Adventure Magazine Cover — page 89: what you’re looking at

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

-acry from the bridge as he held on. m | Falcon walied for a monstrous sea to pass. Falcon heard The deck slanted until his feet slid out and only his grip on the wire held him. At the down- ward end of her roll, the Lotus hesitated as if she were not quite sure of herself. Another sea struck her, held her, and Falcon knew the game was up. Then the ship came slowly back, but only part way, for the bulk grain had shifted, the center of gravity was changed and she no longer lay in the water upright. Falcon scrambled up the ladder to the forecastle, where the anchor windlass was and the chains led out through the pipes. A sledge was held by cleats on the inboard rail. He snatched it up, found the shackle in the port chain and knocked out the pin. The patent anchor drawn to the mouth of the hawse-pipe with its few fathoms of chain made hardly any splash as it went overboard. Then Falcon backed the wind- lass and paid out chain until the weight of The Lotus went far over. _it overboard would let it run free, released Braune. the windlass and let it go by the run al- most to the bitter end. This he hoped would act as an emergency sea-anchor, for unless the Lotus could be brought head to sea other waves would shift the grain farther and farther until, completely on her side, she would fill and sink, LEAVING the officer of the watch to finish getting out the canvas sea- anchor, Kinky Braune came running up the ladder to the small deck to see who was running the winch and had surged the chain. Falcon had just knocked the pin out of the shackle on the starboard anchor. “What’re you doing up here?’’ bellowed “Who told you to let go that chain?” : “The chains without the anchor will act as a drag,”’ he shouted back above the wind, thinking that Braune might not know of this resort in an emergency. ‘“‘About as good as throwing over a fish- line,” said the mate. “Get on below and help with that canvas.” “Tl finish what I’ve started,” Falcon. “You'll do as I tell you, ” said the mate, advancing. ‘This is as good time as any to settle you. Ill heave you overboard.” #F son soe ee aud with a lurch said oe a7 = ‘ te - ~ — ~* < ae ~< = ore “ es FL .S*- ~~ ae ee of the ii the mate lost his footing sud stumbled over the slack chain. Falcon ran — around the other side of the windlass, pulled the lever wide and started the chaintopay- As Braune got up for another ing out. rush, he broke off the control with the sledge so that the machine could not be stopped without going on to the deck and turning off the steam. “He laughed almost joyfully as he flung the sledge overboard and met Kinky Braune. Now indeed was as good a time as any to settle many differences, and Jim - Falcon With months of clean living behind him felt sure that the blows he could givé would do more than make Kinky Braune shake his head. Braune was confident. He had laid out Falcon with one punch before, and a second subsiding was only part of the night’s work, a pleasarit diversion and an outlet to his temper. The backing winch was paying out chain at full speed and, thanks to it and to the other chain already out, the Lotus was heading up slightly so that the waves struck broad on her bow instead of amidships. Her list had grown no worse during the last half-dozen rolls. Braune knew this, and that the quick work at the anchor-chains was to be thanked, but here was a man defying his author- ity, one whose seamanship challenged his own and whose bearing, even after their brief fight, had never remotely approached the servility he demanded. The deck had the slope of a steep roof and the iron plates were wet and slippery. There was small chance for a lighter man to get away, to depend on skill against superior strength, but with his worn, sodden shoes gripping the deck as well as Braune’s rubber boots, Jim Falcon locked with the mate. Close-in contests appealed to Braune. Falcon had parried his first blow but had had no time to strike back. The two swayed a moment. Braune suddenly felt Falcon’s body give and, deceived by its comparative slightness, followed rashly, only to have it grow instantly into a corded bundle of wire rope, which flicked off his surprized fingers and twisted away. Standing with feet braced against the bitts, Falcon struck twice, first to the body to find his man and draw his guard, and then to the jaw with the savage force of all his | moareleg a and his nate of the other’ s = “4 . ” ae _ a? . rs he —— en 8 et 5 Pe <-> rom 7 ‘aaa jeg Sal ae Le = =e eo rs a Baers We Cra eas MG sata 33 a Ae a SA a 4 wow ar’ . 7% . ~