Adventure, November 1915 — page 32: what you’re looking at

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

30 “Sure did they puy her,’ said Schwartz. “A man who iss goin’ to use her for carrying sheeps ofer to his ranch on Lanai. You vas too late, already.” “Who was the buyer?” asked Addams. “Maybe I can charter her from him for a week or two.” “T should know his name?” answered the German. “Iss it my pusiness? I don’t own de poat.” “Then you don’t know where I could get a sloop or a small schooner?” asked Ad- dams almost despairingly. He seemed to have come to the end of a blind alley. “T’ll pay-“well for it.” Thé man’s little eyes gleamed, but he spread out his hands slowly. “T could use de money,” he said. ‘Put —der ain’t no poat.” If Addams had known the ancient and unsavory reputation of Schwartz, gained in the days when illicit dealers slipped through the tortuous reef into Pearl Harbor under cover of darkness at the signal of the old boatman, he might have distrusted the. slow smile that broke through the dirty features as the German turned away, mut- tering to himself: “Sheep to Lanai. Dot vas a gut one! Dumkopft He schwallowed it like a mullet. I charge dot feller Henley extry for dot.” “Well, Peggy,” said Addams, ‘‘we’ll have to buy a sampan or hire a steamer, I guess. I suppose I could persuade one of those yacht-owners, but I’d have to take _him into the secret of the trip, and I hate to do that. It might leak out, and, aside from the risk of Henley, we’ve got no mortgage on the island or the treasure either. Some one might beat us out.” “‘There’s a little cove over here,” said Peggy, “with some private villas. I walked over while you were talking to that man. And there’s a schooner at anchor. It’s up for the season, I’m sure; the sails have all been stripped and the deck is covered with canvas.” “Let’s go over and take a look at it,” said Addams. “It’s a case of any ship in a storm. We can go down trying.” The schooner, a trim, modern, overhung craft of about fifty feet waterline, was at anchor off a small wharf running out from the lawn that sloped from a somewhat pre- tentious bungalow to the water. The blinds were down, but smoke came from a chimney. “Let’s go in,” suggested Addams. “If Adventure we could get her we’d be fixed. She’s a beauty.” A ring at the front door brought no re- sponse, and they walked around to the back. A contented-looking Chinaman was scaling fish on the porch. “Mornin’!”’ he said. “You wan’ speak Misty Steven? He no home. He go San Francisco—no come back one, two, mebbe flee week.” A reflective light came into Addams’s eyes. “You savvy Mr. Stevens’s first name,”’ he asked. “You know his initials?” ‘Sure. He name Josiah P.”’ ‘Addams’s face was wreathed in smiles. “It’s ‘Tub’ Stevens, Peggy,” he said. “Old Tub who went to Harvard with me. I knew he lived in Honolulu, but I had forgotten it.” He turned to the Chinaman. “Your master a fat man?” He indicated a generous stomach with his hands. The smiling Chinaman nodded. “Plenty fat,” he said. ‘He got one mark here.” He touched his -forehead. ‘He your flen’?”’ “T should say he was!’’ exclaimed Ad- dams. “He got that scar the night of the freshman rush. He was knocked flat and some one kicked him in the ‘scrim.’ I stood over him till he got up. We were good friends. Luck’s with us » Peggy. He’ll lend me anything he owns.’ “But he’s in San Francisco!”’. “The cable’s working. You know his San Francisco address?”’ he asked the Oriental. “Palace Hotel; I think—mebbe.” The Chinaman’s friendly interest had been ac- centuated by the pressure in his palm of a five-dollar bill. ‘‘He got office in Honolulu. King Stleet. There they sabby.”’ “Fine. Let’s go down on the wharf, Peggy.” He turned to the Chinaman. “Any way of getting off to the yacht?” he asked. ‘‘I’d like to have a look at her.” The Chinaman went with them and point- ed out a small boat moored at the end of the little pier. Addams helped Peggy into the dingey and they rowed off and about the schooner. “She'll sail rings ’round any wood- schooner!”’ exclaimed Addams as_ they reached the pier again. ‘Thank you, John.” “That all right, thank you. My name, he _ Ah Sing,” replied the man, returning to his fish. (e() WOOK (E@) S|