Adventure Magazine Cover — page 135: what you’re looking at

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

The Dream’s End more money. He knew the Samson—a fine craft and geod pay. The situation in some manner ill became the dream; but this was no time for being particular as to a dream’s fabric if by adap- . tation one might come to the dream’s end, which was happiness—though revising the aspect of his shadowy dream was no easy thing in Arnie’s case; times without num- ber he had smiled foolishly i into his haunting — of unreality, enjoying each riotous ue Ah, well, Lelona wished for the same thing: happiness. And if she set down the elemental hues as a big ship and money, see- ing more clearly than he, then he must not doubt her. He should be jubilant over an unwarranted favor. “T’m your man, Mr. Tibbert,” he said, “T’ll do my best.” “That’s got to be understood.” Tibbert, after a flinty scrutiny of him, crossed to a closet and came back bearing a large, dark-colored bottle and disposed it on the desk-arm between them. “They call me a queer one, Sondheim. I have my own methods; and they manage to work out. I’ve used this one several times before. “Ahem! Yeu havea certain weakness we may as well take notice of.” He smiled stiffly. “The berth is yours for this one cruise, provided you take this quart of whisky with your dunnage, keep it by you, and return it to me unopened. In case you can show me the bottle just as it is, I have a regular place for you—and no doubt shortly a better one. I mean in this manner to make you fight a natural tendency. It goes without saying that you promise to have no other liquor about you.” A mask of irony settled upon Amie’s visage. The world’s opinion again. But he took no real offense; saw it indeed as noth- ing but a grim joke. “Tf yeu trust me that much, what’s the bottle for?” he queried. . “It’s a test. I’m deliberately tempting you. Return it—or no excuses.’ Arnie agreed. A grin had erased the mask. He accepted the wrapped bottle and asked if the offer included Japes. The little Yankee exhibited some dismay. “T thinked I would—I thinked—I reckon, howsomever, there’ s things as Il bide their hour. Yer spells o’ bein’ lonesome——” He blinked and beamed. 125 <n, THUS it was that they found ae <i themselves in due time upon the ~ ‘midships deck .of the proud Sam- - son with a letter for Captain.Loman. Japes spoke in a hushed voice: “Stout ez a whaler, I declare—an’ much finer. "Most takes me back.” , Certainly the Samson stood out among sailing vessels. In an age given over so largely to steamships, she lifted her three great masts without excuse and extended her bowsprit sweepingly before the lissom curve of her clipper bows. Considerable of her haughty air was transposed to her master, Cable Loman. One could see that in the first casual glance; in the sonorous tones of his commands one seemed to hear it. He had a hard eye for details, a jealous eye. Pride. That was his underlying attribute. The spirit of the vessel walked with him, scented out the most insignificant of dis- crepancies, imbued him with a tragic defen- sive anger when her crew slighted her ever so little. His anger was a rare and wonder- ful thing, a bare and thunderful thing, an appalling, instinctive—and therefore un- reasonable—thing. Arnie and Japes arrived at a moment when he was loosing the full storm of it. Heads sank before that tempest; backs bent to it like waving wheat in a hot wind. He broke off at sight of Arnie and came marching in the gait of an admiral. He contributed no explanation for his burst of temper. He shook hands with Arnie but not with Japes. He indicated the ceok’s galley with his thumb and led Arnie aft and down the companion into cabins no less than spacious to one who had but now so- | journed aboard the Jessica. “There were rules and regulations; there were discipline and dispatch. Mr. Sond- heim met Mr. Grover, the second officer. On deck once more Arnie marked how each man of the crew kept his station and his si- lence. It was astonishing; it was a revela- tion. Arnie anticipated a smart voyage north. , To be sure, a survey of the forecastle rather spoiled the general effect; not that it was so disreputable a forecastle as fore- castles went, but this forecastle did not go with this vessel. Its dimness and narrow- ness and poor ventilation seemed a blemish upon an otherwise perfect mold. Holes in the feet of stockings of a faultlessly dressed yA CORNICOOOKS (E@)