Adventure, January 20, 1922 — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

‘50 speak o’ punishment then? TI calls all hands to witness as the rules o’ the Black Flag calls fer a vote when a fault consarns all hands, and so I tell ye!” “T ha’ no knowledge-of Black Flags,” smiled Davies. ‘‘This is a private ship on private venture, and the lads are honest tars, if so they want to be. No vote will be taken for you, Badoes. Ye’ve stolen food when all hands, even the woman. aft, is content to starve and hold on to the bitter end. Men!’ He stepped to the ladder and his voice rang out likea trumpet. “‘Men! Haul the villain on deck and hang him to the yardarm opposite to Bristol Jack’s bones. By Satan, little by little ye shall have the scum skimmed from ye. None but true-blue lads shall share in the fruits o’ this voyage, for none other can stand the bitter days. Up wi’ him.” #3 ONCE more, as if the gods were ee. Es fighting on the side of Ed Davies in @ his voyage of vengeance against Baltes before the corpse of Badoes had well stopped kicking, the lookout aloft yelled with all the power of his weakened throat: “Land ho! High land ahead!” “Tis the Virgin again, lads!’ cried Davies, and ran to the great cabin to bring up Nell Clark to see the gladdening sight. Nell appeared pale and hollow-eyed, but her figure was straight; her lips held nothing of weakness in their red lines. Her eyes, even though they shone out of hollows that held dark shadows, glittered with indomita- ble spirit. And behind her came Goliath, his ebony skin turned ashen in hue, his giant frame bent and pitiable, his tree-like limbs tot- tering. But there was fire in his great black eyes too. Only the bitterness of those far southern seas in July had proved too much for body and blood of him; nothing of physical suffering could quench his cour- age, and it had been Davies himself who insisted that both the negro and Nell‘remain in the comparative comfort of the cabins while the ship fought against frozen Fate. “Ve’re too stout a pair o’ comrades to sacrifice to Jack Frost and Davy’s chill seas,” he told them. Now they could stand beside him, starved, bruised, weary of it all, but in sight of that which would speedily make them fit Adventure comrades indeed for the man who could so far forget himself in thought of others. And the wintry sun came out, lighting up the frowning Virgin and revealing the wide expanse of the Straits entrance. Once inside, the fand rolled low and fiat on both sides until the Straits drew to- gether at the First Narrows. Then, when he would have anchored, the tide-race caught the Cadiz and swept her within the funnel-like channel on the breast of a seven- knot current, forcing Davies to turn a deaf ear to the mutterings of the men whose mouths watered at sight of green earth and wheeling birds. In what i is now known as Gregory Bay the ship finally let go her anchor, and every boat not already battered bv the seas beyond floating dropped into the water. Armed with cutlas, ax, knife, musket, trundling water-casks and carrying cords and hand- spikes, the crew tumbled into the boats and rowed ashore bawling hoarse songs of jubilation. Not even a_ ship-keeper re- mained on board. ‘“‘No shore people have appeared,” Davies remarked. “If any come to view, why, ain’t we able to take care of ’em? Look at the lads, Nell. D’ye think anything in human form will drive ’em from meat?” The shores, rarely visited then, swarmed with penguins, great hares and ungainly guanacos whose lack of beauty could not blind hungry men to the generous covering of flesh on their bones. In twenty minutes from the moment of landing a score of fires were blazing fiercely, twice as many blood- smeared hunters were flaying meat, others plucked fat birds, while some there were, rendered bestial by extremity, who gnawed raw flesh until the blood covered them from whiskers to toes in a ghastly red mess. “Make it a feast while ye may, lads,” Davies cried, going among the men and praising them for virtues they never pos- sessed, like the leader of men he was. “This is an evil place to be caught in, and once ye quit it ye’ll carry straight on to the Pacific Sea. Fill yer kites wi’ meat and rum; then there’s work for ye that’ll last well into the night. Keep fires burning, and pile ’em high with smoke-wood. Flay and smoke me as many o’ the big birds as ye can catch; and treat yonder queer beasts that look like bastard camels by buck-deer sires as ye’d treat good beef... COmMicCoooks (C@