Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 17, 1924 — page 113: what you’re looking at

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

THE ROARING FORTIES. her helm, and with the added pressure the seas came creaming clear up to the cock- pit, submerging Nat’s seat completely. In violent alarm he leaped to weather, while Mary, bearing up for the lower buoy, soused him properly in flying spray. By this time Nat’s teeth were chattering from the cold. Do or die was his motto. “Mary! Mary! Ugh! Ugh!” A couple of short slaps at the helm and two more freezing douches. All the way down the harbor Mary par- ried this persistent suitor. Her sword arm was the sea, but Nat Gertridge was not to be held up even by such thrusts. “T think you’re teasing me too far, Mary. But I’ve always been patient. Why? Because I want you— Ugh! Ugh!” _ “Why don’t you wear oilskins, you darn fool?” “T know, I know why you've treated me so cruelly, Mary. Ugh! Ugh!” c< Why?” “ Because I believe there’s another.” Mary’s eyes suddenly became grave. Nat’s word had finally gone home. “ Ves, I knew it, there’s another, and I know who it is. It’s some one who is un- worthy of you as he can be. You have done nothing but try to make a fool of me to-day, Mary. But you won’t do that al- ways. ‘“‘ Now just answer me this one question. If the Valkyrie had gone down, would you have married me?” “No, never! Never! Never!” That evening, after his chilly sail, Nat Gertridge returned home subdued, cha- grined. Then and there he decided to change his mode of attack. In a flash it suddenly dawned upon him that if he would vanquish Richard Dunbar he must drown soul as well as body. CHAPTER XXXIV. FROM PAGODA ANCHORAGE. ARY received wonderful letters from Richard, and sent wonderful letters in return. For her sunshine had come again. She 263 was enthralled by Richard’s pictures of the China coast. Her day dreams were charged with shadowy visions of strange lands, of ancient temples, and of pagodas, always with Richard beckoning to her from the mysterious and alluring background. Whenever a ship came in from the Far East, Mary was beside herself in impa- tience for the expected message, and she was never disappointed. Whatever might have been the apparent lapses of Richard, he now missed no opportunity to keep Mary posted as to his far off voyages. They had refitted at Melbourne, had gone from there to Newcastle, New South ~ Wales, with a general cargo. Richard wrote, “‘ You will be relieved to learn that the Valkyrie was in no way in- jured by her tough time off the Crozets. We all feared, because of spreading her butts, that her racing days were over. But after being on the marine slip for repairs, she has proved herself as fast as ever. ‘“We ran from Melbourne to Newcastle in very fast time—in fact, the record be- tween those ports. On this passage large runs were not expected. But one day she made three hundred miles, and showed the same fast average in moderate weather. “ She’s the greatest ship in all the world, Mary. Captain Forbes has got her in fine trim, and we are all spoiling for next spring’s tea race, when we hope to add to the fame of your scarlet burgee. “ We expect to be trading in the China seas for nearly a year. ‘Till then we shall have coasting charters for intermediate voy- ages. But next May we hope to beat them all out of Foo Chow with new teas, and to be the first in London River. “ Of course this is not going to be easy. Times are changing. The English tea clip- pers are coming up. As you know, they have won the races for the past two years. There are several of their new birds lying in the harbor here beside us, some of the prettiest and speediest looking models I’ve ever laid my eyes on. “The Britishers say that they are going to beat us at all costs, so I expect that we will have a ding-dong ‘ght. “There was the greatest possible excite- ment at the treaty ports when it became COmMicloooks (C@