Adventure Magazine Cover, April 1916 — page 67: what you’re looking at

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

Days of Morgan 65 When next her lids fluttered open Captain Stillingfleet was bending over her. ‘Where is Barney?” she asked, so softly they barely heard her. These were the first words she had spoken since she had lost consciousness. Captain Stillingfleet’s eyes filled and a lump rose in his throat, so that he could not answer her, but pointed silently to a small object lying stiffly on the quarter- deck, covered by a sail. Nancy raised herself with an effort, then sank back, moaning. “Dead?” she whispered brokenly. He nodded, ‘“‘yes.”’ “Dead! Oh, dear God, for me! For me! He died for me! Oh! Barney boy, come back to me, come back to me, lad, for I am all alone and need you so.” A convulsive sob choked her throat. “Hush, dear heart,” whispered Cherie. “You, also, are badly hurt. Do not give way to your grief, for ’twill be your death.” “He died for me;”? moaned Nancy, “he died for me, just as he said he would. ‘Mademoiselle,’ he said to me, there on the island, Cherie, you remember, ‘Mademoi- _selle, I would lay down my life for you.’ And now he has kept his word. Oh, Barney, Barney boy, come back, come back to me.” Her cry died away in a wail, and she was silent, her bosom heaving. Then, faintly: ‘“‘We are under way?” “Yes. We got off just in time,” answered Captain Stillingfleet. ‘Just in time?” 3 ‘Yes; hush, you must not exert yourself.” “Just in time? Ah, I remember—Cap- tain Morgan. His men, I thought, were over-armed when they came aboard the last time. I feared he meant us a mischief.” “I was sure of it. But we got clean away, what with leaving behind the bow anchors; and though he gave us chase, we showed him a clean pair of heels, so that he soon gave it over and put back.” “And you, I suppose,”’ said the girl, after a pause, “have taken command of the ship?” “Twas a duty, Madame,” he answered, “I could no longer neglect.” She said nothing to this for a long time, lying quietly, with eyes closed, scarcely breathing, it seemed to Captain Stilling- fleet, who watched her anxiously. Then— “Whither, sir, if I may ask?” “For London.” ; “London! But we were to go adventur- ing, sir, I and my men, to seek gold where- with to buy their pardons. I must keep my troth with them.” | “I thought you had business in London, Madame, and sickose, I have, and pressing business, too. But you must rest quietly and give over all cares to me, for I perceive the fever is coming upon you.” “‘Nay, Captain Stillingfleet,” she answer- ed, “I did not think you would be so base to play me false when I am ill, nor the men, neither. Would you see them lashed through the streets of London at the tail of a cart, or hanged on Tyburn? About ship, sir! ‘“‘Jim Rimble!” she screamed, as the de- lirium she had been fighting off, at length overwhelmed her. “Jim Rimble! Pierre! Ho, lads, tumble up. Away aloft and shorten sail! Let fly to’gallant sheets! How’s your helm, Mr. Quartermaster? Put it hard to port. Go below, Captain Stillingfleet. No, dear God, that I would not shoot you, save that I had no other course—then would I pistol you with my own hand. No—no—no! Forgive me, sir, but go below.” She stopped, exhausted. Her shrill voice, that had brought the men up upon their tiptoes, with tears in their eyes, sank to a whisper. She lay still. Then in a more natural tone: ae “Yellow Eyes! It all comes back to me now. Where is the dumb man?” she fin- ished with a shudder that shook her whole slender frame. ‘‘Where is the tongueless man who killed my Barney?” “Hush, Nancy, hush, I beg you,” said Captain Stillingfleet. “The man with the yellow eyes will trouble you never again. I turned him off at the foreyard arm.” She looked at him dully at first, not com- prehending. And then with a shiver, for all her fever, she twisted herself around and looked upward to where he pointed. ee sky the sinister body of the dumb = man dangled from a spar, swinging gently with the motion of the ship. Nancy’s head fell back and she sank upon the deck, and Captain Stillingfleet, cursing his stupid- ity, gathered her limp form in his arms and with his lips in her hair carried her into the cabin. And many days dragged by before she came out again, to walk slowly up and SILHOUETTED against the tropic CoOMmichoookSs.Ec©