The Argosy, Vol. 76, No. 3 — page 134: what you’re looking at

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

604 ready. Look! There’s a sail— Well, Kow Lung,” he said testily, “ what 1s it this time?”’ for the boy was again touching him upon the shoulder and was staring at. the strange sail from under the sharp of his hand. “My~ no like,” he said slowly. “My no likee”—and watching till Marjorie turned her head, he made a significant motion of his head toward the strange sail and quickly passed his hand across his throat. “What?” Hemingway stared at him. “ What?” “You know Canton-side? All time up country mandarin kleep slodier man in boat. How you say? Junk him never go sea now. Him stlay ‘long shore, up river. All time steamer trade now. Junk him no good only for river maybe island work. What you call sailor man pickee up tlings on beach no get lost—just dlift ashore?” “Wrecker—go on.” “Him Chinee mans in junk—” He pointed again at the rapidly near~ ing lateen sail. “Him see leck out there ’—indicating the wreck of the Futami Maru by pointing at it with his chin negro-fashion. ‘“‘ Him want- chee come take mandarin catch him, hang him. If him wantchee bloat out there more better him catchee us and make dead—sabee? ” ‘““My sabee. He says,” said Hem- ingway, turning to the wondering Marjorie, “that our friends yonder are a form of wreckers or river pirates and that they are after the wreck of the steamer. He says that we had better get ashore unobserved, as it will be bad for us to be detected. You see, if they are really sea-thieves or wreck- ers and aré after the Futami Maru, they know right well that the under- writers will send a wrecking party to strip her, and that if we are allowed to witness her looting by these river pirates we can testify against them. See? Under Chinese law the looters will be hung. You can guess what they'll do to us— “Make for the land, Kow Lung. THE ARGOSY. They haven’t seen us yet. Their decks are not yet above the sky-line. Pull “like the devil, Kow Lung.” Obeying the injunction, Kow Lung and Oakes as well pulled. like seven devils, and they presently felt the iron shoe of the great raft take the sand of the silver beach with a grating sweep, and they sprang out knee-deep with the rope, and, drawing the un- wieldy float up the beach, Oakes helped Marjorie out upon the shore. A moment later they saw the un- wieldy junk sweep round the point. CHAPTER IX. A HEAVY wind was blowing in from sea, and it brought the junk in at a speed that seemed impossible for such an unwieldy craft. The raft was sight- ed before it beached, and a yell from seaward, followed by the swinging overside of two unwieldy sampans, told that the wreckers or pirates, whichever they might be, meant to pursue. At least twenty men crowded into the flat-bottomed sampans, and before the junk lost her way, and her clumsy wooden anchor, bearing four hundred- weight of rough rock to sink it, had taken the bottom, the long sweeps were sculling the sampans shoreward at a good rate of speed. Oakes fairly whirled Marjorie up the beach to a spot where they had espied a pile of rocks that promised best as a defensible point The beach was boulder-strewn in many places, and in the particular place that they had selected the boulders were almost perpendicular to the sea- line. One or two narrow cracks between the rocks wide enough to admit the passage of one person at a time led to the summit of the pile, which rose per- haps thirty feet above the beach. For the rest, Oakes and Heming- way well knew that the moment the subtropical sun should play upon those COMicdoo S CO@