Adventure, November 1915 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

V3 xy AG Ae ype ae ee Fg ys re we rii * < “he vy low L3) Aten) 464 i ok ‘ 43 ‘ie ee Ny, ei) Pansy v1 Rey es IO “That’s the Bee. This other is a copy of the San Francisco Chronicle of a little later date, where the story is practically repro- duced. There is also a copy of the Com- mercial Advertiser of Honolulu, dated Au- gust the third, with a reprint.” “‘Thankee, Mister Addams,” said Fel- lowes. “Of course, we didn’t figger for a minnit the miners would be picked up that soon, but, as you’ll see, if we’d made Hono- lulu they’d have been all cocked an’ primed an’ waitin’ for us. “But we didn’t get there. Three days out, nothin’ would do but we break out the gold an’ figger out just what the shares was. We counted twenty boxes, made up of hooped iron over heavy timber, weighin’ close to two hundred apiece. One of ’em we took into the cabinan’ opened up. —Twomen was on deck, an’ when the rest of us ran our hands through the dust—heavy colors an’ rough grains all of it—an’ began shoutin’, they left the schooner to itself an’ come down to join us. Ellersby swore at ’em but at last he went on deck by himself, leavin’ the rest of us handlin’ the glitterin’ heavy stuff like a lot of kids in their first sand-pile. That’s where the trouble started. “Some sort of devil crept out of that case and took charge of all of us. We got the gold-fever. You don’t know what that means, but I’ve seen it work a hundred times—a hundred places. It means greed an’ hatred an’ murder. I’ve seen a man’s eyes change to hold the gleam of the gold in it, an’ his nature change at the same time. That’s the way it was with us. “We spent that gold a thousan’ ways, an’ cursed because we couldn’t get to where we could toss it on counters an’ across bars. They was eight of us, with a tenth of a million apiece, an’ not able to use it. Of course we started gambling an’ drinkin’ with it. “We'd arranged watches, but nobody would leave the table. We ate stuff out of cans without cookin’ it, an’ when anybody took the wheel it was usually some one try- in’ to sober up. The skipper started to drinkin’ in his cabin. He turned nasty an’ went ’round with his revolver threatenin’ to shoot any one who wouldn’t take his trick. We had sense enough left not to break with him, ’count of his bein’ the only = navigator on board. But Henley used to nod an’ wink when he was absent, an’ tell how we'd get rid of him soon as we were Adventure in sight of land. ‘We’ll cut up his share alike,’ he said. “That meant fourteen ebodsand more for each of us. An’ they wasn’t one of us but what figgered how much more would come to him if the rest should die. It sounds pretty terrible to think of murder breedin’ that way; but it was the curse of the gold, an’ the lust of it. If we’d come by it hon- est it might have been different, but we was outlaws anyway. “Henley, first, an’ Chappell next, began to win all the time at cards. We all sus- pected them of cheating, but we didn’t catch them at it. Then, after fourteen days, we run into the doldrums between the north- west an’ southeast trades, an’ slatted sails day after day in a dead calm. ok got sick of the cards, not bein’ able to win an’ not willin’ to go on losin’, an’ spent most of the time on deck. It was bad enough there, but it was a little hell in the cabin. ‘The schooner had carried pearl- shell an’ copra an’ trepang. She was dirty in the hold an’ sour of bilge. You can fig- ger what it was like under the steady sun with the pitch squeezin’ out of the seams. The skipper was in his cabin most of the while, drinkin’ steady. There was nothin’ to do in workin’ the ship, an’ the wheel spun any way it wanted. “Next thing, the water went bad. Then every one began to get sick eatin’ the can- ned grub, uncooked. Not a drop of medi- cine aboard, an’ the only doctor in sight was Doctor ‘Shark. They was five of them trailin’ astern, one for each man that was goin’ to be served to ’em. The curse had Started:”-==* Fellowes stopped and passed his hand in front of his eyes. The two men sat silent with frowning brows. Peggy shuddered and stirred the fire. Suddenly she sprang up with an exclama- tion. ‘The window!” she cried. window!”’ “There, at the CHAPTER III THE FACE AT THE WINDOW — big north window of the studio was a-steam from the cold without and the warmth within. Winton, working _ late, had neglected to cover the lower panes with the blind, and, as the younger men sprang up, turning swiftly, while Fellowes (EONMIE OOS ad (EO)