Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 32: what you’re looking at

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

502 Her cables rattled out again, this time in fourteen fathoms. The beauty of the ship was reflected in the calm lagoon, but she had lost grace in the eyes of Jimmy Thorpe. Tubi came up to him and asked if he was going aboard. ‘“No. They no want any one go along that ehipi. You tell that along village, Lupe Tubi goggled his surprise. “Not much good, that kind,” he com- mented, and Jimmy silently agreed with him. What the devil had they come into Trouble Bay for? Some minor engine trou- ble, perhaps. A purse proud bunch of snobs. He felt somewhat like a friendly puppy whose glad greetings to a stranger had been ignored. He did not need any glasses now to sur- vey her. He would not have deigned to use them. He did not look her way. A breeze from the sea bore to his unwilling ears snatches of laughter, light, feminine laughter and the deeper echoes from men. A faint lilt of music from a phonograph that must be to his decrepit machine what a Stradivarius is to a beggar’s oneé-String fiddle. IIf. SUNSET came and the flag was hauled down and taken in. Lights showed here and there. The sound of the ship’s bell came across the water. The lights mel- _ Jowed—were reflected in the lagoon. When - Jimmy Thorpe came out from his own sup- per for a pipe the yacht lay like a fairy boat. They were having a course dinner served in the saloon, he imagined, with the women in gowns that revealed their fair, smooth flesh, set off with jewels; the men in conventional attire. To thunder with them! He hoped that morning would see her gone. Tt was not envy. Maybe the slightest tinge of it, but his friendly overtures had been repulsed, his pride hurt. And they sailed under his own flag. To them Twenty- - Stick was just a wild place not worth the visiting, beautiful as it was. None of them gave a thought to the storekeeper who lived there, solitary and naturally craving for clanship. If the owner and his guests did ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. not want to mix with a trader’s assistant that was their privilege, he supposed, but the whole order of the ship was one of un- friendliness. No trespassers. And he was as good as any of them. No one came ashore. They disdained Twenty-Stick altogether, self-sufficient. No Shore leave even for the sailors. Again Jimmy consigned them to perdition to re- lieve his wounded feelings, but the Albatross obscured his view, it projected itself upon his solitude. He thought of going inside and starting his own phonograph, of play- ing solitaire with his frayed deck of cards, but he resented being driven off his own veranda, and so he stayed where he was. There was more music, the rippling notes of a piano, a woman’s high, clear voice. Later, laughter from the deck underneath the illuminated awning. Jimmy fancied this latter mirth smacked of revelry, was born of wine. It sounded out of pitch. He im- agined deck stewards serving fizzy drinks, handing about good cigars and cigarettes. He was too much of a man to feel an out- cast, but the contrast between ship and shore was a sharp one, and Jimmy was sen- sitive. He sat it out, smoking pipe after pipe in © the darkness. They were growing hilarious aboard. There was 2 woman’s high note of laughing protest, a man starting to sing un- certainly. Then the deck was deserted, save for the watch. The stars gathered in the sky, the sky darkened toward midnight. Jimmy Thorpe Gozed off in his chair. He had his own campaign of sanitation and mosquitoes did not bother his veranda. There were some in the mangroves at the point and he hoped they would annoy the visitors, though it was not likely, He awakened with a hazy idea that he had heard a cry from the ship, half angry, half distressful, the swiftly .suppressed shriek of a woman. He listened, cramped from his nap, but it was not repeated and he filled himself a good night pipe, though his threat was rough from too much to-. bacco. The night was intensely still. The usual Jand breeze hardly manifested itself, save as it brought down the spicy fragrance of the bush where heavy scented flowers grew com IElNOOLS CO) nm