Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 5, 1928 — page 138: what you’re looking at

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

704 the man’s face that he did not notice the upraised weapon. With acry of warning, Andy jumped across the table and caught the man’s wrist. He twisted it until the bones cracked and the knife fell to the floor from the tortured sailor’s limp fingers. While the fight was waging, Portu- guese Pete had rushed outside, yelling for help. As it happened, two officers from the Portuguese man-of-war lying in the harbor were strolling along in front of the house. Portuguese Pete hurriedly explained what was happening and the two off- cers rushed inside, yelling commands to their men. At the sound of their superior offi- cers’ voices, the four Portuguese gave up the struggle and sullenly lined up at attention. “Come on,” muttered Blacky to Andy and Hankins, “ let’s beat it.” He stepped quickly through an open win- dow onto a veranda, closely followed by his two companions. Once outside, the three men sprang over the porch railing and darted through the grove to the road. “Boy, boy!’ chuckled Blacky, as they slowed up to a walk. “Some scrap!” “Why in the devil did them officers have to show up for?’ growled Han- kins. “I was just gettin’ started ood.” “ Say, fellows,” broke in Andy, “ do you know we didn’t pay for the eats— and we sure wrecked poor old Pete's dishes.” “Yeh,” said Blacky, “I guess we’d better get back to the ship before the cops run us down.” Reluctantly, they made their way to the wharf, turning their backs on the gay night life of the city. V. Two days later the Falcon hoisted anchor and moved slowly out of Pearl Harbor. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. To their chagrin, Andy, Blacky and Hankins had received no further op- portunity to go ashore. Neither had they heard anything further of their escapade at Portuguese Pete’s. Once well out at sea, the old régime aboard ship was resumed, with the ex- ception that the drills were shortened and more time was allotted to the men for polishing brass, swabbing decks and scraping paint. It was not until they were nearing San Diego that either Andy or Han- kins brought up the subject of turning Blacky over to the police. Then, one night, Hankins said abruptly: _ “Well, two days more, buddy, and we collect the reward.” “Yeh,” grunted Andy. He rubbed his chin nervously, then said: “ Too bad we've got to do it. Blacky’s a good scrapper. 1 kinda like him, the more I see of him.” “ Of course, a train robber has to be a good fighter,” returned Hankins. “ An’ it ain't so much what we want todo. We gottaturn him over. Ain’t we got that hundred smackers invested in him? An’ ain’t it our duty?” “I suppose so,” sighed Andy. He turned away abruptly and went below. Hankins gazed thoughtfully down into the swirling water. As a matter of fact, he disliked turning Blacky over to the police as much as Andy did— but once he had decided upon a course of action, he stubbornly adhered to it. The Falcon arrived in San Diego harbor in the middle of the night. It was Andy’s and Hankins’s watch be- low and slumbering peacefully, they were not cognizant that they had reached the home port until the bugle sounded reveille at five-thirty in the morning. After breakfast, they met by %p- pointment near the forward gun tur- ret. “Well, Andy,” began Hankins, as he lighted a cigarette, “right after four-thirty you and me and Blacky go ashore and then we do the dirty work.” | ! 8A EOPMICLOOOKS (EO)