Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 3 — page 54: what you’re looking at

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

306 into space and blew smoke sings over the Atlantic. It was a hot, still Sunday eve- ning, and a section of that ocean lay almost directly beneath his feet, three hundred feet lower down. The rest of the occupants of St. Kilda were inside the four gray stone walis of: the Wee Free Kirk, away down at the edge of Village Bay. Lord Raisghyll fished in his pocket for another cigarette, and held out his hand for matches. He did not seem burdened either with ideas _or desire for speech. “ Frankly, I shouldn’t mind now how soon things were settled down. I want to marry that girl without any more-waiting.” “Um,” said his lordship. “Tl admit, if you like, I’ve been a nuisance in the past. I’m being a nuis- ance at present. I shall go on being a nuisance during the indefinite future till I get my own terms. “That Irish Republican Navy stunt has set you and the Yankees and everybody else by the ears. Come now. You’re here to buy me off. You know the terms. Is it a deal?” | ‘Rotten matches, these,” said Lord Raisghyll. “I’ve had to strike five.” “Then come down to the yacht and get another box,” said Teach, who was a man of short patience. “I shall sail before sundown. There are bad tides running outside, and I don’t want to pile her up on any of those stone yards. I’m too much of a steamer sailor to feél comfortable in a sixty-ton sch@oner.” “ Right-o,” said Lord Raisghyll. “ Ill give you lessons. My Foam will stand on her heels and jazz for you when you get to know her. But you got to know her fust. “Tl teach you a thing or two about steering with a tiller and a tackle before I’m through with you, Teddy, my lad. She also, amongst her stores, carries a. keg of prewar whisky—a thing not to be des- pised in these chaotic days of unclean ideals.” ‘You are leaving my points unan- swered.”’ “Tvam. I'll admit to you that the gray matter is churning inside my skull. And Digitized by Google : BRGOSE- ALESTORY WEEKLY, ’ it may churn slowly. But it churns ex- ceeding smail. ‘“‘ Come along and let’s get aboard before _the local citizen comes out of his one place of amusement. I hate to meet people emerging from church when I haven’t been there myself. Lord help us? meaning of that?” “That”? was 2 four-funneled, high- bowed destroyer which cleared the western horn of the bay at a gentle thirty knots, and swung up toward the anchorage. The pirate admiral looked out. ‘I suppose it means somebody thinks he’s got me in a trap and wants to do a little hanging. Have I you to thank for this pleasant little surprise?” ‘Don’t be impertinent, Teach. I gave you a safe conduct, and you know I’d cut my threat sooner than go back on a prom- ise. Also, don’t get the wind up. “Vou were Captain Cam on the Foam, and if anybody wants to know, I don’t see why Cam you shouldn’t remain. The odds are that joker has merety come in to What’s the bring the St. Kildians a parcel of news- | papers, and hopes to get a bucket’ of fish for the wardrobe dinner in exchange. “But he won’t get fish. These excellent islanders are too idle to catch those. They'll do the generous: with half-a-dozen brace of stinking fulmar petrels instead. ~Come along and be affable.” “T shall not. If I’m Cam there’s no reason I shouldn’t ramble off amongst the cliffs to find out where those same smelly seafowl breed. It’s a sort of thing that Cam, the idle dog, might very well do. Nothing odd about Cam gone bitdngsting Then if by ang chance it was Teach the were after, he’d get that much start.” “Oh, don’t be an ass.” “Thank you,” said the pirate, “but I don’t intend to be shot sitting. I quite take your word for it, Raisghyll, that you’ve been acting entirely on the straight. But what about some of your beastly politi- cals friends.going round the back of you? “Look there! There’s the whaler called away to board your blooming Foam. does that look like paying an afternoon call on His Extreme Magnificence, the Earl of Raisghyll?” oA r— — Now, ’ lal iC a 10S ; ATE UNL E DOO S aS CO© mm