Adventure Magazine Cover, October 1911 — page 171: what you’re looking at

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

Smugeling at Old Point “Now, Cap’n,” he says, keepin’ that pistol pointed right at me, “‘ You sit down in that chair an’ my friends will try to fasten you in it so there will be no danger of fallin’ out.” I sits down, for when a man points a gun at my head means business, as I could see this feller did for all his jokin’, I am goin’ to do jest as he says, as I ain’t anxious to be an angel for quite a spell yet, an’ them other two men tied me up good an’ solid, usin’ knots that tole me they’d follered the water sometime durin’ their lives. They didn’t tie my tongue, though, an’ I cussed an’ threatened them good an’ plenty, but they only laughed. You can imagine how took back I was at such strange happenin’s. Here I was, trussed up like a chicken, in my own office, an’ three men rummagin’ ’round the Station, like as not stealin’ everything worth takin’. I couldn’t quite get through my head why the tall feller had asked ’bout the surf-boat. If they had any sense at all they’d know better than to take one of them, for they ain’t somethin’ you can hide very easy, *specially a Gov’ment boat, as they’re built on a different model from them the surf fish- ermer use, an’ would soon be spotted. I could hear them mussin’ round in the boat-room, an’ now an’ then catch a word orso. ‘The tall feller was the boss, that was plain, an’ he was orderin’ the others to do this or that in a way that showed he had some plan an’ knowed jest how to go ’bout it. Somehow, though, I never thought they was goin’ to do anything with the boats an’ was mighty ’sprised when I heard the boat- room doors opened an’ then the noise of the boat-wagon rollin’ ’cross the floor an’ down the runway. Tk * WHAT the dickens can they be up tor” thinks I. It was the small open boat on the wagon—the big one was chocked up on the floor; an’ though she was light an’ easy handled by the crew, I couldn’t see how them three fellers was goin’ to git her to the beach, an’ that was the only thing they could do if they wanted to git away with her. I made up my mind they’d have their hands full an’ I could hear them runnin’ in an’ out the Station as though they were luggin’ a good many things off. Then that stopped an’ the sound of their voices grew fainter an’ fainter till I couldn’t hear a sound an’ figgers that they have gone. , 1117 All this time I had been workin’ at the ropes that held me, but them fellers had done a good job, an’ though I pulled an’ strained, I couldn’t loosen a thing. My hands were hangin’ down on each side of the chair an’ the rope had been hitched round one of my wrists an’ then passed under the chair-bottom an’ fastened to the other, so, while I could move my hands a little it didn’t do any good at first, till I studied out a scheme that more by luck than anything else happened to work. They had tied my legs to the chair-posts, lashin’ them fast jest ’bove the ankles, an’ my only chance was that I could reach the knots with my hands. If the rope was long enough for me to work my hand round my legs till I could feel the knots, all right; if it wasn’t, I reckoned I’d have to stay there till somebody come ’long an’ untied me. I tried it, though, an’ it worked, but I had a dickens of a time with them knots, for they had been tied by men who knew how. First one leg an’ then the other I loosened; then I plans to git my hands free, which I did by smashin’ the rungs of the chair with my heels, an’ then shovin’ it over backwards. It didn’t take long then for me to git a knife out of my pocket an’ open it, though it was kinder awkward, for I had to do it with my hands still behind my back an’ ’bout a foot apart. Then I cut that rope an’ was free. The first thing I did when I got loose was to grab my gun an’ see that it was loaded; then I slips a few shells in my pocket an’ starts to look them fellers up. I’d made up my mind that I wouldn’t stand for a bit of foolin’, but, if they showed fight, to let ’em have it, both barrels, an’ keep on shootin’ till they quieted down. There was good- sized shot in the shells an’ while they wouldn’t kill a man ’less he was pretty close, they wouldn’t feel a mite pleasant an’ would prob’ly take most of the fight out of him. I knew they wasn’t in the Station but wasn’t jest sure how far away they was, so I slips out the back door an’ looks round the corner toward the boat-room, careful, but there’s nothin’ in sight ’ceptin’ the boat- wagon, so I walks out there an’ finds how they had got the boat away. You know them roller skids we use in haulin’ the boat out on the beach? There’s five pair at this Station.’ Well, them cusses had found them an’, after gittin’ the boat off the wagon, had rolled her down to the beach, puttin’ down in front an’ takin’ up behind, C© MICLOOKS C©