Adventure Magazine Cover, November 10, 1924 — page 163: what you’re looking at

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

Eight Seconds He touched his cap with a gesture of mock deference, swung about and went down the ladder; and as he strode aft on the main deck the whistled notes of a hauling chantey i,oated up to the bridge. ‘Why didn’t you let me at ’im?” grum- bled Tommy. ‘He couldn’t lick me. Id have beat his head off.” “Don’t be too sure of that,’’ warned Cap- tain Mac, thoughtfully adjusting his sex- tant. ‘‘He’s a scrapper, that fellow, what- ever else he is.”’ ‘“Y’betcha!” came Mr. Tenny’s down-East drawl. “He ain’t no gentle little lamb.” ‘“‘And he didn’t get his map chewed up like that in any seminary, either,” put in Scott. “He’s been around a bit, that bird!” “What’s this about him burning the Sabine?” asked Captain Mac. Tommy quickly told of the message he had read the night before in the wireless room. ‘Sparks said he wasn’t sure that he had got it straight——” ‘“‘He’s a useless animal,” broke in Mr. Tenny. “and that’s why it wasn’t in the press news this morning. You see now why Breen wants to get put ashore on Watling, don’t you? He could hire a native boat to run him over to Cuba or one of the other islands. Then he could ship on some vessel going to South America. He must have money with him. The United States Marines in Port- au-Prince will stick@him in the jug until a Department of Justice agent comes down for him. That’s about the last place in the world he’d want to go to. Maybe you’d better put him in irons, Cap’n.” “It’s not customary to put a man in irons at sea as long as he keeps the peace,” said Captain Mac. “However, we’ll shackle ’im up as soon as we near port.” “She’s on the meridian,” warned Mr. Tenny. The four officers threw up their sextants and “‘shot” the sun for latitude. Then the captain, the mate and the third mate went to their rooms to work out their observa- tions, while the second mate, on watch, took his sight-book to the wing of the bridge and began figuring on the shelf in the lee of the weather-cloth. Soon there came three short buzzes, the five-minute “‘stand by” for the noon time signal. Captain Mac, in the chart room, read the chronometer when the final signal 161 sounded, then, a puzzled light in his eyes, he came to the bridge. “T can’t understand it,” he said. ‘“That signal agrees with the one we got last night. They make the chronometer eight seconds faster than our figuring does. If those sig- nals are right, then all four of us are wrong, and the ship is about two miles east of where we think she is.”’ ‘Will you change the course, sir, to haul her over to the west’ard?”’ inquired Scott. “No, not till I’m sure that Sparks isn’t making some mistake. I’m afraid of Wat- ling when there’s no light on her. It’s a lee shore this time of the year, you know; and there are the skeletons of two ships on it now.” | THE two time signals that fol- 1 lowed—at ten that night and noon the following day—verified the pre- vious ones; the chronometer, if the radio signals were correct, was eight seconds faster than calculated to be. “T can’t understand it,’ said Captain Mac. ‘The only explanation is that the standard chronometer has jumped eight seconds. I can hardly believe it, but I can’t argue with the United States Hydro- graphic Office.” “It’s that dang wireless man,” growled Mr. Tenny. | : “He’d hardly make the same slip four times in succession and in the same way.” ““S’pose ’e did it on purpose? It’ud be jus’ like ’im.” “T think you’re talking nonsense,” said Captain Mac slowly. ‘Nonsense or not, Cap’n, I allus was sus- picious o’ that feller. Now it’s wuss, what with him and that feller Breen allus havin’ their heads together. He’s sceered half to death o’ Breen, anybody can see that. How d’ye know Breen ain’t put ’im up to somethin’?” “What do you mean?” ‘Well, you know Breen said ’e ain’t goin’ to Port-au-Prince; s’pose ’e’d manage to pile th’ ship up on the beach at Watling, now?” Captain Mac smiled faintly. “‘That’s worth thinking over,” he said; “but the idea didn’t escape me. I’ve been considering it since yesterday, when Breen made his little speech.” “Tf I was you, Cap’n, I’d shackle ’im up:” “At sear It would look kind of foolish, wouldn’t it?” COmiclbook © 5}