Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 3 — page 196: what you’re looking at

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

570 - countrymen, and few boats left that will swim, I’m afraid I can’t offer you further transport.”’ “ Don’t apologize. I didn’t expect it. I recognized my inconvenience as a witness long ago. You'll pardon me if I—”’ The Chinese whipped a heavy automatic out of his blue sleeve, but the Englishman was too quick for him. The weapon dropped from a dislocated wrist, and clat- tered on the steel deck, and then smash, smash, smash, went two’ hard boxer’s fists into the fat, yellow, flat face. The sub- sequent proceedings interested Li no more. Lord Raisghyll slid him down the slop- ing deck, and tipped him over the rail into the weed-covered sea, which by now was close beneath. And then said he, ad- dressing space: ‘“ Teddy, old man, I’ve bagged that beggar anyway. See you pres- ently. So that’s that.” Then he himself took to the water. Blue clouds of Chinese followed, as their ship sank noisily beneath them. In the meanwhile, in two lines, tethered head and tail like horses going to a fair, the captured ships lay strung out across the weed-grown Caribbean, each lot moored to its timber-laden derelict. At the head of each line was a refrigerator ship, which, by means of Temperley transporters, passed frozen carcasses to her fellow captives as and when required. Boats they had none, and all their wire- less ‘tackle hati been. savagely smashed. Their engines were disabled, and essential - parts of each had ‘been in the Littondale, and had sunk to the sea-floor with her. Their humbled officers and crews were bit- ter with hate. The surviving Chinese, in their boats, were making presumably for some distant steam lane and rowing rapidly over the sky line. Ina couple of boats twenty-three pirates and Lord Raisghyll had escaped from their torpedoed ship, and had boarded the tail vessel of the lee line. Mr. Gregor Mc- Gregor had presumably paid for failure in the manner Teach had predicted. But Mr. Pickles was among them, damp, but unre- duced in either figure or spirit. led up, and nodded. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ‘““T couldn’t afford,” said Mr. Pickles, “to leave eight little widows all sobbing for me. Just you chaps drive all these ducks into the forecastle and slip the hasp on the doors. We won’t have any more mistakes through being too kind. ‘“Any reason why I shouldn’t now be officer commanding this outfit, Admiral Teach and others being missing? Nor Well, carry on—signalman, call up each. ship in turn and find out,if any one can loan me an eighteen-and-a-half collar, By- ron-shaped preferred. If I’m skipper here, I’ve got to look it.” Llewelyn Jones, the. cabin-steward, squmting more abominably than usual, sid- “ William—” said hé, and then cringed at the sight of Mr. Pickles’s revolver. ‘What the—oh, I see. Of course, Mr. Pickles, sir. You're captain, sir, now, sir, and I humbly ask apology. Wouldn’t have broken discipline for words, sir, not uf I'd thought. “T was only going to ask, sir, if I might take the quarter-boat and go and look for the old man’s body. I wouldn’t want ap- other hand with me, sir. The boat sculls easy enough from the stern notch. ‘“ But I’d like to fetch him in, sir, if he was floating, and give him a bi of a funeral. He was hard, sir, especially to the steward if the forks wasn’t cleaned to his taste. But, damn him, he was a man!” Mr. Pickles cleared his massive throat. Then he cleared it again. ' “Very good, steward,” he said gruffly. “Not a—not bad idea—that of yours. Carry on, spare you another hand if you like.” prefer t’ go ‘lone, sir.” ‘Very well, b-b-blast you! Carry on.” 50 Llewelyn Jones pushed off and labor- ” ed at the scull with the tears frem his squint eyes running off the end of his nose and quartered the sea industriously. Lord Rais- ghyll watched, and shook his head thought- fully. But Jones did not find the shattered body of Admiral Teach. That person, with his chest across a piece of wreckage to give him buoyancy in the warm water and his GON Gwoolks “Prefer to go alone, sir. He was my— Colin