Argosy, Vol. 85, No. 3 — page 132: what you’re looking at

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

AT4 of a Broadway head-waiter. Then came the suspense. “The U-boat—Hoch!” the girl cried with aa apparent fervor to surpass their own enthusiasm for their pet engines of destruction. “ Hoch!’’ she urged—“ und trink aus!” For some of them had hesitated as they tasted the strange wine with its stranger drug. Her final command was all but compelling. Those who hesitated were lost. But there was one—Louie pointed to him and whispered in my ear: “ He hasn’t touched his mug.” The glass stood full on a pile-head. That fact, with all its possible train of fatal dangers, had hardly dawned upon my fresh-frighted brain when the girl also Saw. “What’s the matter with you, Ottor Don’t you like the U-boat? Why don’t you drink? Maybe you don’t like the kaiser yet?” she flung at him in a voice that seemed almost dangerously accusing. “T drink not the wine of my father- land’s enemies,” grunted the stern throat of the man. | “Tt’s the one with the bug!” Louie whispered. ‘We'll never do anything with him. She’s wasting her breath,” he finished impatiently, as she continued to urge “Aw, come on, Otto. You'll drink anything with me. I didn’t think you’d turn me down like that. Boys, fill up again. Otto’s going to drink to an Amer- ican girl if he won’t drink to America.” She filled her own tiny glass. She got up from the heavy timber that formed a low bulkhead over the end of the pier and approached the stolid upholder of the last jot of a principle. She lifted his glass from the spile’s cap. She held it toward him. “You're going to drink. to me, Otto,” she insisted. ‘‘ Here, I'll hold it for you. If you don’t drink I’ll never speak to you again.” He backed a little away from her. I could guess how foolish she was making him feel. He was old enough to be her THE ARGOSY. father. She followed him and he backed farther, grunting disgusted protests at her of the nuisance she was making of her- self. “ Zurick! Zurtuck!” he kept growling; but he was the one.who was going back- ward. For an instant I let my eyes wander from the pair. Already the strong dose of narcotic was taking its effect. One of the men had tottered. Another, bending over him and trying to speak, gave up and sprawled across him. A third pressed his heavy palms to his forehead and kneeled over. A fourth— How long was‘it going to take Otto to perceive this? I swung my gaze. He was still dancing clumsily backward from the girl. Suddenly I caught her purpose. Louie and the men in the little afterdeck had caught it already, and were standing ready to catch him. He reached the edge of the pier. With- out waiting to see if he would discover his danger or go and plunge off himself, the girl raised the heavy mug of vermouth and thrust it, wine and all, into his very eyes. The waiting crew hardly let his boots clatter against the railing as they seized him. Billy Nock, not always too ready of mind, was ready now with a bandanna handkerchief for our guard’s mouth. “ Quick, now—get their guns—cut the ropes—quick!” The girl’s voice was a weak whisper as she held herself together to remind us of the need of haste. Louie and I both jumped to the pier with two of the others. The gitl’s trembling fingers snatched two of the guns from the limp hands that held them. But we were at the ropes with carving-knives we had specially whetted for our dinner roast. In split seconds we were getting back aboard. I felt as if I had served through a war already. The hum of the starter’s gears came muffled from the engine-room. I wanted to lie down and faint after the strain. But I realized we were just at the beginning point. comicloool C©