Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 1, 1922 — page 159: what you’re looking at

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

THE PIE-EYED PIPER. “Just the same, I’m going to put up a fight,” I insisted. ‘‘ Nobody is going to take the only boat we got right out of our mouths.”’ “ But don’t you see, we can’t fight him!” Jeff Parker reminded me. ‘“ We are in a kind of an illegal business, you know.” ‘“Gosh! I never thought of that. can’t go into court or the whole story’ll come out,” I wailed. ‘‘ Now what?” “We still have the carge,” murmured Jeff sadly. ‘I think myself that the cap- tain of the West Gazoot is a smuggler, or something. He acts mysterious about his cargo, too. But that won’t help us none. He can throw it overboard and still make money—on us.” Yes, sir, it looked like we were going to lose poor old Bessie right when we were getting used to her. “But we can’t pay him any money,” I said. ‘‘ Let him take Bessie and call it square—huh?”’ “JT don’t see what else we can do,” mourned poor old Jeff. “I'll see if he will accept such a proposition.”’ Then he walked across our decks and onto the West Gazoot, which was tight against Bessie, and I went away somewhere so I could feel sorry for myself alone. All the hatchways and the trap doors and the cellar doors and everything had been opened during the storm, and there wasn’t anybody left on our boat to do any heavy work like closing ’em, so we left everything open. That is why I went over on the West Gazoot to see if I couldn’t persuade some- body to come over to our house and close things. I didn’t know but it would injure our cargo, leaving it exposed that way. But I couldn’t find anybody who would take any orders or even advice from me, so I went back aboard the Bessie and talked to our captain. “This here salvage question,” I said to him. ‘“ What is it? Do we lose the ship just because we yelled for assistance?” “That is the law of the sea,” replied the captain, blowing some very distasteful tobacco smoke in my face. ‘“ The rescuer is allowed a certain sum, depending upon the value of the vessel and its cargo.” We 949 “And I suppose this here West Gazoot will drag us into port somewhere,” I said. ‘Yes — Seattle,” answered the cap. ““ The West Gazoot is bound for that port.” ‘Could we travel alone?” I asked him, wondering if mebbe I couldn’t cut the ropes and sneak away from the Gazoot. “No; your rigging is torn to shreds,” replied this here crape-hanging captain. ‘“T wonder what sort of a cargo the West Gazoot is carrying around with her?” I asked our hired man, and he said he didn’t know. He alleged that it wasn’t polite to inquire. Certain captains object to such pointed questions, he explained. Which kind of gave me an idea. If this here West Gazoot was a bootlegging ship, mebbe we could bluff ’em and get our boat away. So I went away and did me a lot of figgering. Jeff came back after a while and we talked that phase of the matter over pro and con. “* The captain of the Bessie Hicks says it ain’t polite to ask ’em what kind of a cargo they carry,” I said. ‘“‘ But as you are a sort of a lowbrow, uncouth and uncultured, why don’t you go ahead and ask the captain, anyway?” I suggested to Jeff. “T did ask him,” Jeff came back at me. ‘““T asked him and he said he wasn’t asking me about our cargo. Them were his well- chosen words, so what could I do?” “IT don’t know,” I said. “Only I’m gonna find out. I believe we can flimflam this guy out of the Bessie Hicks. I gotta hunch that all is not well with the West Gazoot’s interior department.” ‘““Tf he’s smuggling, the chances are we can bluff him,” remarked Jeff. “ But— there’s our own cargo to be considered. Did you ever stop to think as you ponder upon things that we ain’t got much room to bluff in?” There it was again! Every time I got a bright thought Jeff Parker would come along and step on it. “Well, anyway, we got a _ hundred thousand dollars’ worth of rats,” I sighed. ‘“ That ain’t so bad, after all. Even if we lose Bessie, we will still have a young for- tune.” Sure; I asked the captain of the West DOOK C©