Adventure Magazine Cover — page 51: what you’re looking at

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

~The Burden Paternal snout to haul at. I noticed the old man scanning him pretty closely, as if seeking to place him, but he seemed to be in doubt; so I asked the piulot— : “‘Who’s the little, queer fellow, pilot?” The pilot smirked a bit, then spat out with emphasis: ‘\ bad woman’s baby, by gosh! Worst shippin’ man in th’ Colonies!” “An old-timer?” I grinned. “One of the last of the °” “No, sir! Australia don’t breed that strain, though we raise some smudgy devils too. Ain’t been out here more’n a year or so, but he’s into everything, and some not so Clean, either. I heard tell of some bother he was in home; lost a ship, or had one lost or something.’ ‘I think he nearly got his toes in the trap, too. But you'll know him well enough before you leave Melbourne. He’s one 0’ your owners, ain’t he?” The pilot’s grin was so utterly knowing, | so slyly insinuating, that I could only grin responsively and leave him for the other end of the bridge. In a few minutes the old man came up, having excused himself as soon as he could escape from the vapory atmosphere of a saloon full of gaseous pas- sengers, bent on patting him on the back with verbal wallops at the end of a fair passage. I had heard the cheers and shouts through the skylight dome, and I could hear the voices of some of the passengers as they laid the old man aboard and bombarded him with fine compliments and sugared speeches. But you know the sort of thing. The spokesman hoists himself on his hind legs and spills a mess of words about the perfect trip, the splendid loyalty of the crew, the amazing perfection of the grub— after all hands have spent three-quarters of the voyage grousing at the stewards—and sets it all down to the old man’s eternal credit. The principal stockholder in our ship got up, took a hold of the table, and chipped in with a lot of slumgullion about no steam- ship firm ever enjoying the services of a better commander than Captain Basil, gentlemen! The health of Captain Basil, ladies and gentlemen, standing! So it went, and so it ever goes—until the day after, when they haul the old man across the coals because he couldn’t get his bunkers in Table Bay in less than two days, Al and had to pay one day’s harbor-dues too much. It’s all very funny to listen to, and we’ve all got to go through it sooner or later if we quit sail to go into steam—passenger steam, that is. However— The directors stayed on board while we discharged the Adelaide portion of our cargo, apparently bent on making a yacht- ing trip out of it. Captain Basil worried me a bit, for once he had completed his ship’s business it seemed to me that he should have been on board a good deal more, especially with all those keen-eyed directors aboard, and that ratty-faced one in particular. I felt certain Rat-face was marking time on the old man. But nothing was said, and Captain Basil came on board in good time on sailing-day, stepping more briskly, looking less drawn about the eyes than I had seen -him since that gray day when he had told me of his wife’s death. I had seen something similar in the case of sailors often before; but in this case I could see nothing to indicate a bursting out into liquor, so tried to rest ° easy as I took my station on the forecastle in pulling out. | Sa time came just as I reached the bridge after seeing everything clear forward, and I went down for a are meal before relieving the second mate for his. We were carrying the pilot around with us, he being licensed for Mel- bourne as well as for Adelaide, and having asked for a passage; so I tried to get him to talk some more about Mr. Rat-face. But he seemed slow to respond, and before I got a peep out of him the skipper and his guests appeared. First of all the rat-faced one appeared, and even through the greasy glow of good feeding and plenty of red. wine his mean face seemed to be a proper ticket for him. The old man followed him on to the bridge, trying to appear happy but evidently mak- inf heavy weather of it, and I sidled over to leeward, leaving them to the weather end. .But as I passed them I heard Rat- face snap at the skipper: : “No, sir! Once the spasm’s worn off this first-steamer business, you'll look for no such darn nonsense from owners as you’re seeing now. There’s too much soft stuff and hullabaloo, as if no steamer ever arrived out here before. That comes of having old gs) GComichboo x ee co