Argosy All-Story Weekly — "Sea Marauders" — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

Tete ae » vib Po DRT iA through the water at twenty-two knots ex an hour, and enable her to show her eg heels to all but the fastest of the pro- é hibition patrol boats of the Florida coast. ¢ She had space in her hold for a : couple of hundred cases of whisky, and quarters in the cabin for a crew of six. There were twelve men on her as she sped on her way from Gun Key to Gascon Island, and seven of them were compelled to sleep on deck or in ae the hold, which contained no cargo save some cases of ammunition, two Maxim machine guns, several reserve°® tanks of gasoline, and food supplies for a couple of weeks. Captain Bill Gibbons had picked off the beach nine excessively savage man beasts, two of whom were brutal American negroes, three were Portu- guese, four were bootleggers and _hi- jackers, of whom one was English and three were Americans. As they loafed on deck under the hot sun, most were naked, save for dirty white drill pants, all were bare- foot, and all unshaven, The Portuguese nat wore earrings, two of the Americans eS were bearded, and the largest of the %e negroes had had one eye gouged out. The admission of Yankee patrol boats to Bahama waters had made beach combers out of bootleggers, and all these men were penniless and des- perate when Bill took each one aside and whispered in his ears that in ex- change for a few bullets he would earn several thousand dollars. As yet they had not been informed of their desti- ." Mer eee ed he BE iss U8: X) * 7 y ; ‘ 7 ey 5 mt" 4 oi 4) v PVT de o theta lf ont 9 ” pale ATA thaht bl - ry» Weas a Asie : nation, and they were growing in- ss cr easingly curious. Captain Gibbons had provided two ie revolvers and plenty of ammunition oS for each of his crew. Rifles he had pes not been able to procure, but with his is old Maxim rapid-fire guns he did not = think he had need of rifles. The three leaders of the expedition squatted-on the deck aft of the cabin and discussed the plan of campaign. “We approach the island late to- ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. morrow night,” said the Spaniard. “ It would be best to land on the outer rim, except that there is always a heavy sea running, and we might be wrecked on coral rock; so we shall have to slip into the lagoon. “We'll have to poke along the reef until we find the opening, but I know it’s big enough for Lovering’s three- thousand-ton yacht to enter, so we won't have trouble. We'll land far up the beach and lie low until we are sure the whole outfit is asleep. Then we take the place.” “The first thing we got to do,” said Bill Gibbons, “‘ is to locate this wire- less station, and that ought to be easy, for they have to have a wireless mast. We stick a knife into the operator, see. Then, if the gang at the house put up a fight we can wipe ’em out at our leisure, because they can’t get away any SOS.” “The yacht will be back in three days from to-day,” said Pedro. “ We can surely clean up there and be away in twenty-four hours. By the time the yacht arrives we'll be in the interior of Cuba. You'll have to sink your boat, though,” “T’ll sink her, don’t worry, if I have my share of half a million in my fist. I can get another boat, if I ever need one. New York for mine, and the Great White Way. ee “TI sye,” said Watson the cockney. “They'll be a big to-do about this when they find the dead people, and they'll want to know who did it. Now ain’t they goin’ to figure it out that a lot o’ faces is missin’ from Gun Key? They know Captain Gibbons started for Nassau in the Mamie Murther, and they’ll ask why he didn’t ever get there. They know I went with him. They’re going to miss you, Pedro, from Nas- satt. It don’t take no Sherlock Holmes to figger out that we’re the bleeding pirates that tackled Gascon Island.” Pedro nodded. “ Very likely. What of it? We are in hiding in Cuba. We lie low for a year, if necessary. We take s seo com” |