Adventure Magazine Cover — page 149: what you’re looking at

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

The Innocent Bystander and the Triangle to think of it, especially for the father of the bride. Supposing there was a family, sir, and the good-for-nothing husband ran away. Her father would naturally have to support them and that would be pretty tough on him, sir.’ ‘“‘ ‘Maybe you are right, Mr. Carey,’ said the old skinflint. ‘I have never looked at it in that light. Tl have to think it over.’ ‘““‘Now, Davis would never do a thing like that, sir,’ I said. I was determined to clinch the matter right there. ‘He is steady as a Swiss chronometer. He’s a man you can depend on, sir.’ ‘“‘T am sure he is,’ said the old fool, ‘but he doesn’t seem to be very tractable on this particular subject.’ ‘Shyness, sir, nothing but shyness,’ said I. ‘He’d run away from his own mother.’ ‘““*Well, what would you suggest, Mr. Carey?’ said he. : “T thought hard. I had to settle this matter once and for all. My interests were getting more and more involved. “« Supposing,’ I said, ‘that your daughter took sick.’ | ‘“““T don’t see what that has got to do with it,’ said the old fool. ‘But what about it?’ “Since there’s no other woman on board,’ I said, ‘she would naturally have to be nursed by aman. It would be a nice job for Joe.’ “ “He might object,’ said Brinkman. “ “He might,’ I said. ‘But somebody would have to do it. He isn’t any better than the rest.’ “YT oughtn’t to have said that, of course. “*You confounded little shrimp!’ said the old lunatic. ‘How dare you say a thing like that about my prospective son-in-law!’ ““T beg your pardon, sir,’ I said. ‘I meant we are all under your orders, sir.’ ‘““T see what you mean, Mr. Carey,’ said he. ‘But I don’t expect my daughter to take sick. I don’t use tobacco in any form.’ “Tt looks like a squall,’ I said. ‘Is your daughter a good sailor, sir?’ “Tt does look like a squall,’ said the old fool. ‘This is my daughter’s first trip to sea, Mr. Carey.’ “‘ “That is fortunate, sir,’ I said. ‘We will have to trust to luck: for the rest.’ “It did blow up a gale, not much but enough to bow! a landlubber over. Of course it knocked the underpinnings from 139 the daughter. Joe and the steward took turns at nursing her and cleaning the floor. The Aunt Louisa became a madhouse. We all realized that a crisis was coming. Oh, Lord! “Joe didn’t like it, naturally, but orders were orders. Oh, he wasmad! Oh, Heaven! Oh ! Never saw anybody so mad in my life. It was positively indecent to look at him. Oh, my! I sawa lot of him. He developed a passion for confidences. He enumerated the woman’s shortcomings to me, one by one. Whenever he discovered something new, he’d run and tell me. ‘She is flat-footed!’ said he. ‘So are you, I said. ‘You see the cootie in your neighbor’s eye, but you don’t see the cockroach in your own. You are for- getting your Bible, Joe.’ ‘She has ankles like a Polish washer- woman,’ said Joe. Now, would you have thought that of Holy Joe? “Anything else?’ I said. “¢ She is fat as a pig!’ said Joe. ‘Anything else?’ I said. ‘She wears green underwear!’ said Joe. Now, would you have thought that of Holy Joe? ‘“ “Anything else?’ I said. ‘* She is ugly as Hades’! said Joe. “Anything else?’ I said. ‘“‘No there wasn’t, not then. ‘Well, Joey boy,’ [ said, ‘please run along and see if you can discover something else.’ ‘And Joey would run along, foaming at the mouth, and do just that. what a time! » “IT BLEW alittle harder; the 4 unt mt Louisa rolled a little more; and the ’ daughter got a little sicker. She was in a bad way and I hoped she would get worse. She did. Old Brinkman began te worry about her. His consctence began to bother him, I guess. The old skinflint. “He broke his rules, his own rules, every day now. So did Joe. So did everybody else. But that didn’t matter. a time! “One night he came to me, hanging his head and acting the broken-hearted old father. . | ‘She is pretty bad tonight,’ he said. ‘My poor little daughter.’ ‘ ‘Ys she deathly sick’? I said. “* “*T don’t know,’ said the old sinner. ‘But she looks it.’ Oh, Lord, , what | COmiIclbook S (© iin