Adventure, November 1915 — page 164: what you’re looking at

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

a 162 open, and through the open door I saw Mary Morrison struggling in Ralder’s arms, matching her puny strength against his burly brutishness. Von Werner lay a crum- pled, unconscious heap in the passageway. In a red instant I saw this, and Ralder’s expression of dismay as I dashed forward and leaped upon him. I have no connected memory of what happened during the next few moments. I was mad. I only know that blows fell upon me that I minded no more than one minds the slaps of a child. I only know that I battered the evil, red face before me, while Mary Morrison crouched wide-eyed and breathless against the bulkhead. Ralder was a big man, my own size and weight, but my rage made naught of his efforts. [I had him upon his back in the passage- way, my hands about his throat, squeezing out his life, when reprieve came to him. I was clutched from behind and dragged from my prey. Through the fading red mist of my fury I became aware ‘that the passage was filled with men. Dacy and Farley were before me. Von Werner and a sobered Henderson were hold- ing me by the arms. Ralder was struggling to his feet, his face a fearsome mess from the beating and choking I had administered. Mary was by Dacy’s side, anxiously scan- ning my face. “And he dared!” Dacy was saying. His jaw was set, and his eyes were gleam- ing with the same ferocity they had shown the time he came to my succor in the Orms- by’s engine-room. “He broke in the door,” replied Mary. Then she pointed to Von Werner. “That man tried to stop him, and was knocked down. He—he tried to kiss—oh—and then Mr. McNeil came——” She was trembling so violently she had to clutch at the wall to keep from falling. Dacy turned his gaze upon Ralder. Ut- ter panic crept into the fellow’s eyes. “Come,” Dacy then said to Mary. He placed his arm about the shaken girl and supported her into her room and closed the door behind them. “‘_____ ‘you!”’ hissed Farley. you done, you fool?” But Ralder was incapable of speech. He stared at the closed door behind which was Dacy, and his bruised lips twisted and writhed but were soundless. A terrible fear was in his eyes; his nerve and his drink- “What have Adventure given boldness were fled. Suddenly he turned and lurched = the ladder out on deck. Farley, also, afiee a hesitating step to- ward the closed door, went up the ladder; and Henderson, with a sober, worried mien, followed him. Shaken though I was, I sensed their fear. . ‘You vas hurt,” said Von Werner to me. Not till then did I become conscious that I had been stabbed, that my left arm was dripping blood, that a long-bladed knife lay 7 the deck where I had pommeled Ral- er. I stripped my coat, opened my shirt and revealed a cut upon my shoulder. It was just a deep scratch, and Von Werner bound it with the sleeve from my shirt. The door of Mary’s room opened and Dacy appeared. His face was set and red. “You are hurt?” he cried, as he saw me wriggling gingerly into my coat. “Just a scratch,” I answered. He spat a black oath. “‘He’ll pay,” he said. “No, no, not that, Roger!’ Mary stood in the doorway with a white, terror-stricken face. “Not that, for God’s sake, Roger!’ Dacy gave no heed to her_plea..- He strode to the ladder and disappeared out upon deck. Von Werner silently followed him : “Oh, can’t you stop him?” cried Mary, coming toward me. Then she noticed the blood upon my sleeve and gasped with an anxiety that thrilled me, “You are bleeding —you are hurt!” “T am all right,” I told her. dear, calm yourself. It is all over.’ She did not protest, indeed she seemed grateful, when I put my arm around her and soothed her. But she was not com- forted. Her face was blanched with horror, an expectant terror. “He will kill him!”’ she cried. “Oh, stop him! Do not let him take a life!” I attempted to reassure her, thinking she was hysterical. “No, no, you do not understand!” she ex- 5 Tome, claimed. “Roger will kill him, his face showed it. Ob, he is terrible when he is like that!” I tried to stem the tide of her excitement, but upon the heels of my words came con- firmation to her fear. Through the open hatchway, from the deck, came the sudden, sharp bark of a revolver. Gomicbooks (C@