Adventure Magazine Cover — page 112: what you’re looking at

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

IIo to hide herself, and entered the first room she reached of the after deck-house. A moment later the door closed behind her. Raeburn stood stupidly gaping toward where she had gone; and the next instant he was bumped against and knocked over by a big fellow who ran from Old Tom. The fellow was Walscher’s friend, the planter. “Kill ’im, Jack! Kill ’im! He killed O! Bill—Ol’ Bill!” The big fellow jumped away with Rae- burn and Tom after him. V ALSCHER was unconsious. Old Tom had hit him with a belay- ing pin as Walscher, on his knees, groped at the flap holster. It was then that the fat-jowled planter had yanked his revolver clear and paused a moment to steady his wobbling hand in an aim at Tom; and Old Bill Barnes, without an instant’s pause, took the bullet straight into his own breast, took it with a straight- eyed jump right at the mouth of the gun and went down. The flabby-faced fellow, in a kind of panic, shot again and again, splintering the deck about the wounded man and again hitting him; but his gun snapped on an empty shell as Old Tom made for him, and he ran. Abdul, whose brain worked slowly, stood with sullen glowering, doubtful, glaring about him with a kind of thick-headed un- certainty. He, dully, had no dislike of the bark’s men; no liking at all for Heddon, or Pelew, or that strange Chinese. There was no imagination in his bull’s head, no fear, no anger, no thought of what would happen to him if the attack failed. The only one he liked was Old Tom, and Tom was not being hurt. Abdul, for all of his size and strength, was wholly unused to fights, to jumping in and taking part; and likely as not he would have stood there, sourly staring, and made no move until the fight was over if some fool sailor, thinking to lay this big devil out, had not hit him from behind with a pin on his bandaged sore head. The bandage deadened the force of the blow, not the pain, and the pain mad- dened him. As if stung, he turned on the astonished sailor, and did not strike him, but caught him, jerked him off his feet and threw him Gordon Young sprawling so that the man landed with his breath knocked out. Then Abdul looked about for the next one nearest at hand. This was Mr. Blake, who, climbing up out of the water on one of the small wet ropes that had been dropped to the boat’s crew, was half over the rail when Abdul caught him, jerked him inboard, took a better hold, and threw him over- board—luckily, to be picked up by Sandys’ boat that had come alongside. Abdul, now aroused, ranged noisily along the bulwark, keeping men from coming over to the help of their mates, pushing off such as got into the chains; and the bark’s sailors had to look up helplessly from Sandys’ boat, where some kept themselves afloat by clinging to the gunnels. APTAIN SCOTT, badly shaken, had got to his feet and looked at the confusion about the deck; then he had shouted over the side for the men there to come and come quick; and turning, he started to help Heddon, who was struggling to get the gun away from Pelew and the gun was going off in their hands as they fought for it. But at that moment he saw the Chinese slash himself free from two men that had jumped him, and Captain Scott ran forward at him. Be- ing contemptuous of Chinese, even armed ones, he struck with his fist; and the next instant, all in a flash, he was ripped across the breast by a thrust that missed his heart only by glancing from a rib. Then Denasso put the revolver he had taken from Walscher’s belt to Scott’s head. “Vou hop-head!”’ cried Captain Scott. “T don’t want to shoot!” said the inex- citable Denasso, in whom there was no in- stinct for murder. “You —— pirates!” Scott shouted with hands half raised. NOOK (C@