Adventure, February 20, 1922 — page 70: what you’re looking at

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

ar ne ” - al te lip ee ee a 68 “Officer and a gentleman,” scoffed Grave- yard. “Familiarity breeds contempt. And - me in the outfit when his mother was wiping his nose! young rat!” “Gunner likes fish,” cackled Goat. tive.”’ “Doll —— up!” Blackie chuckled. Then as the gist of what they were saying worked in on him he - broke into a laugh. And Blackie continued - to laugh while the Dolly Dean chugged off mile after mile, and Goat and Graveyard continued to ramble and rave in their sleep. *Posi- He had dozed at the wheel. A glance at the compass showed him that he had slept but a few seconds, forghe was steady on his course. But something had aa waked him. He thought he had heard a. shout. Imagination, he decided. So had he, in those passed three hours, imagined timé and again that he heard Fog Rock’s whistle. Then it came again—from astern. It was a wild, piercing shriek. No imagination about that, he thought as he stopped the engine and threw the helm hard over. The Dolly Dean careened heavily as she answered the full helm; and Goat and Graveyard were rolled over in a heap. “Oh, Graveyard,” Blackie hissed huskily, “snap out of it for a minute till we see what’s what. Some one off here a ways. Let out a yell—I can’t.” Before Graveyard could gather his scat- * tered wits and comply, however rapidly ap- proaching voices were heard. - “Giffs it no answer, ain’t it?” “Never mind, Dutch; you lean on them oars.” A touch of the wheel brought the Dolly Dean’s nose around, pointing in the direc- tion of the voices. “Make der light out of der eyes!” ‘ “Shut up, or Pll make bullets in der eyes!” The sound of that voice brought Goat and Graveyard to life. “Beans!” they cried together. A light burst out of the blackness. _ Blackie tried; but the Dolly Dean refused to Swerve on such short notice. There was a _ crash, followed by a chorus of startled voices, oaths, the grating of tangled oars, surging water. For a moment the rammed dingey rocked and bobbed perilously; then > a, Adventure she righted and floated along side by side with the Dolly Dean. In the stern sheets of the dingey were Beans and Simple. Simple had the tiller in his hand; Beans held a bull’s-eye lantern in one hand and an old-fashioned, long-barreled forty-five in the other. On the pulling- thwarts were Meullor and Dutch. As the rays of his lantern fell on Goat and Graveyard, Beans let out a vel that made them all hold their ears: gt wouldn’t listen to me,” Beans went on. “Said it was some of the ef- fects of my Jag. Said you an’ Goat was an- chored off in the fog not far away, an’ couldn’t make it back against the current. Wouldn’t believe 1 heard them two skunks scheming against you. “But I knew what I heard, an’ I knew what I dreamed. An’ I knew further that there never was a current off here so strong that Goat Perkins couldn’t make headway against it. “I wanted bullets fer this gun. You had "em locked up in your closet. They said I only wanted to bust open the closet to get at the alcohol. “But Simp here took me serious. Him an’ me hashes it over. First we piles a lot 0’ grub into the dingey. Then, bein’s they wouldn’t let us bust the closet open fer the bullets, we just took the empty gun an’ went out after Meullor an’ Dutch. ‘““The two of em was on duty, runnin’ the fog-horn engine all afternoon, so we had to wait till they got relieved. But this eve- ning we goes out an’ rounds ’em up nice an’ quiet-like, an’ made ’em pile into the boat an’ man the oars. Told ’em they was gonna pull till we found you. See, Simp an’ me was figurin’ on doin’ the watch-an’-watch stunt—one sleep while the other held the gun—the empty gun.” | “Beans,” said Graveyard with intense en- thusiasm, ‘“‘you’re a hoss! You had them doped right, old boy; they sawed the oars.’ ‘An’ took the anchor out of the boat,” Goat interposed. Blackie now spoke up. ‘“‘Who owns these two boats?” he asked. ‘“‘The skiff is ours; the dingey is a light- house boat,” Graveyard answered. “All right, you fellows,” said Blackie to the two in the dingey. ‘‘Pile that grub into the skiff; then pile yourselves in.” ““SMOKY,’ ‘Nut’ an’ ‘Speedy’ comichbook ~ . Se . " it an ey, ~ ——~ e