Adventure Magazine Cover — page 121: what you’re looking at

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

TREASURE grunted, yawned, stretched his arms, said— : I been dreamin’.”’ It had been dark when Old Tom had peered into the chart-house and started forward; it was dawn when Pelew, at a touch, jumped to his feet—so quickly did day come. It was as if night with a gesture almost sudden drew away its dark hand from between the earth and the sun. “What’s wrong this mornin’?’”’? demanded Pelew. “OV Bill, he’s dead.” “Ow!” said Pelew. ‘An’ I liked that old un.” “All as knew ’im did.” Tom sucked vigorously on his empty pipe, fora moment looked blank-eyed at nothing, then glanced about and seeing that the weather was due for a change, went up into the bows and stared at the sky and sea with an old sailor’s incommunicable under- standing of what he saw and felt. Though shipmates die, sea and weather must be watched. Abdul had awakened. He snored so much his mouth was parched, so he went forward to the scuttle butt, drank three cups of tepid water, grunted in distaste, scrubbed his head with his knuckles, yawned like a hungry giant; then he turned and started toward the quarterdeck to drop into a chair and perhaps doze off again. Heddon, for two hours, had been leaning against a starboard davit, thinking. With the coming of daylight he looked at the clouds in the east. They seemed not to have moved since sunset; but were denser, and in the night he had seen lightning there, or dreamed it. Now he wasn’t sure which. Pelew, with Captain Scott’s dress cap pulled slant-wise over one eye, sleeves rolled up and shirt wide open, came aft, came up to Heddon, said— ‘Mornin’, mister.” “Morning,” said Heddon, not looking around. Pelew popped his eyes in quick anger, for he had spoken in all friendliness, meaning a bit of sympathy for the dead shipmate; but Heddon did not notice. Pelew glanced about, and perhaps thinking a bit of sullen- ness from Heddon this morning was all right, went on toward the deck-house cabin. His head was turned backward in a glance toward the sky as he lifted a foot over the coaming, and the foot came down on 115 something slick, soft, muscular. There was an explosive hissing sound, a sudden stink of breath in Pelew’s face; and though in- stantly he had yelled and jumped, he slipped in jumping backward. The python, with up-reared head, had struck at Pelew’s head and bitten into his shoulder, and, simul- taneously, as Pelew fell backward across the coaming and out on deck, his leg went up, and a writhing coil thrown quickly as a man’s arm could have moved, fastened about the leg above the knee. As Heddon came on the jump Pelew’s hands, flying wildly, beat at the snake that, with head up, seemed to pause watchfully motionless as if suspicious of Heddon, yet at the same time was pouring its length of body across the coaming. Abdul, with a flat-footed stride that jarred the deck, ran up, stopped by Heddon, bellowed— “Dot snake is oudt Heddon shot quickly, and missed. The python, as if a wary brain looked out through its eyes, drew back its up-lifted head, doubtfully, and for an instant, the merest of pauses, the entire body was mo- tionless; and it seemed to forget Pelew though he writhed and screamed in curses. The great python had so much the air of intelligent wariness, as if judging the dead- liness of its many enemies who hated it, who had meant to throw it overboard, that Heddon stared for a moment in a kind of fascinated stupor. “Choot ’im! Choot!” Abdul bellowed, his mouth almost against Heddon’s ear. With one hand Abdul beat at his hairy breast, and he held the other hand out, pointing, as if he, too, held a gun. Heddon shot and again missed. He was shooting at the small head, and it was as if the snake, too quick for the eye to follow, dodged. “—— you, TVll—” Heddon cried and recklessly jumped forward, firing point- blank into the snake’s body. Quick as the flash of match to powder, the snake struck, caught Heddon _breast-high and with a writhing flurry seemed to whip coils about Heddon as he, falling, struggled powerfully, and felt that death was upon him; but Abdul, the half giant, who was only a simple-minded fool, stooped, and with both great hands grasped the snake’s neck, pulled the head away, wrenched, squeezed, jerked, pulled, stepping backward, and }?? COMmMiCoooks C©@