Adventure Magazine Cover, April 1916 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

14 for the Canaries, and, after stopping there for two days for wood and water, during which time no shore liberty was allowed, and a strict watch was kept night and day on all the wretched passengers, dropped down to the Cape Verdes. Here they altered their course to the westward, and went across on the northeast trades. By this time Nancy and Barney had made themselves favorites with the pas- sengers and crew. ‘The only youngsters on board, they were soon fetching and carry- ing for the whole ship. They feasted on titbits from the master’s cabin and stood their watches with the men as if they had used the sea all their lives. Naturally of a cheerful disposition, the girl accepted the new state of her fortunes with Puritanical stoicism. She had satis- fied herself that she had been kidnaped, not because her father’s secret had been discovered, but because she was worth, de- livered on board ship, a Spanish pistole to Yellow Eyes. Him she avoided, keeping out of his way at all times, as well for her own sake as for the dog’s, for Yellow Eyes had taken a vio- lent dislike to the puppy, as if it reminded him of a thing he would forget. She often felt his molten eyes burning into her, com- pelling her to look at him by some strange power that they held. She would turn her face as quickly as she could, to shut out the sight of him, with his almost fleshless skull, his thick purple lips, in which all the blood in his body seemed to have settled, and his toothless gums and tongueless gullet beyond. She and Barney spent most of their time with the helmsman, Pierre, the wrinkled- faced, who had been twice around Africa by the Portuguese route to India, and was commonly reputed to have obtained his un- canny skill in reckoning the position of the ship by sun or stars from the devil himself, with whom he was generally believed to be on terms of closest intimacy. A bushy beard encircled his face, so that he seemed to be peering out upon a world of dangers from behind a friendly ambuscade, a sur- mise confirmed by a pair of singularly alert and sharp little eyes which snapped and twinkled incessantly. In the steerage room of the ship before the great cabin, he stood at the compass and kept a record upon the travas of the number of half-hour-glasses they steered Adventure upon every point. From him they learned the lore of the deep sea, of storm and calm, and Nancy, as she had done in her child- hood on the docks at Plymouth, drank in the tales he told with shining eyes and parted lips. All that she had studied in Master Tapps’ and the books on navigation she had read in her young girlhood came back to her now, and Pierre, explaining to her the intricate points, so that she could put what she had learned into practise, she soon became a very fair navigator and could observe the latitude and longitude, and “prick the card” and “‘say the compass’”’ with the best. AND so, what with winds that failed, or blew from the wrong quar- ter, the weeks slipped by until on the sixty-second day after they had quit the shores of France, when water-casks were nearly empty, and crew and passengers were on short allowance of half a pound of biscuits and a gill of brandy a day, they sighted land. This proved to be the eastern- most cape of Hispaniola. So, standing off to avoid a Spanish ship of war that gave chase, they bore away to the northwest. “Hark ye, Barney,’ said Nancy, drawing the Irish lad into a quiet corner. “I’ve been working out a scheme and want your advice upon it. Ever since we left France I have been busy with plans to get back, but ever a difficulty offered to my designs. Now, I have in my shoes some gold pieces, and with them, I warrant you, we shall be able to pay our passage back like gentlemen. What think you of that for an idea?” Barney’s million freckles blended into one before his whole face seemed to disap- pear over the horizon of his distended mouth, which opened in a grin so vast he was like to lose himself in it entirely. His blue eyes blinked furiously. Then there came into them a subtle craftiness. “Faith! I think ’tis the poorest ever I heard of. You will be robbed for your pains.”” The smile disappeared, and a look of deep concern spread over his counte- nance. “Robbed!” “Ay, that you will. I have seen more of the world than you have, Monsieur. There are a dozen men on this ship who would split your wizen for a piece of silver, let alone gold. Show your louis d’or to these beggars, and your money will not be all COMmichoooks (©