Adventure, November 1915 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

The Gold: Lust an’ mainsail; Ellersby took the wheel, Chap- pell, who had been feelin’ sick, went into the cabin an’ Henley an’ me stood by to handle sheets. Henley was sore at Chappell. He wasn’t feelin’ over an’ above good himself, but Chappell deliberately turned into his bunk an’ stayed there. “T can see the land as it opened up, now,”’ said Fellowes, looking into the fire. ‘There was a low peak with a long low cliff runnin’ out from it to a cape, an’ beyond the cape a little island the shape of a thimble. When we got close the gulls lifted like the top of the island was comin’ off. The slopes was white with guano. The surf was thunderin’ on the reef an’ we couldn’t make out an opening. The only chance was to go be- tween the cape an’ the little island. The water was boilin’ an’ swirlin’ in the channel, but the schooner was sluggish an’ hard to steer an’ we had to take short-cuts. Ac- cordin’ to reports there was an entrance somewheres in the reef—an’ we had to find it. “Ellersby orders Henley to get Chappie up to help on the tack, an’ he went below while we edged in closer to the reef, the schooner gettin’ slower an’ more logy every minnit. I went down to hurry the two of them up an’ found the pair of ’em rollin’ on the floor. Both had knives out an’ they were shoutin’ an’ cursin’ too much to listen to me, though I told ’em we’d be on the rocks in a minnit if they didn’t lend a hand. All of a sudden Henley gets Chappie’s hand between his teeth an’ he drops his knife. “Tike a fool he grabbed for it, an’ Henley stuck him. He grunted an’ huddled up an’ Henley an’ me races on deck. Just as we reached it the schooner smashes into the reef, scrapes across, staggerin’, an’ wallows through the lagoon, rail awash. They was no one at the wheel, the main-boom had broke away from sheet an’ tackle an’ must have thrashed the skipper overboard. A blind breaker took us like it would a surf- , boat an’ flung us on the sand, buryin’ the bows deep an’ firm. ‘We picked ourselves up an’ stood look- in’ at each other on the slantin’ deck in the sunset—red like blood it was, I remember— two of us out of the eight, a lonely beach an’ lava cliffs frownin’ down at us, the schooner with its back broken, a dead man in the cabin an’ three-quarters of a million in gold in the waterlogged hold.” He stopped and sat with his hands on his knees, breathing hard, staring into the heart the three of them examined it. 13 of the fire as if it were the sunset on the lonely, bird-haunted isle, trembling with the excitement of his tale. CHAPTER IV THE FIGURES IN THE WATCH-CASE pEsGe WINTON got up and went over to Fellowes’s chair. “You're tired,” she said gently. “You must go to bed and tell us the rest in the morning. It’s a shame to sit listening here, never thinking of how you were feeling.” “‘That’s all right, miss,”’ assured Fellowes. “T’m tougher than you think. I'll rest a bit an’ take another drop o’ somethin’ hot, if you don’t mind. But I’ll finish the yarn tonight, if you'll listen. There’s some things Mr. Addams ain’t heard yet that I want him to know. It’s gettin’ close to the end of the voyage for me an’ I want to tell it while I can.” He looked fearfully at the window, where the blind had now been drawn, and about the dark corners of the room, then leaned back, closing his eyes. Addams picked up the map again and On it was shown the island of the wreck, the cone drawn as a hollow crater. Near the cape were two crosses, one lettered ‘‘wreck” the other “caves here.” The reef was indicated with an opening on the opposite side of the promontory from the two crosses. At the bottom was the word “Kapukalipelipe.”’ ‘‘That’s the native name for the place,” explained Addams. ‘“‘Means ‘the wide- mouthed hole,’ Fellowes says, referring, of course, to the crater.” ‘“There’s no position marked on the map,” said Winton in a low voice. Fellowes sat forward in his chair. “T’m coming to that, sir,” he said, ‘‘in just a minnit. haven’t even told Mister Addams, an’ if it wasn’t for him I’d have been underground in a pauper’s grave a month or more ago. I’m ready now for the rest of the yarn. “That night Henley an’ me slept on the beach by a fire. He was pretty sick, but I So far that’s a secret. I. made shift to get some stuff from the lazar- _ ette an’ cook a warm meal. That heartened us both up a bit. Next morning we found the body of the skipper washed ashore an’ buried it. Then we got Chappie’s body up from the cabin an’ did the same with that. Eomichbooks C) (EG)