Argosy All-Story Weekly — 'The Metal Monster' — page 86: what you’re looking at

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

—- am Ray ey 4-0 ee. 2 Os er 0 cee =O Oe tie © ey eg Oe te ss Be 8 ee ee OS v af ” | ¢ ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, 80 “There are twelve sheep in the bridge- casing. Or were. I’m wondering if any of them are alive, after that storm.” “Tl go down while you are changing,” Thorpe suggested. “No; please wait. They are pets of mine. I used to go down with the mate, every day, and feed them. Please wait and let me go with you.” “ As you wish. I'll wait here.” Katrina left him. She walked aft along the port alleyway, where her room was sit- uated. When she reached the door she de- cided to go farther and view the after-well deck. As she passed the last door along the al- leyway she paused. Surely she had heard a sound foreign to ship noises. She listened again. Then she started forward and hast- ily swung open the door of the room before her. It had been the stewardess’s room, and there in his cage, which had been made fast to the bulkhead, was Sunny, the stew- ardess’s canary. Katrina remembered Miss Dare express- ing the desire to take Sunny to the Koro- manti with her. She remembered, too, the mate asking Miss Dare not to waste that time, as he would get Sunny to her the following day. Miss Dare had left—busy enough with hysterical women—and now Sunny was calling for food and water, his cups standing empty and his cage a mess of saturated seed that the storm had thrown about. “Why, you poor little chap!” Katrina exclaimed softly. ‘You do need attention! I wonder where Miss Dare kept your seed- _ box?” Unhesitatingly she opened the drawers of the stewardess’s chest, rummaging until she found Sunny’s seed. She filled one cup with it, and then put fresh water in the other, to the accompaniment of brightly chirped thanks. “As soon as [ can, Pil take you above,” she murmured, a few minutes later, as she placed his cleaned tray in the bottom of the cage. She paused, and suddenly she smiled wistfully. ‘‘ Seems as if I were going to have my hands full until the Koromanti picks us up—what with one despondent man, one kitten, one bird, perhaps a few sheep—and my poor friend who needs me, even now.” She sighed and turned toward her own room. ‘“ Life’s queer—just the idea of mothering things makes going on seem worth while again.” The quick look of tragedy swept into her eyes. “I’ve never had anything to mother before in my life!” Katrina whispered to herself. ‘“ Not even a doll!” | Katrina had found exactly the sort of clothes she needed on the wet, rolling decks of the Barbuda. She donned them, not for appearance, but for use. A soft shirt with rolling collar, riding breeches and puttees— a costume she had been taking to Trinidad, so she could ride about the hills—these gave her freedom of limb and did away with wet skirts whipping about her an- kles. She went outside and glanced about the horizon. The weather awas breaking, the murk lifting, but there was no sign of the Koromanti. The Barbuda wallowed alone in the turbulent waters, under harried clouds. Katrina was standing aft when Thorpe appeared at her elbow. Together they looked over the ship. The Barbuda was a shattered hulk. The foretopmast was gone. The mainmast had carried away within a few feet»of the deck. The wireless anten- na lay in a tangled mass along the after- well deck scuppers. Rails on both decks had carried away. The poop-deck was in ruins, and every- where ventilators were stripped off or bent into queer, crooked shapes. The empty boat-davits were twisted and broken; the engine-room skylight was demolished. The funnel stood like a drenched ghost, whitened with salt spray. | Thorpe turned and looked at the girl’s face. was a remarkable calm'in her somber eyes. “ There isn’t a sign of the Koromanti,” he told her quietly. ‘ While you were changing your things I went up on the bridge and looked about. Of course, I couldn’t see any great distance, but as far as I could make out she wasn’t in sight.” Katrina nodded abstractedily. “ She UL It showed signs of fatigue, but there e ‘SS (CO (GO SLO]