Adventure Magazine Cover — page 188: what you’re looking at

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

182 courage greater by far than her husband’s. He did not like to think that this woman whom he admired for her spirit could have married a man so vastly her inferior, and a foreigner, at that! He was her inferior, of course! The fact was obvious. And yet for his sake she was risking her life, her future, her safety. Her husband approached and spoke to her in Spanish. She put her hand to her head quickly, then groped with the other hand for the table. “Tony!” he said. “Tony, what is it?” “Nothing, Paul. I feel a little faint! Not very!” She seated herself on the chair that he pushed toward her and rested her elbow on the table. ““You’ve been in danger, madam,” said the captain. His voice, though low enough was harsh and overbearing and proud. Mr. Westcott was angry. What hidden mystery was there in the Old Man’s past, he wondered, that made him say, as he did say often, on the evidence of the chief, that women were the cause of all ‘the wickedness in the world and that with- out women to send them wrong men would be decent and clean and good! He hated women, every one on board the Lockborough Inlet knew that, as other men hated coward- ice or disloyalty to a friend or sharp practise or falsehood. His square, sun-tanned face was very grim; his eyes, rather narrow eyes at the best of times, under black bushy eyebrows, were puckered into two slits as if he were gazing from the bridge into the fierce sunshine reflected on the calm tropic sea; lines showed in the flesh from the arched, scornful nostrils of his high-bridged nose to the corners of his mouth; his thin lips were pressed tight—the more one looked at him, the more sullen and hostile and bad tem- pered did he appear. ‘““Madam,” he said in an old-fashioned, stilted way, “‘if I can be of any service, pray command me!” Pink flooded the woman’s cheeks. Into her blue eyes there came a startled, wonder- ing expression that made her look almost a girl again. Her lips quivered and she seemed, for the moment, on the verge of tears. Mr. Westcott, no longer angry, was amazed. Never before in the two years W. Townend that he had known and detested Capiain Selby had he heard of him offering to do a kindness to any human being, man, woman or child! “Won’t you sit down?” said the woman. “Thank you, ma’m.” Captain Selby seated himself on one chair, Mr. Westcott on another. The woman’s husband stood by the table, his hands in his pockets, his shoulders hunched. He spoke to his wife in Spanish under his breath. She answered him in the same low tone. He rested his hands on the table and _ said something else. She shook her head. Apparently he was urging on her a course of action to which she would not or could not agree. Mr. Westcott yawned. He was growing sleepy. What a story he would have to tell Ada when he reached Cardiff again! He hoped, rather diffidently, that she would understand his motives in helping the woman. Ada was the sweetest girl that ever lived, but she might not like to think of him trudging around South American seaports at dead of night with handsome women, even if they did have husbands they were in love with! Ada might think him indiscreet, not to be trusted out of her sight! And that, thought Mr. Westcott, would never do. Captain Selby folded his arms on the table and said: ‘“Something’s got to be done. It’s late. You want help. Oughtn’t you to take me into your confidence?” The woman shuddered. “Captain,” she said,“ my husband has en- emies—political enemies—who swear they'll kill him! They’ll show him no mercy, I know. We must get him away, tonight, or it'll be too late. You see what I mean! My husband’s the finest man in the world—”’ Her voice faltered. “The finest man in the world!” said Captain Selby. “Well, ma’m.” “The very finest!’ said the woman steadily. To Mr. Westcott, an enthralled observer, moved both by the sight of her beauty and her emotion, it seemed that she felt that Captain Selby did not believe her. ‘“‘No one knows what my husband means to me! How dear heis! How splendid!” She rose to her feet suddenly. “T’ve got to save him or—or I might as well die! Do you understand, Captain COmiclboooks.cO