Adventure Magazine Cover — page 102: what you’re looking at

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

96 GORDON YOUNG “Which,” said Heddon, ‘‘is too bad she’s staying in that stuffy room. The weather’s such that out here on deck she might be washed overboard!” *“Will—Will Heddon,” Tom replied, blink- ing with a kind of red-eyed puzzlement, “‘it ain’t like you to mistreat wimen so.” “Well, I’ve got so much admiration for her that Tl poke a gun under Old Bill’s mattress. I think she’s so remarkable a woman that she might even jam courage enough into Vioux to stab a dying man in the dark!” “He ain’t dyin’, Will!’ “Aye! But as for that—’” Heddon eyed him savagely—‘‘we’re all dying! The minute life begins, death starts in. An’ every step you take from the first diapered toddle out of a cradle to the last doddering wiggle on a cane is but a part of the man’s march straight to Hell. And by the feeling in my bones, we’re nearly there!’ ‘“You’re drunk! You’re drunk!’ said Old Tom, a little anxiously. “You’re a liar. I quit the bottle when that. nigger died. There’s too many other dangerous things to watch out for without keeping an eye on my belly’s deep-water mark. No, Tom, I’m sober, too sober. For one thing, I want to keep my neck out o’ the crook of Abdul’sarm. He’sa big enough fool to jump me, big enough man to knock the Chinks overboard if they jump him. Oh, this is a madhouse right!”’ “Ye’ve got no fear from him, Will. He’s promised me, not till we git ashore. It hurts his pride how you capsized ’im, sudden. He says that he can lick ye, Will. An’ I’m afeared he can.” ‘““Afeared he can, eh? Well,soam I! He’s lost a lot of fat since I boarded him. He’s big as three Dutchmen, stubborn as a half dozen little ones. See—now, Tom, you see if you can’t get dot Berlew to call him a tam sqvare-headt some more. Maybe like Kil- kenny cats they’ll eat each other up!”’ “Pelew, he’s changed queer, Will. He hardly talks at all, an’ that means somethin’ wrong!” VI “| am was no doubt now in the minds of the men forward that the Jack-Girl was ‘“‘Jonered.” Murder hadbeendone. They eyed the Chink coolies respectfully, and were uneasy; approved of what had been done, but had the feeling that they might not approve of what the Chinks did next. Yet there was some satisfaction in the feeling that it was the shadow of the Chink knives that made Pelew more quiet. He cursed them, of course, at times; but was mostly sullen. They drew apart and left him to himself. The ‘“‘Joner” showed itself too in the bad weather. They uttered seamanly prayers, which are extremely unorthodox, for a bit of sun; and after about a week of knocking about with everything wet, and hardly more sleep than could be got on their feet, be- tween steps, up came the sun, beaming as if glad to see the bark which now had a gentle breeze nuzzling her sail. The breeze died away; by noon they tossed in a running sea without enough wind on board to stir a feather. During the night the bark was patted about at times by cat’s paws, but, though tossing almost as ifinastorm,madenoway. The next day the sea had flattened into swells; and the sun came up, red as a round cinder, and blazed across the sky as if the cinder had sprung into flame. Even Old Tom, watch- ful, cursed the sun as it set; there were no clouds to catch the rays and make of them a colored picture, such as warmed his old heart as picture-books warm a child’s heart, whisky a man’s. Fore and aft everybody but Heddon was pleased to have some warm, calm weather, though the swells that rocked men stagger- ingly about were troublesome to comfort. Heddon’s one thought was that in a calm Old Bill would surely die. Literally tied down on his bed, he could weather almost any sort of rough blow better than heat and stagnant air. Heddon, who took bearings and read sailing directions, knew that they had been thrust far into that tropic sea- waste, often reported by indignant sailing masters for protracted calms—as if the winds of the world had no right to an idling place. The men forward stopped wet clothes on lines, laid mattresses about the deck, turning them from time to time; they slept their fill but sweat as they slept, and awakened to drink deep of the water they had poured into every cask and container on board the bark. The water was already tasteless. But it was pleasant to loaf about, smoke, yarn, play cards, lose a fortune on a hand, yet have enough left in their imagi- nation of what the treasure would be like COnmulclboooks. CO 5}