Adventure, November 1915 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

lack of success. re The Gold Lust = 5 The news of failure had found Addams cruising in the Caribbean on his sixty-foot sloop, Winton in England looking over pro- spective polo ponies for his string, and Peggy as a popular débutante of one sea- son. The elder Addams, his wife already dead, soon followed her, crushed ‘not so much by his own misfortunes as the, knowl- edge that reliance on his judgment had led others, his friend Winton among them, into practical insolvency. Winton Senior and Mrs. Winton had retired upon a tiny com- petency to a small holding in the Berkshire Hills, while Jim, with Peggy as his house- keeper, set out upon a belated attempt to woo Fortune by designing tasteful dwell- ings for those who desired only show, and Addams set up his law office. All three had faced the issue with laughs which had persisted in the face of persistent Addams was a frequent visitor at the studio. To former liking had been added mutual respect. Friendship had stood the test. With Addams, towards Peggy it had ripened into something deep- er that he rigorously imprisoned in a very secret chamber of his heart. They had all gaily avoided the pertinac- ity of “old days’” friendship with their offers of help or pretense that nothing had happened; but Addams, recognizing Peggy’s vital charm of beauty and vivacity, almost deluded himself into hoping that some man, more in favor with Fortune than he; would restore her to the status she had promised so well to adorn. But these things in the false pride of poverty he barely discussed with himself, even in his most intimate mo- ments of privacy. But, at last, when it seemed that, square his broad shoulders and smile as he might, he was doomed to drudgery and denial, Fortune had at least shown a disposition to flirt. “Now Archer,” said Peggy, when they -were all cozily disposed about the little fire * and she had played her part as dispenser of things to eat and drink, ‘‘on with the tale. There’s been an air of secrecy and general puff-uppiness about you, ever since you ar- rived. She cocked a merry thumb and forefinger at him. , “Stand and deliver, sir!’ she ordered. “Or you may sit, if you prefer it, but de- liver you must.” “Well,” said Addams. “It’s a long story, but I’m going to tell you the preface, and if you have no objection [ll let the man who made the story finish it. You remem- ber the old chap I found in Union Square one night, half frozen, half starved, half con- scious, with a policeman playing the night- stick rally on his poor old feet?” “The one you say looks like Walt Whit- man, and Jim calls your pirate?” asked the girl. “He is a pirate,” asserted her brother. “TI met Archer mooning with him in Battery Park one day, and the old boy looked like Captain Kidd trying to masquerade as San- ta Claus.”’ Addams set down his-teacup. “Well, you’re not so far wrong after all, Jim,” he said. “He was a pirate, once.” The girl clapped her hands. “‘A real pirate!” she exclaimed. “Oh, go on, Archer! I can see John Silver and Blackbeard and Sir Harry Morgan stand- ing in the dark corners.” She looked around the studio with a de- licious little shiver, half real, half as- sumed. “He won’t measure up with those wor- thies,”’ said Addams. ‘He never murdered any one, though he was in the middle of a lot of it. He was grateful to me for what little I did for him.” Jim grunted, knowing a,soft side to his friend’s character. ‘“‘And after a while I got interested in him. That started by my looking him up in his cubby-hole of a room in a dismal little court off Macdougal Street, a dingy place enough but clean and shipshape as he could keep it. When he got better I used to meet him afternoons at the aquarium, when I’d got tired of playing at being a lawyer to no- body except cranks with imaginary griev- ances. ‘We'd sit up in the gallery and watch the fish, and he’d tell melong yarns about schools of them, little bits of living rainbows, swim- ming over beds of live coral set with jeweled anemones and gaudy seaweeds, as he had seen them in the South Seas. “He seemed perpetually and fearfully on the lookout for some one, but for a long time he did not tell his secret. This morning he tramped down-town to my office and un- burdened himself.” “The treasure?”’ asked the girl, her eyes alight.” “Yes. Seven hundred and fifty thousand Aye y hye eee Be ee aA ia phe | £5 Ms a) - Ret ve , cies 4 salen PITA Ea ete 4¢. i * ’ LY Oe eke 4 at Ed Bee aS tb. : 46 Minne ve >? - ? * oe Peer eat vat seer NUM | ey SOARES | Piped {Lal Ble tye A > 7 on Ri ts ale : #} [adehi, Lars at Oa iv - a LANDA aa AS Re Se RTOS ad lade! 9 if he i rs P : ; in ¥ eed | fs at f° vie £5 a oy Se meet te st AMAT 4 Vac! Jalan Vitag. ‘ht. 4 vat , ters ce L Tih ated MO) AA ET NAL OD aa” dee oe wis » Fy PAS YOR Pe The { ri I yi 7 Pade ye ee ee Ae GEomichbooks (Eo)