Adventure Magazine Cover — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

62 McGree stopped, glaring blankly for an instant. Then he lunged, drove out a long hairy arm, seized the native, took him neck and thigh and heaved him overboard, roaring after him— “It is for you to drown, —— you!” He might as well have tried to drown a fish by throwing it into the water; but this had been McGree’s first impulse, and he followed it. Then facing about he waved his arms in furious scattering gestures: “Get up forward—forward! Every pig of you! Clear forward—into the forecastle!”’ As if the furious waving of his arms had stirred the wind a rippling shadow, a mile wide, came on the water and, spreading, ruffled the glassy surface of the ocean on all sides. A breeze began playing lightly among the inert sails. The crew went forward, moving with backward steps, lingering as they went, pausing after every step, stopping near the deck-house, then edging aft again when unwatched. “Now, Will Heddon,” he shouted, “we will fight! And the next man that meddles, IT will kill him!” And they fought, on and on, at times with caution. McGree was recklessly aggressive, but a little wary of Heddon’s tricks. He was hardly afraid of Heddon’s blows. Heddon, watchful, alert, struck over and over at just one spot on McGree’s face. The wind grew stronger. The calm was broken. The ships swayed a little, straining against the ropes, then bumped together, grinding bulwarks as if the struggle of their captains were entering them. Heddon came in close, ducked under a swing, raised up and flexibly as a whip straightens its lash-to a mark, again drove his right arm at McGree’s left eye. The blow jarred Heddon’s arm to its elbow. A side-swiping swing glancingly caught him alongside the head and knocked him over. He hit the deck and was up with a move- ment like rebound. McGree bared his teeth in a laugh and rushed again. Heddon, fierce-eyed, both eyes focused on one spot, feinted, side-stepped, stepped in, and, teeth hard set, again smashed his knuckles against the swollen eye. McGree flung a hand to the eye, cursed, then rushed wildly. The rush was like the charge of a bull. No man could have stood against him in one of his flurries of rage. Adventure Heddon went back, circling with rapid shifting of feet; then, glimpsing an opening, lunged, driving the heel of his palm against McGree’s left eye. But McGree caught him, jerked him forward to get his arms crushingly around him; and Heddon, quick as a cat, lunged and setting his heel behind McGree’s foot, shoved. The great body went over with a backward, full-length fall, and again Heddon broke free. “Fight with your feet—and run!” Mc- Gree roared, instantly crouching, and came wildly. Heddon was tired. So far he had luckily escaped from the clinches. Heddon was a powerful man, but McGree was stronger than he; and he could not merely fight easily, deftly, indefinitely—he had to punish himself hard, trying to win. His right fist ached as if it had been burned. Now, retreating before McGree’s rush, he ducked again, side stepped; then, seeing a chance, paused, swung with a left for McGree’s eye, missed and was knocked cleanly off his feet. He hit the deck with a groping sprawl. His head spun. The gently swaying deck seemed swirling on a tossing sea. Dimly he came to his knees, hands down, and the next instant McGree was at him. In the stillness, all that he heard was a woman’s shrill, broken cry, seemingly far away. Heddon, nearly blinded closed on Mc- Gree’s legs, bucked against them, jerked. tugged. With the topping fall ‘of dead weight, McGree fell upon him, but across Heddon’s back. For a minute their two great bodies thrashed together, seeking strangling holds, striking blows that had no arm-swung impetus, squirming and writh- ing; then, in the flash of a chance, Heddon butted and struck McGree’s left eye. For a moment it seemed to Heddon that he had cracked his own skull. McGree clapped a hand to the eye, and on the instant, Heddon broke free, rolled over and jumped to his feet; but McGree, too, was rising, and they faced each other i in a minute’s pause. Heddon’s mouth was cut, the flesh of a cheek was broken, his face bleeding, his knuckles were opened at old scars and ached. He was tired. Red spots that would be black bruises in another hour were on his body. But the brow of McGree’s left eye was cut; the brow sagged; the eye was bruised, swollen, and closed. Heddon DOOLK 1 @)