Adventure Magazine Cover — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

| Xt? Jy ts 7 ¢ ea H &. Fe ign zo i Mh on ies oy) on WALL ill / rN) a Ls A ¢pearee oe inging 6y~ Charles ie Author of “Witch-Doctors,” “Captain tie risttam’s Miracle,’ etc. CHAPTER I m) NDER a sky that looked like an inverted bowl of asphalt the S. S. Hesperus, with her bridge and fa) forecastle glimmering like the whites of the eyes of the trimmers in her holds, squatted sullenly beneath a coal-tip in Barry Dock, the waters of which were like a stagnant pond covered with black slime. At each roar following the tilting of a truck she appeared to shiver with dis- gust as if impatiently indignant at the re- turn, after her war record, to her common Jot in commercial life. From behind endless lines of black trucks a rackety cab throbbed fussily beneath the filigree of metal girders, and disgorged on to the puddled stones the figures of a man in a black overcoat and high-crowned derby hat, and the slim figure of a girl whose scarlet hat and green cloak were as in- Copyright, 1920, by The Ridgway Company in the United States and Great Britain. congruous as a parrot in a field of dingy sparrows. Hopping daintily from one dry patch to another and dodging the sooty drips from the overhead rail-track, she made her way, carrying a light grip, on to the grimy gangway. As ‘she reached the rail a young man in a pea-jacket, whose only recognizable features were his blue eyes, hastened from the break of the bridge toward her as she descended the short inboard ladder and,* raising his peak cap with grimy fingers which held a tally-book and pencil, proffered and with- drew the other hand. “Sorry, Miss Kelvett!”? he said, show- ing the gleam of teeth like a_ negro. “Ym mighty dirty. Let me take your bag.” “Oh, thanks! Never mind; it’s quite light,’’ she replied, smiling. “Isn’t it awful? When d’you think we’ll sail?” “Afternoon tide, I expect. Afternoon, All rights reserved : (e(o) oe ey ,< MIE (Elo)