Argosy All-Story Weekly — "Sea Marauders" — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

434 . ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. a good number support a few families of negroes, several are headquarters for American bootleggers, and some are privately owned and used as winter residences by American and British nabobs. And of course there is the island of New Providence, upon which is situ- ated the town of Nassau, and there, in the winter time, throngs of American tourists disport themselves to the edification and enrichment of the Nas- sovians, black, yellow, and white. The Colonial Government does the best it can to govern its farflung pos- sessions. A police boat voyages about the archipelago, British gunboats steam ” impressively through the water lanes between the islands every now and then, and the tax collector gets around once a year. Nevertheless, the Baha- mas may be said to be left pretty well to their own resources. Not so long ago there was quite a busy little city on Gun Key, the in- habitants of which were almost en- tirely in the business of supplying the thirsty denizens of Florida with liquid refreshment. It was a wild, unruly village, so tumultuous that the bootlegging com- panies finally established their own police, who reduced homicide to a reasonable degree, but its day of glory has passed. N a saloon which faced the harbor on a very beautiful afternoon in Jan- uary about a year ago three men sat in gloomy conference. With glasses of Scotch and soda upon the table in front of them, they looked out upon the bay. Not so long ago it was a very busy port, with scores of schooners, tramp steamers, and fast motor launches at anchor or made fast to moorings. Now it was almost deserted; a few motor craft, a couple of two-masted schooners, and several native fishing smacks, and a long, low, white steamer from the stern of which floated the Stars and Stripes marine picture. One of the trio lifted his glass and made a gesture with it toward the cutter. “ Look at her,” he said bitterly. “A bleeding Yankee revenue boat lying in a British harbor. What right has she here I want to know?” _ He was a cockney, of course, a small, undernourished rat-faced product of London docks, clad in dirty white linen, a broad belt around his waist, completed the and, openly displayed, a revolver in a’ leather holster. He had small red- rimmed blue eyes, and two teeth were gone from the upper row, which left a gaping hole when he grinned. “She’s here under authority of your cowardly, yellow-bellied Bahama Par- liament,” said the second man. “ It’s nobody’s fault but your own.”’ He was a big person, broad- shouldered, heavily jowled, ugly as sin. His black hair grew low on his fore- head, his big nose had been flattened on his face, his mouth was large and loose, and he had pendulous unshaved jowls. He was an American, and a very hard specimen. “ Aye,” said the cockney, “ you have the right of it. These blasted Nas- sovians got holy when they got rich. Imagine them giving Yankee rum chasers permission to come right into British waters and board and search British vessels. “What would Lord Nelson say to that I'd like to know? Why doesn’t the British Parliament put a stop to it? Where’s our national pride?” “Well,” said the third man, “ Great Britain owes America a lot of money and might be asked to pay in full; so she felt she had to be police to her principal creditor. Asa result, a very beautiful business has gone completely to pot. Am I right?” “Why rub it in?” asked the big American. “I can’t load my boat under the nose of that cutter. If I leave the harbor she’ll chase me and ow, €Comicbooks:com - - - . aa — p< _ a. & = - - o ook ie pi = - Gina Man < os = 2. % — =u e ~ w * ea" Teed - 8 Se ae ee a et ee ee Sel VEE et ee ee Sa ee end =$ SO ee a