Argosy, September 1955 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

‘ “ed ae P = % “” Awe 5 il A . Fe a casesieaee | KEM BENNETT in The Lugger. The stranger had a pistol in his right hand _ Slowly, Albert put his unlit pipe in his mouth. “Ts that your boat?”’ the stranger asked. “If so, my friend a and I would like to hire her.”’ “(Pil not talk to ’ee till that pistol’s put away,” Albert said — ee “Yes, you will.’”’ The stranger’s voice, in which there was a trace of foreign intonation, was harsh and cold. “ Be sensible. _ We can take the boat if we want to. We’re giving you the chance to make a little money, my friend, and to keep your boat into the bargain. Is she seaworthy? ” “She be,” Albert said, with sullen pride in his voice. ‘Would she take us to France?” s “f The pipe came out of Albert’s mouth. ‘‘'To France! Yourm —_ reckoning to go to France—now, in my Alice?” a ‘ ce Yes.”’ “ Arrh! talk sense, mister.”’ “Will she get us there?”’ . rN Albert shrugged. He looked lovingly at the Alice, and pride stirred his tongue again. ‘‘ She would,” he said, “‘ but she aren’t _ going to.” “Why not?” ‘* Because, for one thing, ’tis agin the law.” The man beside him smiled with one side of his mouth. ‘We were in the inn tonight,” he said. ‘‘ From what we heard it did not seem that you were a man to take the law too seriously.” Albert said nothing. “If you'll take us to France we’ll give you fifty pounds,” the _ stranger continued. “If not, I shall have to shoot you before a __we leave because we cannot afford to let you raise the alarm.” 4 There was a long silence. Albert looked at the Alice and at the pistol in the man’s hand. He scratched his nose with the stem of his pipe. An inward voice was telling him that this cool- -. tongued, white-faced stranger did not make empty threats. He _ would shoot, if necessary. And then Alice and the kids would ~ be alone and he, Albert Pascoe, would be floating, face down- __-wards, in cold, green water with the salmon flashing by on their Way to SDawn. Fi Sweat stood on his forehead. He made a sudden, violent gesture with his hand. “‘ You’m barmy! France! in the middle _ of the night with no charts!”’ He pointed his pipe at the Alice. ““ She’m a day cruiser, mister. She don’t belong to do this kind ‘~ of thing.” A new thought struck him and he added flatly, i 55 ‘ ___“ Anyway, there’s no more than a gallon’ of petrol in her tanks, so that’s that.”’ ee prc 4 a oe comlcbooks.eoin