The Argosy, August 1914 — page 77: what you’re looking at

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

; NOBODY LOVES A LOSER. of participation in whatever debate was in progress. The bottom of the hulk was toward him. A scrap of the talk on which he had purposed intruding brought him suddenly to a standstill. The Voice was that of the man he had come out to find, and he had just exclaimed, with more of protest than of decisign in his tones: “I tell ye I won’t have anything to do with it.” “ Yes, you will, too,’ rejoined the other party to the conversation, and emphasized the statement with a round oath. ‘“ You will or Cap’n Zed finds out who monkeyed with his comp—” ‘““Sh-h. Not so loud,” warned Pe- ter. This sounded interesting. Jack Gar- rett had small use for eavesdroppers. Sometimes, however, eavesdropping became a duty. He concluded not to announce himself until he had learned what it was Peter Gomez would have no hand in. “Well, you hear me,” the other man went on; “ you're in this too deep now to pull out. We need you and were goin’ to get you.” “You wouldn't tell on me about that compass, Buck?” Peter pleaded. “It was for you [ done it.” ‘For me and what I paid ye,’ said the other voice ungratefully. “ You're true Bar’try at heart, Pete, and you ‘know it, spite of fishin’ with furriners this season. I reckoned on Cap'n Zed gettin’ into trouble with that compass, not the girl.” So it was Buck Potter with whom Peter was arguing in the shelter of the decaying oyster scow. This added piquancy to the situation. The odds were easily a hundred to one that they were plotting deviltry. © “Well, I didn’t have no. hand in cuttin’ the cap’n’s gill-net adrift,” Pe- ter rejoined in a clinching style. “Who did?” was the reply. “Are you tryin’ to make out that I did that? ‘Cause if you are—’’ “ No, no, Buck. Nothin’ like that,” us in on it. 67 said Peter quickly. “I was just say- in’—”’ | “You don’t know who cut that gill- net,’ Buck declared. “‘ And you don’t want to know. Same thing about the propeller — you don’t know nothin’ about that. But you know that new feller that claims to be a barge hand was tellin’ the truth about bein’ tied up in th’ old Wiggins shanty, because you went there and gathered up the ropes. I tell ye, Pete, there’s no use of your tryin’ to play baby now. You've got to work with us.” Peter, seemingly overborne by sheer weight of argument, remained silent. Buck waited a moment for him to re- flect on the situation. Then he opened fire again, cajolingly this time. “Aw, what’s the trouble with you, Peter? You and me’s old friends and you're an islander. Do you want to see these others come in and get our fish? First thing you know, Bar’try ‘ll be overrun with them and nothin’ left for the rest of us.” “I ain't goin’ to get into no troub- le,’ Peter said doggedly. “You won't, I tell ye. There ain't no danger to this, worked right, and it'll make them furriners so sick they wont never want to fish off Bar’try no more.”’ ‘* Besides, there’s my share.” “You'll get more this way, won't ye? Now listen. ‘There'll be six of We share and share alike. ‘Yother way you get a sixth lay after Cap'n Zed gets his, which. don’t begin to be as muich for you. Do you see?” “That's so,” Peter acknowledged. “Tell ne how you cal’late to work it.” ‘Keep stil a minute,” said Buck. Silence fell. “I thought I heard somethin’, he added. What he heard was Jack drawing closer, the better to play his role of eavesdropper. ‘The old hull rested on a gunwale which had withstood the gnawing tooth of the elements better than her maker had any right to ex- pect. The boat’s sloping side offered admirable cover for his end. Having CONNICOOOKS (C@)