Adventure Magazine Cover — page 142: what you’re looking at

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

132 concoct broth out of that miserable larder. He invaded the cabin where Captain Loman lay shivering in his berth without the least vestige of sickness perceptible. Thence he took some chocolates. and melted them; this he fed to Japes. He noted in surprize and dismay that no whit of strength came of this stimulant. “You won’t give up, Japes. We'll be ashore in a jiffy. Stick up!” “Great howdy-do— No wantin’s tuh bother— Conjingle along 0’ ye——” But unless help canfe soon he would not “conjingle” long. This fact Arnie was forced to recognize after a few adminis- - trations of the simple medicines available; they had utterly no effect upon this worn- out organism. The nerveless men of the crew might hold out indefinitely and, driven along by Arnie’s crude magnetism as they had been regret- fully driven to desperate labor by his com- manded harshness, might even manage to throw off considerable of their malady with- out other succor. Japes was not of their sort and less of their draft-horse constitution. Arnie sprang to the deck and bawled for the royals, for the studding-sails. “Steady? * he cried to the helmsman. “Let ’er fight!” Defiantly he glared about upon this - haughty ship, this gentlewoman of the sea; lashed her as her legitimate master would never have done; hurled his madness of challenge full at her head. Let her snap her yards and tear her gossamer wings! For her aristocratic beauty and her cap- tain’s purse-lining, human souls lay in jeopardy at this moment. Japes, shorn of his pride, ticked out his ie aboard her. Speed—speed—speed! But the Samson gave no sign of fighting back, balked not al all, sang indeed in all her timbers. like joy grown immortal, sang throbbingly in the language of Olympus, strove for him as she had never striven for Loman. Snatching precious moments from Japes’ bunk, he sallied into the forecastle with his word. of cheer—so hard, so forced his. dread for the little Yankee comrade—told them he was taking the vessel in, that in two days. they would be wading in fresh: vegetables. Lastly he stimulated their “hearts with doses of strychnine. They rolled their heads and twisted about to watch him as he hurried up the ladder; Adventure a mute look too deep to fathom. In this look of theirs the curse of their stare as he _ drove them on the wharf was smudged and turned to blessing. : His heart welled up in this interchange of gaze. He knew why satisfaction had been. his in the plain, honest hand-grasp of the Jessica’s rescued ten; he knew—trem- bling in the chill comprehension—that the . world he served and the world whose opin- ion he yearned for was no larger a planet than this poor, wretched forecastle. He learned—he began to learn—the answer to the problem that had baffled him for up- ward of seventeen years. He stood at Japes’ side and tried to tell “It’s two days, Japes. A doctor to make you fit! ‘Trying does it—a whaler, Japes! You’d be understanding how Jonah felt— I need you with me——” A faded light flickered in those gaunt eyes, a proud light. “So be—so be. I’d not be—be makin’ my quittin’s, sir.” Arnie bent to catch a mumbled refrain. ‘“‘We doos be rejoiced—” That was all. “No worrying, Japes. Mind now. The crew meant no harm in their speech.” “Would ye cal’late— A weazly mite— They was jokin’ now? Would ye?” Here spoke the deeps of the little man’s heart. The agony of talking—it ~ was nothing. “Curd ye tell ’em, sir, $0—s0 they’d sense it proper—times I cooked genuwine?”’ His throat choking him, Arnie went to fetch an answer. To those of the crew he found on watch he said gruffly: “Low he is; hard put. It’s aie riig. to ’"im—what you said. - It would be a great favor. Id thank you, boys And after him they shuffled, rude, raw- boned, awkward men. They squeezed in at the door and one after another had their say. Red of face they stumbled out, hushed. “Now, I declare!” Japes mumbled pain- fully. Perceiving Arnie’s gaze on him, he tried to grin. “’Course it ain’t no ’count— Reckon we git in a cacaxy—’bout— Pesky littl— What say?” | Silence followed. The puffed mouth strove again: ‘Like my thinkin’ —trawlin’ off—the | banks—was. much, an’ buildin’ a home— Sho’ P b EComichboo > —— (E©)