Adventure Magazine Cover, April 1916 — page 50: what you’re looking at

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

48 “Tf this be a lawful prize of war, me- thinks the cargo, too, is fair booty. Let’s have a look at her papers, men.” %| THE sailors gave a hearty British “1 cheer, and jumped and capered about the deck with glee, and ex- changed meaning glances among them- selves, as if to say that things were going to suit them very well indeed, and just as they had planned they should. Captain Stilling- fleet looked thunder-clouds, but the Span- ish captain merely smiled, with no trace of -annoyance upon his patrician face. ‘Nevertheless, and you take the ship, save that you cast her away, it will be re- stored to me in good time,” said he, ‘“‘under the law, as you shall find out.” “‘There is no law below the tropic, nor has been since Elizabeth’s time,” replied Nancy. ‘Nor is there any law that says that Englishmen may not take back an English ship wherever they find it.”’ ‘England and Spain are now at peace,”’ said Captain Stillingfleet, and the Sefior speaks truly. And then, in an evil moment, he looked at the Spanish girl again, and she smiling back at him in all her loveliness, the frown vanished from his face. He smiled back at her and thus settled his fate. For a high resolve had been running in Nancy’s mind, no less a purpose than to save her friends and kinsmen, hiding in France until the Stuarts might be over- thrown again, from the treachery of this cavalier royalist, a resolve to keep him from going back to England, at all costs, at what- ever sacrifice, until time should frustrate his schemes. And then that smile! It de- cided her. She would hold the ship by whatever pretext she could. To do this, she knew, she would need the aid of the Englishmen she had rescued from Tortuga; and to ob- tain that she would have to fall in with their plans. Since they were pirates, as Captain Stillingfleet had said, she must, and would, turn pirate with them. ‘“‘Let’s have a peek at the papers and see what sort of a prize we have here,”’ roared the men, and went tumbling aft, with Nancy at their heels. They broke open the supercargo’s cabin, and getting out the ship’s papers spread them upon the table in the great cabin and pored over them with exclamations of Adventure delight, Nancy spelling out the items amid a chorus of cheers and yells. “Men,” said she finally, ‘“‘we have a prize here that brings us riches. ‘Here’s the list: ‘Hides, 1,900; 100 chests of cochineal; 24 coffers of wedges of silver; 8,400 Castil- ian reals; ro coffers of the King of Spain’s treasure; 240 hundred-weight of dyestuffs; 780 pigs of lead.” ‘“‘And what, Miss, is all that worth, think you?” demanded Jim Rimble. “‘Not less than 300,000 crowns,”’ answer- ed the girl after a pause. The men looked at one another at this in silence. Then the one among them who was called Trueheart Jackson, a Sussex man, taking a long breath, ‘‘Well, mates,” says he, ‘‘we’re rich now, I’m thinking, and can go back home to old England and live like gentlemen for the rest of our days.” “Hurrah!” shouted the men, mad with delight. ‘“‘And hang for it,” said Nancy, looking first one and then another of them in the eye. The shot went home. Their faces fell, that is to say the faces of those who could not go home, because of their crimes and rogueries, and were now reminded of them. “Nay, but with gold we can buy par- dons,” cried Trueheart Jackson. “That’s so! That’s so!’ chorused the men, happy as children once more. ‘‘We can buy pardons.” “T can’t buy a pardon in England for what I done,’’ bemoaned Jim Rimble. ‘“‘Why, what did you do, Jim Rimble?” asked Nancy. ‘‘Nay, forgive me, ’twas hastily spoken. I meant it not.” “T stoled a sheep,” replied Jim Rimble, wagging his head and rolling his eyes at her. ‘‘Thirty-eight year ago it were, come next Mich’elmas, nor have I seen a glimpse o’ bonny England from that there day to this, and, God help me, I'll risk my neck and go.” “Buy pardons!” The girl put warning, alarm, a sneer into her voice, for she was frightened at the turn events had taken, and the disposition the men showed to go back home. “They’ll strip you of your gold — and when that’s gone, Tyburn! There’s no justice now for any man, in England.” “The maid is right!”’ roared Jim Rimble. “There is no justice now in England.” CoOMmichoooks CO