Argosy All-Story Weekly, November 12, 1927 — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

562 I stops over for a chin with torpedoes, Watts by name. “Youll be steady with that tube, Watts,” I cautions him. “Or Ill forget what I’m sent for, ‘cause 0’ a feelin’ 0’ spite. So don’t go slippin’ me any more air than the lieutenant orders. You hear? I’m no regular projectile, you know.” ‘““ Blast me, second, you leave it to me. [ll give you no more than I thinks ‘ll get you up. You won’t expect me, sort o’ de- pendin’ on if I make a good shot, givin’ you less, would you?” I looks at him suspicious, but I sees he’s bullyraggin’. I turns to find the lieuten- ant and tell him I’m ready. It’s then I faces Sandy, and I know, account o’ the look in his face, I’ve got to be stiff. “ Hold hard, able bodied,’ I warns him. “ Remember I’m second cox’un.” “Second cox’un you are,” he says, “ and if you say it again I’ll slug you, Slim, s’help me. Where’s the brig they can put me in, I ask you, what with bein’ in Davy Jones’s locker now, or almost? Now look here, we’ve been chums, and I’ve always admitted you was the better man nor me, apart from bein’ second, except that there’s Bella. You’ve granted that there bein’ her, why I’m better ’n you except at inspec- tion. Be a good chum, Slim, and own up ‘it’s the truth you owe it to me, this tube business. Account o’ Bella, Slim.” Of course any other time I’d 0’ weak- ened right there, but this ain’t any other time. It’s a suffocatin’ this time. “ We've been chums,” I returns, “ like you say. And I’m hopin’ we stay chums. But I’m picked to go shootin’ out o’ that tube, and you’re picked to stay behind and pray like hell there’s breath in me when I get to the top.” “ But think o’ Bella,” he pleads. ‘‘ She’s waitin’, or will be. Are you mindin’ that?” “ T’ve been thinkin’ o’ that. But what are you gaffin’ for? If I get through I'll be gettin’ you up, all o’ you. If I don’t, I won't. It’d be the same with you. One 0’ us couldn’t do better for Bella.” “ That’s where you ain’t square, Slim,” he says. “Or you ain’t thinkin’. We ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. promised to be home by six, you remember? I put it to you—if you go up the tube you’ve got to wait till the wreck raisers get over us before I comes up. If I go up, I can strike out for Bella as soon as I get word to the dockyard. Ill get a lift on shore somehow, and won’t keep her waitin’ so long.” Now, he has me there, and I won’t say put as I'd thought the same thing and was keepin’ my counsel. But I looks at him scornful, for I has him on another account. “Think 0’ your legs, man. Could you get those knees close enough to slide ’em into the tube?” I take his arm, then, thinkin’ to bring him along to the lieutenant, chums like, while I report ready. But he pulls away from me. “T’ve thought o’ them, Slim, and you remember both the lieutenant and Bella, him account o’ the king, and her maybe for pettin’ reasons like you say, dis’proves ’em. If you push hard enough when you load me, you'll get ’em in. If they jam you can give her more air. Maybe if the tube bends in a bit they’ll stay. That’d please Bella, Slim, not to say the lieutenant. It’d help make up for spoilin’ the supper.”’ Well, there’s nothin’ to be. done with a lubber like that. “ Carry on, Sandy,” I says. If the lieutenant is surprised I pass the job to an ablebodied, he doesn’t show it. He gives Sandy a salute. The captain speaks sharp: “ Able-bodied seaman.” Sandy clicks his:heels, me a cursin’ him down in my throat for puttin’ it over on me. ““ Aye, aye, sir.” ‘“‘What’s your name?” “ Bolton, sir.” “ Quite game, and all that, Bolton?”’ “ Just a speedy way o’ gettin’ home, sir. Tired 0 the bloomin’ sea for the day, sir. Beggin’ your pardon.” “Home? Family, Bolton?’ “‘ Bella—that is, missus, sir.” “Tf you get home you'll give her my compliments, Bolton.” “¢ Aye, aye, sir.”’ “Your hand, Bolton.”’ And bless‘me! if they didn’t shake hands, Gomichbooks (E@)