Adventure, February 1917 — page 91: what you’re looking at

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

chuckled the captain, feeling that he had | made a clever joke. ‘Fine son swang.” “You've had too much whisky,” said Harold. ~ “Only a glass or two,” said the captain, and spoke very near the truth. “You can’t talk correctly,” said Harold. “Pll take off your boots. You ought to be in bed, Dad, and you know it.” HAROLD never got up early. Page was sure of that. He took down the charts again by the earliest morn- ing light and began studying them furious- ly. He knew now that the clue must be there, if he could only find it. scratchley Island—nothing there. He had been all over it. Anchorages, passages, reefs about the island. Corrected here and there. Right. He knew the corrections; they did not interest him. Jamieson Island, on the edge of the chart. ; Nothing there. The whole chart was too clean, too little Sa ae If there was anything to fin He took down the whole roll of charts and went over them carefully. One was certainly more worn and sea-stained than the others; yes—a good deal. With an ex- pression of infinite cunning, Page raised that chart to his nose and smelled it. There is no odor on earth more clinging, more definite, more persistent, than the faint oily, earthy, sweetish smell of amber- gris. About the handled chart, faintly, yet unmistakably, that odor hung. Not un- less one actually nosed it. But then... Page took a lead pencil and scraped some of it to powder. He cast the black powder on the chart and smeared it lightly. Lines, formerly penciled but erased, came out under this treatment. The captain studied.the chart, looking closely into it. Presently he slapped his thigh. He had seen a few faintly marked soundings about a reef, seen a correction of latitude. “Now we have it,” he thought, his eyes glinting. He rolled up the chart again, put it under his arm, cast a glance into Harold’s room to make sure that the youth was still sleep- ing, and went out to order the big whale- boat. “Not half a day’s run, with this fair = ” he thought. “What luck! What N obody’s Island — He had scarcely left the house when | _ Harold arose, put back a mirror that had been standing on the floor near his bed and - reflecting the outer room, indulged in a slight dance about the floor, and put out his tongue at his father’s retreating figure. Then he jumped for his clothes. A quarter of an hour later, when Cap- tain Page came down to the beach, he found the whale-boat ready—somewhat more than ready. The boys were at their oars, the sails set to catch the breezes as soon as_ they should be round the point, the break- er of water and tin of biscuit without which, as an old sailor, he never traveled, were stowed in the boat. And in her stern, com- fortably settled upon a cushion from the veranda, sat Harold. He grinned as he saw his father. “T’m coming, too,” he said. “I don’t want you,” was the captain’s brusk answer. . “Tm coming all the same. Do have com- mon sense, Dad. I know you’ve found something.” “Tf I have, it’s not for you.” The captain was getting over the bow of the boat. He looked very much as ifhe meant to swing his rebellious son into the ‘water as soon as he got within reach. “Look here,” said Harold, sitting up. ““We’ll make a bargain. You let me in, and Tl let you in. No use working apart, when we’ve each got something.” — “Well,” said Page hesitatingly, calculat- ing the possible value. of a good find of am- ~ “Might be all got by now,” he reflected, | “and Harold hasn’t touched his cash yet.” “It’s a go,” he said aloud. ‘“‘Now, what’s the trouble about the Slades? Spit it out.” Harold knew how far his father was to ~—— be trusted. He told him the affair of the advertisement, and then demanded his re- ward. But Page seemed very little impressed. “That it?” he said. ‘The Cocoa King! A Penny-dreadful sort of yarn, but——” “What?” asked Harold, a trifle offended. “T don’t think there’s much in it.” “Tsn’t there, then! You tell me yours, and we'll see if there’s as much in that.” ““Ambergrease,” said Page somewhat re- luctantly. “Found a bit. Think it’s out among the reefs somewhere. Must be a fair bit of it to find, though I don’t under- stand how he knows where to look. Still, (COMA Sj (C) JOO