Suddenly he had remembered that he had made no plans for the ultimate disposal of the bark; hadn’t even thought of it! He’d been too busy saving her and keeping her to waste any time wondering over what he’d do when he had her safe. A tender put out from the side of the tug, carrying two sailors and the insurance man. At the landman’s command the oars- men clambered aboard first. And Dugan laughed again as he observed that the well dressed man kept both hands in his coat pockets, which bulged greatly. With finger and thumb he drew the pistol and knife from his belt, laying them on deck. Only then did the insurance man board. “My name is Green, Mister O’Day. I’m authorized to tell you that if the cargo is in good shape and the ship capable of re- pair, which seems likely, that my company will give you a reward of a thousand dollars for your efforts.” | “They save ten times that, and I did all the work,” said Dugan, whimsically, “but it’s all right.” Green smiled. “We'll want a statement from you re- garding her condition before the storm, and you may possibly have to appear in admiralty court. Dummy Johnstone is in Tampa swearing all over little pieces of paper that she was as sound as a dollar and eu she sank ten minutes after he left er.” He waited a moment, seeming to choose words. “The fishermen talk of treasure aboard her, O’Day, although there was one who COMiIicloOoe