Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 3 — page 56: what you’re looking at

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

338 has ever dangled for me, so far as I know, T can quite imagine it would be a stimulant. (In my case the other fellows wanted to shoot me.) A- handy flurry of cloud also came to help them. They reached a roughly built cleet, crawled inside, and lay down on drying turf. Teach produced his big black pipe. _ Lord Raisghyll lit his equally inevitable cigarette. “How many men will that destroyer carry?”’ ‘* Perhaps eighty,” said Teach. ‘‘ They'll leave, say, ten on board to keep shop, and arm the balance and turn them adrift to hunt the island.” “ That’s cheerful.” “May as well face the facts. St. Kilda’s small, but the bigger part of it is standing on end. Besides, ‘ Jack ashore ’ you know. It'll be a slow job. No reason for us to hustle yet awhile. ‘“‘Let’s try and worry out a sound plan of operations. The ancient inhabitant of St. Kilda, before the small-pox cleared them out, were troglodytic in their tastes and lived in dugout houses all over the shop. I know of one of those, not far from here, that we could crawl into. I expect ' snaring sea fowl will be beyond us. But we can lift a sheep to two to keep us going. “The main trouble will be drink. The only spring I know of hereabouts is a muddy puddle at the back of the village.” “‘Tt’s a poor scheme,” the pirate decided. “The navy’s not a fool. Sooner or later they will dredge us out if we stay on this island. If this present destroyer lot can’t do it, they’ll ring up the rest of the fleet. But they'll go through St. Kilda with a small comb and don’t you make any error about that. “Best to face the facts, as I say. If there was any likelihood of a ship coming near this blasted island, I’d swim off and take my chance of being picked up.” “There isn’t. That’s why we came here.” “1 must say you’re helpful.” “To quote your own words, Teddy, one’s got to face facts.” “T like the suggestion of surrender from you,” said Teach significantly. (Students ae pee gr semen ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. of the Great War will remember Major, the Earl of Raisghyll, D. S. O., as C. O. of that Guards battalion, which after the man- ner of the Guards, when other regiments had failed, were ordered into a tight place and told to hold it to the last man. They held it—in spite of many invitations to surrender—expensively for themselves, and extremely expensively for the Hun. Major Lord Raisghyll, and thirty-two others sur- vived, as you will recall, out of 960.) ‘“ My great grandfather, as you know, got into a tight place off Charlestown, Carolina, as his finish, and neither surrendered nor shot himself. He fought it out. “I’m quite open to doing the same if called upon.. But I don’t want to for two reasons. First, I should damage the ‘navy in the process, and I’d hate to do that because they are good fellows. And sec- ond, I want to get away, and marry Mary Arncliffe, and live quietly and respectably. “Probably you still think I’m merely a bloody-minded pirate, Raisghyll. But I can assure you I’ve as much of a hankering for a quiet fireside and kids at my knee as the other fellow. Only trouble is, I’ve always been short of cash. If I’d been you, I’d have been every bit as respectable as you are, only more so, because at times, here for instance, and that day in Flanders you've shown habits that no self-respecting millionaire peer should have. ‘‘ However, we are getting off the sub- ject. What’s the nearest land?” ‘Stacks Borrerah, Lee, and Soay. They’re just humps of rock sticking out of the water. Sheep on the first and last. Landing difficult. | “Next nearest is North Uist,-and that’s some forty miles away. Think you can swim forty miles in cold North Atlantic water?” ‘It oughtn’t to be too cold. It’s the tail end of the Gulf Stream. What about these two other rocks? The ones with: the sheep on them, I mean. How far are they?” ‘“Borrerah and Soay? Depends on where you start from. If you commence your swim by taking a header off a three- hundred foot cliff, they’re not far. If you are going to row round from Village Bay, it’s a long pull. eo ' NCO) MOUS OO (0) So C@