Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 2 — page 117: what you’re looking at

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

A MAN TO Other floes came from seaward to batter at the cliffs, but the eddy that had brought them to their resting-place seemed to have been dissolved in the main current and, save for an occasional alarm, their rear was not seriously invaded. Only, as the night wore on, the floating masses became cemented to each other and the shore. The Karluk was hard and fast within two hundred yards of her Tom Tid- dler’s ground, just over the promontory. If a thaw came, all should go well. If Lund had been deceived, and the true winter was setting in early, the prospects were far~ from cheerful, though no one seemed to think of that possibility. Beneath the glamor of the magic night, the weird paraselene of the moon’s pheno- menon, the glow of the volcano, the noises, the men whispered of one’ thing only— Gold! Dawn came before they were aware of it, a sudden rush of light that dyed the ice in every hue of red and orange, that tipped the frozen coast with bursts of ruby flame that flared like beacons and gilded the crests of the long swells, tinging all their world with a wild, unnatural glory. Lund, striding the deck, his red beard iced with his breath, suddenly stopped and stared into the east. There, in the very eye of the dawn, was a trail of smoke, like agplume against the flaming, three-quarters _ circle of the rising sun! CHAPTER XVI. THE MIGHT OF NIPPON. UND?’S face, on which the bruises were fast fading, changed purple-black with rage. He whirled upon Sandy, gaping near, and ordered him to fetch his binoculars. Through them he stared long at the smoke. Then he turned to the girl and Rainey. “Come down inter the cabin,” he said. .““ We'll need all our wits:” “That’s a gunboat patrol,’ he said. ‘‘ Japanese, for a million! None other this far west. An’ it’s damned funny it should come up right at this minnit. We’ve made the trip on schedule time, an’ here they show. But we'll let that slide. We’ve got HIS MATE. 267 to think fast. They’ll board us. They’ll- overhaul us for seal pelts. At least, I hope so. “We've got none. Our hunters an’ our rifles an’ shotguns ’ll prove our claim to be pelagic sealers. lieve us. If there was a hide aboard or a club, or a sign of a dead.seal on the beaches they’d nail us. They may, ennyway, jest on suspicion. “They run things out this way with a high hand. If they ever clap us in prison it “Il be where we can’t let a peep out of us. <A lot they worry about: our consuls. They’s too menny good sealers dropped out of sight in one of their stinkin’ jails to starve-on millet an’ dried, mouldy fish. I know what I’m talkin’ about. : “It’s lucky we didn’t start mussin’ up that beach. But they'll go over everything. I know ’em. They claim to own the seas hereabouts, an’ they’re cockier than ever, since the war. Rainey, you got to git busy on the log. If yore father didn’t keep it up Miss Peggy, so much the better. If he has, you got to fake it someways, Rainey. “Tm Simms, get me, until we’re clear of ‘em. An’ you, Rainey, are Doc’ Carlsen. Nothin’ must show in the log about enny deaths.” “ But why?” asked the girl. ‘“ Why do we have to masquerade? If we haven’t touched the seals?” Lund barked at her. ‘I gave you credit for sharper wits,” he said. ‘‘ We’ve got to have everything so reg’lar they can’t find an excuse for haulin’ us in an’ settin’ fire to the schooner. They’d do it in a jiffy. We got to show ’em our We got to trust they be-. clearance papers, an’ we’ve got to tally — up all down the line, ship’s books—Carlsen is. Lund ain’t, but Simms is. I’m Simms. An’ you ”—he stopped to grin at her—“ you’re my daugh- ter. I'll dissolve the relationship after a while, I'll promise you-that. An’ I’ll drill the men. They know what’s ahead of ’em if the Japs git suspicious. “That ain’t the worst of it! know what we're after. If they do, we’re goners. Ever occur to you, Rainey, that Tamada, who is a deep one, may have tipped off the whole thing to his consul They may (eo) DOOKS AMG Rainey ain’t on the . (E@)