Adventure Magazine Cover — page 87: what you’re looking at

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

A Son of Strife “Are you certain, in truth, this is a pirate galley?” cried Matteo. “Alack, good sir, and what else might it be which cometh so stealthily and at such speed? Would honest merchantmen labor so at their oars to overtake one of their own kind?”’ “Be of stout heart,’ advised Matteo. ‘“‘We are a numerous company. We shall make a strong resistance.” ‘“‘We are many, but I can trust none of the passengers,’ returned the captain despondently. ‘Saving yourselves and the galectti, we are without fighting men.”’ “Then let us arm them! Come Ali, vou draw a sure bow. How ii we make trial at the helmsman of the pirates?”’ “Right gladly, lord,’ answered Ali, his keen eyes blazing with the battle lust, his lean face sharpened into a wolfish grimace. “But if you will take my counsel, we must devise some strategy or trick whereby we may offset superior numbers.”’ “Ts it so bad?” ‘“‘Aye, in sooth. If once the pirates come aboard us, how may we support their attack? Rather, let us work to bemaze them in a manner unforeseen.”’ “Good counsel,’ admitted Matteo, ‘‘but ’tis deeds, not counsel, we require.”’ “Bide, lord, bide.” Ali had selected a bow from a pile of weapons at his feet, set arrow to string and drew it tentatively to the barbs, aiming up at the mast head. ‘Ha, Messer Patrono,”’ he called over his shoulder, ‘hast a strong pole athwart the mast yon—that which the sail doth hang from?” ‘Aye, ’tis strong,’ replied the patrono in some bewilderment. “Would it hold up a great weight?” ‘What mean you2” “Why, even what I say. A weight of many men, a hogshead, let us say, laden with ballast.” *“Mayhap.”’ ‘Then heed mv advice. Let us take a hogshead or a water-butt, fill it with rocks and gravel, swing it from the crossyard and at the right minute drop it in the pirate’s waist. Belike ’twill sink him.” ‘“‘A good thought,” approved Matteo. “It may be,” said the patrono doubtfully. “Aye, it may be. ’Tis worth trying.” He sent a squad of shipmen to fill the butt and sling it into place by means of a 79 pulley rigged to the end of the crossyard. Then they rove other ropes to the opposite end of the yard, ready to pull taut and counterbalance the weight which should be imposed upon it when the butt was hoisted into place. And meantime the pirate galley was foaming up on the starboard quarter, her decks crammed with men in armor, a huge bloody hand distended across the shining surface of her single sail. “A rare fight ’twill be, Ali,” quoth Matteo with contentment, flexing his bow. “How is the range?” “Over-far, lord—and the wind against us. Aye, you shall find cause for a new romaunt in the next hour’s time.” From the waist of the Sancta Spiritiu echoed the screaming of women in mortal fear, as the passengers lamented their danger, some prostrate on the deck, others burrowing in the ballast like animals seck- ing to hide, or running back and forth, striking at one another and knocking their heads against the deck-beams. CHAPTER IX THE RING OF SINAN oe” spurted over the beak of the pirate galley. Forty oars a side churned the water white. With a prolonged whine, a catapult on the forecastle jerked up its cast- ing-arm to sling a great stone that hurtled through the air and dropped into the sea beyond the Sancta Spiritu. A cloud of arrows followed, the whistling of their shafts ending in the drumming thud of points driven into the deck-planks. One of the galeotti flung up his arms and crashed down, drilled through the chest. “Ho, that is a game that we can play!” cried Ali. ‘And if we lack a catapult may- hap we have what will do as well.” He loosed his bow, and the arrow flashed across the narrowing belt of water, sped between the wall of shields around the helmsmen and found its mark. There was a moment’s confusion, but the galley never faltered in her course. “My turn!’ exclaimed Matteo. His arrow, too, passed the shield-wall, and a second man dropped. The galeotti raised a cheer, while a score or so loosed a ragged volley. Matteo and Ali notched arrows as fast as they could draw, and every shaft told on the pirate’s crowded decks; but nothing C@ Clooolkks C@