The Argosy, Vol. 76, No. 3 — page 128: what you’re looking at

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

598 they saw a sodden hulk that wallowed in the seaway like a sow in a pond. Even as he looked the sodden hull opened gut and a mass of water- soaked logs cascaded out into the long, gray rollers beneath the forefoot of the Futami Maru. Hemingway’s tall figure came up behind them in the gray light. Star- ingly his gaze followed Oakes’s mo- tioning hand out across the sea. “Whew!” he said slowly. “My word! What a bally mess! I don’t know much about sea matters, but I must say that it looks to me as if the particular little cross-legged gods that the Chinese say control these seas must be a pretty busy lot of gods just now. Look at that mess forward, will you? ” “Where’ve you been? Sleeping?” asked Oakes. “Not on your life! I’ve been sittin’ on the hatch-cover of No. 1 hatch, where the liquor is stored. No use taking a chance, you see. I knew the Japs wouldn’t drink it, but there’s no use trustin’ the Chinamen or the low- down square-heads that they’ve got forward. We'll know in a few min- utes what the damage is. Here comes the carpenter now.” The carpenter made the best of his way through the crowd of sailors on the forecastle head and forced his way aft to the bridge-ladder. They saw him in hurried talk with the master, after which came the dreaded two long whistles from the engine-room, and they heard the beat and stamp of the engines as the steam was thrown into the pump-gears. <A gush of clear sea- water immediately shot overside. Oakes looked at it critically. “She must be leakin’ like a basket! Gracious! She must have started a dozen plates for her pumps to be throwin’ like that from the bottom— either that or she’s got a phenomenal- ly clean bilge. Listen—”’ It was a dull, heavy report that seemed to come from directly beneath their feet. “ That’s a bulkhead gone.” THE ARGOSY. His face was a little pale as he turned to Marjorie. ‘I don’t want to worry you, sweetheart,’ he said sim- ply; “but no one can tell what the damage may be. It cannot hurt to be prepared for the worst. Go to your cabin and put on your warmest clothes and plenty of them. Fill your brandy- flask and get what you value most of your possessions. Put them where you can get them in a second and then come back to.me here on deck as soon as you can.” The girl looked steadily at him for a moment and then went to her cabin. As soon as she had left him Oakes slipped into his own stateroom, took some papers from his trunk, wrapped them ina piece of oiled silk, carefully loaded a heavy .45-caliber Colt’s re- volver, which he thrust into its holster, and buckled it about his waist. Emptying a box of cartridges into his coat-pocket, he went out again upon the deck, where he found Flemingway, who had also been making preparations to leave in the boats—a thing that they were confident was now merely a matter of minutes. He patted his hip as Oakes came up, and the American saw that the bulge under his coat was exactly sim- ilar to his own. He nodded compre- hendingly. “Tve got the same,” he said in a low tone. “ How’re you going to pack those jewels? Marjorie gave them to me to give to you.’ He held out the silver box in which Marjorie had repacked the jewels, and which she had tied up carefully with heavy cord. Hemingway took it with- out a word and stowed it in the pocket of his coat. “ Really,’ he said, speaking above the roar of the water, “Id like to throw this bloomin’ box overside. I’m really gettin’ a bit touchy about it. Old Jonah that it is.” Oakes was about to speak when the master came to the head of the ladder. “T say, Mr. Oakes,” he called in a COMicdoo S CO@