Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 3, 1924 — page 82: what you’re looking at

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

872 to be a man, to sail great ships like that. But cheer up, even if I am only a girl, I’ve got something to be proud of in my flag, haven't I Nat?” Nat was dumfounded by this sudden outburst. He had suffered the greatest wound of which his nature was capable. Ris conceit had been rudely shaken. Every day thereafter, in spite of herself, Mary was continually talking of the Valkyrie, and of her achievement. At the very mention of the name of that clipper, Nat’s jealousy was aroused. But after the first shock, running true to form, he veiled his emotion behind a mask of splendid self control. With a renewed sense of jeopardy, there came to him a deep, inchoate madness, not the madness of the heart that acts on im- pulse, but the latent madness of the mind that waits with calculating scheming. After his departure from the Williston home one night, Nat burst out. “Valkyrie! Valkyrie! I wish I'd never heard the name. That’s the ship that was going to make me solid with Mary, and now it seems to have ruined me with her altogether. I believe that Mary eats, and sleeps, and dreams, with nothing else but that accursed clipper. But I can wait. My time will come.” There followed for Nat many a night of long and calculating scheming. Bill Pug- sley was in his pay for spying and under- hand missions. But this was a job, appar- ently, that called for vastly more finesse than that of the bluenose bucko. One morning while Nat Gertridge was still in a quandary, he came into his office, as managing director, to find an offer on his desk to charter a clipper to take a load of machinery iron from Liverpool to Mel- bourne. Without a word, Gertridge folded this letter, and placing it in his pocket walked out of his office and down to the Far Fast Docks, where he summoned the marine superintendent, Captain MacKenzie. ‘“‘ Captain, what do you consider the worst season for a run to Australia?” 3 ‘‘ The summer season, sir.” “Why is that?” “ Because our summer is their winter, to ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. the south’ard, and a vessel running down her easting at that time strikes the worst of the gales in the roaring forties. ‘“ Down there in the horse latitudes, there’s a wild man’s wind ablowing all the time. But in the summer season it’s just pure undiltited fury. A hard driven ship, at that season, going high into those lati- tudes, is fairly chucking the devil under the chin. ‘““T’ve had my share, sir, against the brave west winds, but the time I was run- ning my easting down in the bad season, was as near to hell with the lid off as I ever want to be.” Nat Gertridge received this information with a touch of satisfaction, but his im- passive face told nothing. © Continuing his questions, he asked the marine superintendent: ‘“* What do vou think of mining machinery for a cargo?”’ “Worst cargo in the world, sir.” Why?” “Well, if the stowage is poor, and it generally is in these days of worthless stevedores, you're likely to have some of your cargo breaking adrift in a _ sea- way, and then there’s hell to pay. Machinery iron rolling about inside a vessel in a heavy sea is more than any ship was built for. That’s the explanation of many that’s gone out and never been heard of. “A few tons of iron adrift, a hole stove in the hull, and Davy Jones’s locker—is their story.” “Then you would say, captain, that the underwriters should be attended to before we take any chance on a charter like this?” “I most certainly would, sir. You can’t be too particular about your insurance in a case like this. A cargo of machinery iron, and the bad season in the high latitudes of the roaring forties! That’s a wicked com- bination!” Captain MacKenzie uttered this last in the eloquence of one who knew the terror of the sea. On the way back to his office, Nat Gert- ridge stopped to call on the representative of the firm that handled the underwriting for the Gertridge ships. He was ushered immediately into a private conference with the president, where he arranged for dou- COMIG DOO! (©