Adventure, January 20, 1922 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

Tides of Hate 5 The pirates stared at her m red anger. Though both men fell back before her their brutalized faces revealed very different emotions regarding her. The scowling rascal called Doggett leaned forward men- acingly, and rasped: “Ve’re in plaguy bad company to show such officiousness, Mistress Nell Clark! I would as lief clap steel to a woman as a man if that woman can not keep her place in a man’s company. You're but a pirate your- self. You should know us better.” The woman glared back at him fearlessly, and a sharp retort was upon her lips. But Rando, the other bully, uttered an evil laugh, stepped forward suddenly and swept the woman into a fierce, bear-like embrace, forcing her head back with the pressure of his bristly face. “Sweet Nell,” he laughed, kissing her roughly, “a pretty wench should choose softer amusements than coming between men and their affairs. Ifa pirate you must be, leave your pirating for. the sea, lass, and play the merry wench ashore. Come, “give us a buss!” Nell Clark had not earned her title of female pirate without good cause. She was able to care for herself in any company, and most men knew it. It was time Rando discovered it now. With the lithe strength of a tigress she twisted herself free, sprang back, and, re- turning forward with bewildering speed, a swinging blow of her clenched fist felled Rando to the ground. “There, swine!” she cried furiously. “Will you lay your filthy paws on a woman again?” Rando leaped to his feet cursing venom- ously, and in his hand a knife gleamed. Blind to all but vengeance for that humili- ating blow, he stumbled toward the woman, with knife poised for a deadly thrust. Nell Clark laughed in his face. With a mo- tion so swift that her dagger looked like a flashing sunbeam she glided within his arm reach and struck as a viper strikes; and Rando sank again to the green earth, his blood reddening the golden sand beneath the vivid grass. — “Curse you! You’ve killed him! rasped Doggett hoarsely. “Ave, I truly hope so,’ the woman flashed back. ‘Twill serve to show you and all such cattle that neither a prisoner nor a woman is game for your kind. But Nell!” see to him. Maybe he’ll live to taste steel again. And you, Schoolmaster they call you, come with me, sir. I will make amends for this scurvy treatment now, and see that it is punished when I can get to the ears of John Cook.” The Schoolmaster picked up his stupe- fied parrot, set it on his shoulder and supported it with one hand, then turned to the woman with a whimsical smile. “Tt would seem that punishment did not wait upon John Cook,” he said. ‘The bully was grassed in right good pirate fashion, Nell.” The woman glanced sharply into his face, and upon her own not unhandsome features descended a hard, masculine ex- pression which revealed the fierce nature that underlay the feminine exterior, and made clear the reason why Nell Clark stood high in the list of female buccaneers. She flashed her glance around, saw that they were alone in the pleasant palmetto grove, and retorted: “Who should know thatebetter than Captain Davies?” A bitter laugh escaped her when he started slightly at the name. But the man remained cool and apparently untouched by her shot. She shrugged her strong shoulders, gave back glance for glance with him and insisted: “Vou are too great a fish in our pond to hide under that guise of the harmless half- wit, Davies. You'll see when Cook and his veteranscomein. Meanwhile be satisfied that Nell Clark knows you. Now come to my hut and tell me the reason for this masquerade.” The Schoolmaster laughed gently, and with a boldness not to be expected of a man - such as he appeared to be, after witnessing such an encounter as that by which Rando tasted steel, he pinched Nell’s arm indul- gently, as a big brother might tease a grow- ing sister. . “Neither admitting nor denying, Nell o’ the stout heart; let us leave the question for the moment. ’Twill busy you and all the friends you’ve made, to quell what you’ve started in my defense. Hark!” His hand praised, he forced attention, and the woman stood in tense silence. From the scene of the rum-cask carouse, coming like muted music through organ-palm and palmetto, rose the reverberating murmur, growing to a roar, of a mob in angry motion, and the sound grew swiftly. (O) NOOK (C@)