Adventure Magazine Cover — page 39: what you’re looking at

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

~~ ee -Man mendaciously. _ ning, leaving the Old Man to take the wheel during the night. So it was that from midday to evening the Monsoon lumped and waddled along complainingly—every revolution seemed the last—making possibly five knots per hour with the wind on her quarter. Al- though Vi used the binoculars frequently never a sign of a ship, nor even the smoke of a steamer, stained the clear horizon. Several times to Vis annoyance Carnell, black with dust and sweat, ran up to the bridge ‘“‘to get some air,” he said; and once Chi Loo appeared bearing a cup of tea and without comment held out in the other ellow palm a small packet which caused Vi iterally to yelp with delight. “Qh, you darling!” she exclaimed, aban- -doning the wheel to tear open the cigarets. “Where on earth did you get ’em?” “Plenty, plenty,” asserted Chi Loo reas- suringly and departed. So it was that when the captain came on the bridge at what should have been eight bells in the afternoon he found his woman officer calmly breaking all the rules of any ship by smoking on duty. “Nothing to report, uncle. sleep?” “Yes; very good nap,” replied the Old “But I’m very wor- Had a good ried about Selwyn.” 3 “Yes; seems very queer,” Vi admitted, rather conscious of a sense of relief that he was not there to annoy her. “P¥aps he’s shut himself up in some cabin with the champagne. You know what he is.” “H’m. Don’t think so.” The captain paced several times up and, down the bridge and after examining the horizon came back to the wheel-house. “Vi, are you sure that those people were poisoned or killed—that they did not die of _ some disease? ‘Tropical, you know?” “Oh!” “Couldn’t have been beriberi, could it? I know that the symptoms didn’t tally, but —might be something else,” “I know very little about tropical medi- cine,” admitted Vi, “but even if it were I can’t see how they would all have been struck at exactly the same moment. And _ besides they must have shown some symp- oe Bee Stace ee obese had ate been sick © St ‘ a = - cs —— So — = ae S ialpcent < Sacer ‘to ; outed! 16 tee wouldnt Bae beni bon 1 6: eat a a s Ig take a nap, on the understanding that Vi : - gave up the wheel at eight bells in the eve- hearty breakfast, would they?” ‘Hardly. But what was. the object of: the murderers? Lascars they must have been, but what did they get off with?” “She wouldn’t have been bringing bullion from the East, would she? Or Beas 5 it’s something to do with some jewels that one, or some, of the passengers had? Might be something to do with some sacred ~ jewel, Hindu or something, mightn’t it? Such things have happened.” “H’m. In books, Vi. Never known - such a romantic thing in my time.” * gines struggling gamely at each revolution; — Sa ee “Oh, that doesn’t prove anything, uncle,” she said, and added politely, “except our © want of imagination.” = “Well, whatever it was,” commented her uncle uneasily, “that doesn’ t explain what has become of Selwyn.” EVENING closed down swiftly in a glory of misty colors. Carnell aiJ insisted upon taking the wheel while uncle and niece dined. Afterward the captain, to please Vi, let her have the wheel until four bells, pretending to take another rest. When she retired to the chartroom, which was provided with a spare bunk, she found that the inimitable Chi Loo had provided a gorgeous silk dressing-gown which qridenety he had found in one of the cabins. “He’s a perfect darling, that Chinaman!” murmured Vi; and then the’ recollection that the owner had passed out brought a momentary thrill, which was however as. swiftly erased by experience. Yet as soon as she had placed the wrap around her shoulders the suggestion made by her uncle that the deaths possibly resulted from a tropical disease caused her hastily to throw it off. “One never knows,” she muttered. “Killing and death I can stand the thought of, but disease—ugh! Queer; disease al- ways. seems more terrible than just death.” She blew out the candle, which she was compelled to use—for naturally they could not spare any of the precious steam for the dynamo—and turned in. But the reaction from the excitement in the small boat and the tragedy on the steamer made her sleep- less. She listened to the steady sigh of the breeze and the sea, which emphasized the unrhythmic thump and pause of the en- es E ~ oe ~ ~*~ ee ES we eS eo Spe — Pe, A . oa ee say <a aS : a4 ee ae —« ae ; 0 | IC] 0 ee , fit gsc 7G beh RAT cyte gh RAPA aN ee hen | ee rf vie ae bd a A 2 | ATP AS i WO rs), Rae Raa Ups Rae 4 Ue iy Ad Pie a Re