The Argosy, April 1912 — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

AS THE DICE FELL. 1] aside an irksome role, or who sets down a heavy burden. “Faith,” he cried, “’twas a tough won victory enow! And never have I so long kept cool my temper under such trying oc- casion. I was mightily tempted, man, to take you at your word and to try conclusions with you, sword to sword.” “Then,” I demanded crossly, “why did you not do so?” “Because,” quoth he, “I am bounded to Master Bartholomew Gosnold to ship so many good men as may be, on this voyage, and, peppery and hot-headed though you are, you are one of the strongest and most energetic men I have met. The sort of men we shall need beyond all others in Vir- ginia. I watched your career in the Con- tinent wars. You were a prize well worth my playing for.” While I sought for a surly answer, I felt a hand slip into the empty money-pouch at my belt. Glad to vent my rage on any- thing, I gripped the hand. with lightning speed, ere it could be drawn away, then wheeled to face the thief. He had wriggled up to me, unnoticed in the crowd, and had taken advantage of my momentary diversion of mind to try to pick my pocket. The hand I grasped was jerked violently back, but it could not tear itself free of my grip. I found myself hanging like grim death to the wrist of a lean, sallow-faced fellow, clad in leather, and cursed with the shiftiest, red-rimmed eyes that ever I saw. “Accept my humble compliments, Cap- tain Smith,” quoth I, monstrous polite, “on the class of men you have picked as my fellow colonists. This promising young pickpocket should add much luster to your fame in the new world. Are all the rest like him—and like your worthy self?” Smith’s swarthy face grew positively black and hideously distorted with wrath, as he saw what had happened. He paid no heed, seemingly, to my sneering words, but he strode up to the cringing thief, who shrank back in mortal fear before the light- ning glare in the captain’s eyes. What might have happened I know not, but just then the door swung open and three richly dressed men swung into the room. Smith reluctantly turned from the pick- pocket and moved forward with surly civil- itv to greet them. I took a step backward and seated my- self miserably on a settle that ran along one side of the wall. Truly, I had made a precious fool of myself, and it was a goodly company of blackguards with whom I found myself: Here, then, was the end of my bright dreams of martial glory! I saw the future stretching out before me, dreary and barren as a rainy sea. | “Do not judge us all by him,” said a voice that was so soft as to seem to blend with my own silent thoughts. I glanced to the right of me. I found I had unconsciously seated myself next to the girl and the stern-faced elderly man whose presence I had already noted on my entrance to the room. The girl was looking half shyly, half merrily, at me, from under the shadow of her dark hood. “You spoke to me?” J queried absently. “I bade you not to judge us all by him,” she repeated. “By Smith?” I asked. ‘Now, Heaven forbid! I would not so much malign any company.’’ . “T spoke not of Captain John Smith,” she answered, “but of Wat Croy, the man who sought to steal your purse.” “Qh,” I laughed, “that mattered little. The purse was empty. Nor do I wonder at finding such a man on an expedition of this sort.” “We must take what men we can find,” said she. ‘Men of substance and ability have too much at stake in England to cross the seas to a wild country. So, until the colony proves itself prosperous, we must e’en be content with such as will go. These are for the most part down-at-heel galloots, pardoned convicts, broken folk, and those whom King James’s laws too cruelly op- press. Of such last are my father and myself.” “Yourself!” I echoed, roused to faint amusement. “ You can scarce be eighteen. How can you have fallen ’neath the law’s ban? : “TI go with my father, “And he?” “He is Mark Errol,” she replied, as though she spoke the name of one of the earth’s great ones. The name was wholly unfamiliar to me, yet I lacked the brutality to say so to her just then. “A man of his sort,” I evaded, “can scarce find much to rejoice him in such company, and under such a leader as this fellow Smith.” ” she said simply. cComicloool CO