Adventure Magazine Cover — page 93: what you’re looking at

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

The Radio Ray eo a slate gray, resembling that which is applied to Government vessels, and which, known as “war color,” is least distinguish- able at distances on water. “Why, that’s the Sylph, Burke’s yacht!” exclaimed Clarke. Jerry nodded. “Exactly,” he said. ‘“‘And Ill be frank in saying that I can do no more than sus- pect her. And yet every time that China- town gets a-crawl with coolies I look out there and see the Syiph, and discover that she has come in during the night. And al- most invariably it is from a cruise in waters beyond the border, ostensibly an aimless pleasure jaunt. “Another thing; why should he have her painted that slate gray, which easily camou- flages in these hazy waters, when he could just as well give her some livelier color?” “But Burke is a millionaire; and anyway how could he escape examination after arriving here from a port beyond the bor- der?” asked Clarke. “Easy enough, I think,” replied Jerry. ‘In these thick fogs he could slip by our boarding-officers in the night, land his cargo, slip out again and an return to stand inspection. ‘“‘As for his money, how do we know he has any; and where did he get it? Who is he, and where did he come from? No one around here seems to know much about him, but I intend to find out just to satisfy my curiosity. ‘““And I tell you his boat smells Chinese. You can’t coop up coolies in one spot for hours without the taint remaining. I hadn’t been here two weeks before I paid him a visit. ““Come right aboard, inspector,’ he told me, shaking hands at the gangway. ‘Glad to have you pay us a call.’ ‘“And then he took me all over the boat. Showed me fixings that I never expect to see again outside of a museum. But there was nothing Oriental about them. Just luxurious trimmings that any man of his apparent means would be likely to have. “As we started down the main deck I saw three of his crew putting on the hatch- cover to the hold. It seemed to me they were working too fast; as if they were too anxious. So I just went up and had them lift off a corner. And while the smell that came up to me was mostly of formaldehyde and other disinfectants, I tell you it made 87 me think of one of those holes down in Chinatown. “TI observed Burke looking at me rather closely, but the instant he saw I noticed his gaze he slipped into his old character again. ‘‘Bilges certainly do get smelly; don’t they, inspector?’ he said. ‘I just had ours cleaned out and disinfected. Had to do it, or the whole ship would get scented up.’ Which struck me as being decidedly far- fetched. “Next we came to a shack on the main deck. ‘“ “Your wireless room, I see,’ I remarked, for—I don’t think I’ve ever told you about it—but I’ve always been something of a nut on the subject of wireless. Got a set and a little laboratory at home, and when. I’m. off duty I’m always experimenting. Taught myself the code. ‘So when we came to the wireless room my amateur interest was naturally aroused. Burke appeared bored, but he was polite enough about it. He ‘took hold of the door- knob. The door was locked. “Stupid of me to forget,’ he remarked, ‘Our wireless operator is ashore. Married man, you know, and I always give him all the leave possible when we’re in port.’ “Which again struck me as being some- what odd, though I didn’t say anything about it. “The blinds to the windows were slid shut. Aside from noticing that the Sylph seemed to have an unusually wide sweep to her aerial for an ordinary pleasure vessel, I didn’t get anything there. “Anyway I was not as fully convinced then as I am now that Burke is mixed up in this matter.” ‘The wireless end of it,”’ remarked Clarke “Seems to be eliminated by the fact that. none of our operators on patrol boats has ever been able to intercept messages remotely relating to Chinese. And yet a ship brings those Chinese here, and they are run in when our patrol boats are else- where. Which convinces me, and I don’t mind telling you—”’ and his voice lowered— “that I suspect some one connected with this office of being in league with the smug- glers. “Word of the disposition of our patrol cutters is flashed to the smuggling vessel— the Sy/ph, if you will—and the Chinese are brought in and landed. But how is word sent sto that vessel, CORMMICLOOOkKS if not by wireless? > (C@