Adventure Magazine Cover — page 103: what you’re looking at

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

TREASURE 97 to be still rich men. Anyhow, the losers there, no more than heavy losers elsewhere on tick, did not expect to pay; and the sport soon soured in the hot weather. Awnings were stretched fore and _ aft. Paint work blistered, pitch crawled, and came away from the ratlines, gumming men’s hands and feet; though in the heat of the day when men stepped from out the shade they put on shoes. Drinking water stank, and the swells that had had a fresh sea-blue tint took on a greasy look; and the bark slid up and down the swells as if in- deed they were greased, and lifeless canvas slatted from the roll. It was the madden- ing and unending rhythm of the swells that got in behind the brains of the men. The nights were as hotasday. Stars seemed full of fire, and the scythe of a new moon mowed its way across the heavens. Cock- roaches appeared, marching up and down the bulkheads as if looking for cool moist places; and everybody was driven out of hiding, too, and out on deck. Men were too worn and listless to be resentful when kicked again and again into boxhauling to catch flighty breaths that died away, often before the sails filled. In ten days the bark did not make a hundred miles, and most of that was from the set of the current. “This blastedly blank blank blank ship is Jonered—Jonered!”’ said the men forward, and grew angered as they said it. CHAPTER IX MADAME DOES SOME SCHEMING g) HE deck was cluttered with chairs, and the passengers, as Heddon called those who did no work, mAs} sat about unsocially, most of them gasping. Woo Lung, the tireless, remained cheerful, and T’eeay Layeen composed. Young Rae- burn loafed at the feet of Po-Shu and teased her. Old Tom took this idling time to work on the crutches. Heddon, once upon a time, had told him of the sculptor who patted a block of marble, saying, ‘‘T see a beautiful angel imprisoned here that I must release!”’ That trivial anecdote had thrilled Old Tom, and he pestered Heddon to tell more of this Mike Angeler— ‘An’ was it from doin’ angels he got his namer An’ was he Irish too?” All this had been talked out a year or more before; but now as he worked on the crutches, he, being one to talk aloud to himself for lack of another’s ears, would mutter savagely: ‘“‘Flead o’ Walscher prisoned at the foot o’ one prop, that planter’s head on t’other. Ol, Bill, he’ll be bumpin’ of their heads ever’ step he takes!” Everybody else on board the bark was miserable; and Heddon had to say flatly to Old Bill: “No I won’t move you out on deck. It’s as hot there as here. And if you move about you'll die—an’ have only Heaven’s treasure, which does a man no good; for what’s the use of having wealth if you can’t spend it like a fool? Live soberly, and you might as well be poor! So lie quiet, Bill. We'll rig a punkah and tie a Chinaman to the rope.” And so he did. The Chinese were not tied, but might as well have been, for at a word from T’eeay Layeen one or the other from outside the door kept the air stirring in Old Bill’s room. “D’ you know,” said Heddon, “I’m be- ginning to change about in my opinion of Chinks!”’ “That,” said Raeburn, ‘‘that’s because the toy-girl prays to a big fat joss you will! She’ll get you yet, Skipper. Little Po-Shu says Chinee girl oh so much more nicer than ‘Melican nu-yen!’”’ ‘So you’re learning Chinese, eh? You’ll be rubbing coffee on that hide of yours next to get a yellow skin!” “Yes, oh yes,” said Raeburn, making ready to duck and dodge away, “I’m learn- ing the lingo. That’s so I can act as inter- preter for you—after you’re married!”’ With that, Raeburn got to his feet and ran, bumping against Vioux’s chair as he rounded the deck-house; fleeing, as the guilty do, when none pursue. Vioux swore irritably and glared after him. He would willingly have choked any- body who, on such a day, had the energy to run and laugh. II IOUX was sick, emaciated and haggard from much drunkenness. His cheeks were bleeding from where he had nicked himself in trying to shave with a razor found in the room. Such COnmiclboooks.c©