Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 2 — page 110: what you’re looking at

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

260 “| thought I saw a Bible in the safe,”’ he said, when we were looking for the shells. There may be a prayer-book. I suppose there have been occasions for it. The mate died at sea last trip.” “There may be,” returned Lund. “ That’s where Simms ud keep it. He wasn’t what you’d call a religious man. We’ll take a look afore we turn in.” There were offices to be performed for the dead captain that the girl, with all her willingness, could not attempt. Lund did not mention them, and Rainey vacillated about disturbing her until he saw Tamada go through the cabin with folded canvas and a flag, The Japanese tapped on the door, which was instantly opened to him. There was no doubt that Tamada, with his medical experience, was best fitted for the task, but it seemed to Rainey also that the girl had deliberately ignored their services and that, despite her involuntary admiration of Lund’s fight against odds, or ‘in revulsion of it, she reckoned them hostile te her sentiments. Lund roused him by taiking of the burial-service for Simms. ‘ You’re a writer,” he said. “ What’s the good of knowin’ how to handle words if you can’t fake up some sort of a service? One’s as good as another, long as it sounds like the real thing.” “I reckon there’s a God,” he went on. “ Somethin’ that started things, somethin’ _that keeps the stars from runnin’ each other down, but, after He wound up the clock He made, I don’t figger He bothers much about the works. “ Luck’s the big thing that counts, We’re all in on the deal. Some of us get the deuces an’ treys, an’ some git the aces, If you’re born lucky things go soft for you. But, if it wasn’t for luck, for the chance an’ the hope of it, things ud be upside down an’ plain anarchy in a jiffy. [If it wasn’t the pore devil’s idea that his luck has got to change for the better, mebbe ter- morrer, he’d start out an’ cut his own throat, er somé one else’s, if he had ginger enough.”’ “It’s hardly all luck, is it?” asked Rainey. “Look at you! You're bigger than most men, stronger, better equipped to get what you want.” THE ARGOSY. “ Hell!” Jaughed Lund. * 1 was lucky to be born that way. But you’ve got to fudge up some sort of a service to suit the gal. You’ve got that Bible. It ought to be easy. Simms wouldn’t give a whoop, enny more ’n I would. When you’re dead you’re through, so far’s enny one can prove it to you. A dead body’s a nuisance, an’ the sooner it’s got rid of the better. But if it’s goin’ to make the livin’ feel enny better for spielin’ off some fine words, why, hop to it an’ make up yore speech.”’ Peggy Simms saved Rainey by producing a prayer-book, bringing it to Lund, her face pale but composed enough, and _ her shadowed eyes calm as she gave it to him. ‘“T reckon Rainey here ud read it better ’n me,” he said. ‘“ He’s a scholar.” “Tf you will,” asked the girl. -She seemed to have outworn her first sorrow, to have obtained a grip of herself that, with the dignity of her bereavement, the very control of her undoubted grief, set up a barrier between her and Lund. Rainey was conscious of this fence behind which the girl had retreated. She was polite, but she did not ask this service as a favor, as a friendly act. Refusal, even, would not have visibly affected her, he fancied. There was an invisible armor about her that might be added to at any moment by a shield of silent scorn. Somehow, if sex had, for a swift moment, brought her and Lund into any contact, that same sex, showing another aspect, set them far apart. Lund showed that he felt it, running his:splay fingers through his beard in evi- dent embarrassment, while Rainey took the’ book silently, looking through the pages for the ritual of ‘ Burial at Sea.”’ Arrangements had been made. on deck long before dawn. A section of the rail had been removed and a grating arranged that could be tipped at the right moment for the consignment of the captain’s body to the. deep. The sea was running in long heaves, and the sun rose in a clear sky. The ocean was free from ice, though the wind was cold. Here and there a berg, far off, caught the sparkle of the sun and, to the north, parallel to their course, the peaks of the Aleutian Isles, broken buttresses of an an- (EO) .OO AMI CS (EO)