The Argosy, January 1907 — page 35: what you’re looking at

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

IN- THE DEPTHS OF DISASTER. choking, one of my feet hit on some- thing that 1 knew to be the stock of a gun. On the instant, with the instinct of desperation, | thrust upward with my foot. The weight on it told me that I had raised one at least of the guns—lI dared hope both—and as it did not fall back I knew that one or both of the weapons had gone into the sea. José relaxed the pressure on my throat, so that I was able to draw a few strug- gling breaths. “What the devil does this mean?” he shrieked at me. Though he was at arm’s length, I could see no faintest shadow of him, and his voice came thin through the tumult of the elements. “T came for the guns,” back. “Blast you!” he answered, “ get back where you belong, and stay there if you want to live. If you try again to get those guns, I'l kill you.” { decided it-were wiser not to let him know that [ had accomplished my pur- pose already, at least in part. I was like a child under his enormous strength. [ wondered if Billy and I together could overcome the man—and neither of us is a weakling. So now I waited silently for him to release me. And at last, after another vicious squeeze of my windpipe, by way of reminder, he let me go. { went back vastly quicker than I had come, though still on all fours by rea- son of the schooner’s tossing, and soon butted into Billy. Ife was overjoyed at my report. ‘Jack, the luck has turned,” he ex- claimed. And I prayed that it might be so. i shouted CHAPTER IX. A SUDDEN EXIT. THE gale moderated as the night passed, «but the sea was still high. We managed to eat a little, but the harsh motion and the floods of water from sea and sky kept us chilled and miserable. The first gray of dawn was a delight to us. Then as day broke and we could see to a distance, for the rain had lessened, we made out to starboard a 217 sketchy glimpse of coast-line. This, too, heartened us, and we made another rough meal from our provisions, while yet not exchanging a word with our host. For that matter, José’s manner did not suggest amiability. His scarred face was not good to look upon. He knew -now, what I had hoped, that both the guns had gone overboard as the result of my effort, and we were therefore compara- tively safe at his hands. ‘vidently the knowledge enraged him, for he was scowling mightily, and his lips moved now and then in curses. “Two hours after dawn we-were so close inshore that I could see the mouth of a river toward which we were head- ing, and from certain evidences I made no question but that it was that down which we had sailed into the sea. Pres- ently we entered the stream. But the wind was not favorable for proceeding in a channel so narrow, and I saw that we must come to anchor. José gave a turn of the helm that sent us shoreward, and called out to lower the sail and drop anchor. I jumped to the anchor and made ready to let go at the proper moment, while Billy busied himself with the sail. I was watching the shore and holding the anchor in readiness for our closer approach, when a shout from Billy startled me. I whirled about and saw José darting toward my brother. In his right hand was an ugly knife. [ would have sprung forward, but be- fore | could make a movement Billy had scrambled up one of the slender masts, which swayed alarmingly under his weight. José reached the spot and_ struck viciously with his weapon, but the blow fell short, and in a trice Billy had dived into the stream. José roared a curse as my bfother’s body disappeared beneath the water. Then, his rage and lust of murder whet- ted by failure, he turned on me. I was still kneeling by the ready anchor, six feet from him. Billy’s voice came to me: “ Overboard with you, Jack—quick!”’ But ere I could obey, I saw that which Billy had not seen, which José never knew. I saw the boom which Billy had had no time to make fast swinging down Ss COMIC IO (E@)