Argosy All-Story Weekly — "Sea Marauders" — page 73: what you’re looking at

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

THE SCANDAL ON KITIKAT KEY. Aunt Becky moved in and out of the bungalow with plates and silverware— a plump, silent, black ghost—when he first espied the gleaming white sail of the Lottie Lee, tacking up from the South, although he did not at first identify the oncoming boat as Uncle Jethro’s. The gleaming sail, golden in. the light of the declining sun, materialized into several, until Gerald made out the approaching boat to be _ schooner- rigged. He picked up a pair of binocu- lars in one hand, while he continued, with the other, gently to agitate the cocktail shaker, and brought the lenses to bear upon the visiting crait. The cocktail shaker in his left hand moved more and more slowly as he spelled out the name on the bows, and presently it stopped moving entirely. He looked at the cocktail shaker, then he looked again through the glasses; then he slowly shook his head. He placed the glasses on the table and car- ried the cocktail shaker into the kitch- en. Its contents he sadly poured down the sink. There would be no evening cocktails as long as Uncle Jethro was around, for Uncle Jethro was a hard- ened old prohibitionist. He would be glad to see Uncle Jethro, anyhow. Dear old Uncle Jethro, with his heart of gold that was all wool and a yard wide! What a debt of gratitude he owed to that gener- ous old boy! Uncle Jethro had been kinder to him than if he had been Un- cle Jethro’s own son. Uncle Jethro had put him through school and col- lege, and Uncle Jethro had always given him a princely allowance. With an eye for the approaching boat, Gerald made a hasty inspection of the bungalow. He hid all evidences of the presence of the demon rum, and when the Lottie Lee came about on the final tack which would bring her to the little pier that jutted out into the South Cove, Gerald was down there, waiting to catch the line. He realized that he looked rather the worse for 495 wear, with a two days’ beard sprouting on his chin and one leg of those shame- ful overalls split up to the knee; but Uncle Jethro, unless he remembered him incorrectly, would approve of all this. As the Lottie Lee came closer in, Gerald made out two strange faces in the cockpit. One was that of an old man he had never seen before, and the other was that of a bright-faced boy, dressed nattily in sailor’s whites. A moment later Gerald’s heart gave a little flutter, when his alert senses in- formed him that the good-looking boy was nota boy at all, but a girl. The closer in the Lottie Lee came, the -bet- ter-looking did the strange girl in the cockpit become. And Gerald found some of his iron-bound resolutions wavering. This girl was a peach, a pippin, a knock-out, a darb! He won- dered how long Uncle Jethro was planning to stay. Maybe he could urge him to stay longer! What a fine old boy Uncle Jethro was! Gerald had never appreciated him until now. The girl in the cockpit was ‘gazing at him with bright-eyed interest. He saw that her lashes were illegally long. Gerald hadn’t seen a girl in three whole days; and it certainly seemed nice to have one come within range of your vision again! Who was the Jittle enchantress? What was she doing aboard the Lottie Lee? Well, all of this would come out in time, of course. The Lottie Lee came up neatly into the wind. Even in the delightful agi- tation that the pretty girl had inspired in him, Gerald could still admire Un- cle Jethro’s seamanship. First the jib came down, fluttering; then down came the mizzen and the mains’l. The schooner slid gently through the pale- green water and made a perfect dock- ing. Uncle Jethro scrambled out upon the pier and clasped his nephew to his bosom, then held him off at arm’s length. re owlene oe