Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 7, 1922 — page 129: what you’re looking at

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

THE YANGSTE HORDE. we let go everything aft, the devils beneath the flowing tide, helpful in their present caprice, seized upon our stern and threw it out. We backed down, cleared, swung about, and headed through clamorous traf- fic for Woosung. At a little after six we crossed the bar, and shortly dropped anchor in the mighty Yangtze, where we were to stay out the night that we might proceed to open sea through the upper channel with the light of momning. Against the saffron evening sky was the clear-cut forest of masts in Woosung’s small craft harborage. And sweeping upstream were the countless sails, yellow tinged in the glow of the dying sun, of the fishing junks and sampans of the Yangtze Horde. Ten, hundreds, thousands, widespread as far as the eye could reach in the great sweep of the river—slowly, surely, watch- fully, in majestic multitude, the square- sailed craft slid upon us, enveloped us, passed us by. “ What a fleet it is!” the navigator ex- claimed at my side, as he took anchorage bearing upon the Shon Hei Cigarette sign silhouetted to the left of Woosung. Then he added: “ And what a power it might be indeed!” I nodded absently and went below. I was thinking of the Chinese boy we had left in Shanghai—and of his impending doom. Conscience droned upon me still. We had not acted as humar beings. We should have hidden him on the ship—and taken the white man’s chance. It was decided that we stand watches that night as though under way at sea. And that gave me the mid—from twelve to four of the moming—a lonely enough tour, with the silent and motionless ship beneath me, and the chill of a misted river about. Then at nine o’clock came news. The officer of the deck, Lieutenant Weldorf, en- tered. With him was the chief gunner’s mate, acting master at arms for the ship. Their faces were grave. “ Captain,” exclaimed Weldorf, a bit ex- citedly, I fancied, ‘‘ we’ve a stowaway on board!” That startled me. The skipper looked up 275 from his cards calmly enough, but his words were frigid. ‘“Wasn’t the ship searched before we shoved off this afternoon? Who had the deck?” I looked up in concern. “‘T did, sir. The ship was searched.” The chief nodded vigorously. But the captain was not through. “But a man has been found, Phillips. By Heaven, sir—” Weldorf interrupted softly. “The man was found just now by one of the cooks, captain. No one would think to look for any one where he hid. He had crawled in with that extra lot of ice we had under canvas in the passage between the port bulwarks and the radio shack. He’s half frozen, captain.” The old man’s face changed. “ Humph!” He glanced at his cards. ‘Put him on the beach then.” The officer of the deck made no move. “‘ Captain,” he whispered in a very hoarse voice, “ it’s that Chinese lad we put off the ship this—” The skipper dropped his cards, and half arose, “You mean—the one with that brand on his—”’ Weldorf nodded. We exchanged glances. There was a short silence, during which the skipper tapped at the green baize of* the wardroom table. The officer of the deck ventured a word that sounded well, I think, in the ears of all. “‘ ‘We—we’ve no boats in the water, cap- tain. It’s pretty dark ouside, but—I1l try to hail a—” The skipper picked up his cards again, and shuffled the five of them in his hand, frowning slightly. “No. The thing’s decided for -us.” There was relief in his voice, I would have sworn. ‘“‘ And the motor sailor engine won’t allow us to risk the boat in this current at night. It’s decided. He wanted to go to Vladivostok. . We’ll shove him off the ship then. Did anybody open the pot?” The captain was human. A sigh of relief went up from us all. Weldorf’s face cleared. “T’ll see that he’s put below decks, sir,” comicboooks C©