Adventure Magazine Cover — page 105: what you’re looking at

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

Treasure that made one almost, but never more than almost, like him, went on, ‘‘She’s a prize herself, an’ there’s ports to sell ’er in! Be- sides, this Chink—he’s promised treasure! An’ he’d better know where it lies hid. We thought we’d make you, mister, dig it up. An’ now you'll be in with us to make him show the way!’ Old Tom lowered the glass— “‘There’s naught but her crew.” ; ‘Then she’ll be easy!’ Pelew reached for the glass, ‘‘Give me a look!” ‘“‘An’ Walscher ’e carries niggers mostly,” said Old Bull. “White officers and a good skipper.” Heddon spoke absently, thinking deeply of something else. “’Asto. ’E’s allus drunk.” ‘Mister, do we try it!’ Pelew shouted at Heddon, though Heddon was within arm’s reach. “Tt’ll be a fight,”said Heddon moodily. ‘‘There’s five or six white men, as many blacks and —” “But look at us here! gran’dads an’—” “Hold yer tongue!’ said Old Tom wasp- ishly, not liking to be called a granddad, and Bill pulled at his beard as if to pull it off and show that his face was not so old. ‘““__ that Chink, the kid Raeburn,” Pelew went on, ‘‘an’—”’ “They'll have arms. We won’t,” said Heddon. ‘But that’s not—” “But we'll s’prize ’em an’ have half of ’em dead before—” “And that’s just what I mean!’ said Me, you, these Heddon, turning on him, glowering. “There’s to be no murder!” “What, in a fair fight! ——-! An’ you’ve got a name for fightin’, How the ——’d you ever get it?” “J don’t kill men—not even turning pirate, I don’t kill men that have the right to fight for what I’m stealing!” “Tt’s hangin’ anyhow, an’ what the ——’s a dead man!’’ “Murder, when it goes with robbery! And their taking us off—”’ said Heddon—“that’s like a rescue. Any ship but Walscher’s—I don’t think I’d even try it. But there’s to be no killing. You hear me?”’ “T hear ye awright,’”’ said Pelew. ‘But —! Whoever heard of such a thing! You hear that, Mr. Chink? This big devil here says we'll make the fight, but mustn’t , burt nobody. Bah! How you goin’ do it?” 103 Heddon glanced aside. Madame had left Po-Shu and stood near the sour Abdul, and both of them looked moodily at the bark. ‘‘She’ll want that snake, I know she'll want it to go with her. Don’t let her know, but if she can get it on board over there—I’ll see that the thing’s dumped out on deck. Then we'll have the ship. All hands will run to cover!”’ “No ye don’t, ye don’t—don’t do that!” said Pelew. ‘TI ain’t afraid o’ no —— man, but snakes! My maw did an’ her maw— it’s in our fam’ly. Kid throwed a rubber snake at me onct. When I got through shakin’ I killed ’im—or tried to. An’ how’d you ever catch it again? We'd be bad off as them with that snake loose!” “Catch it? That’s for her to do.” “You mean, you ain’t scared o’ that snake?” Pelew demanded with his loud voice hushed to almost a whisper. “By the way I feel,’ said Heddon, “TI know how scared other men will be. That’s our best chance. When we’ve got the ship, we can shoot the snake. But don’t let her know. She’d let us all hang rather than have that babee hurt.”’ “Mister,” said Pelew, glaring at Heddon but not speaking angrily, “don’t doit. I never yet backed out o’ anything if there was another good man willin’ to take the chanct withme. ButI don’t fight nosnakes. Not sober I don’t. What’d you say, Mr. Chink?” T’eeay Layeen, lord of the sea, looked down upon the squat Pelew and said noth- ing; he glanced penetratively at Heddon and said nothing. He knew that foreign devils were madmen, but he had never known of such madness as this. Among his own crews life was the cheapest thing they had. T’eeay Layeen himself was merciless as the edge of steel; less cruel than most yellow pirates, but more deadly. He simply did not understand what one white devil meant by saying he feared a snake; but far less what the other meant by saying that men on an attacked ship must not be killed. CHAPTER VI THE FATE OF THE JACK-GIRL @|) HE Jack-Girl with yards backed aa| lay off to windward within dis- tance of a trumpet’s hail, and Sa) Walscher bellowed: ‘‘____ me! but I’m glad to see you, you Want to be took off, heh? Then ——| Co DOO) ANIC S (C@