Adventure Magazine Cover, November 10, 1924 — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

The Casual’s Return No one is going to that library or whatever it is when the lights are out. As for this other door, it’s near enough to the main alleyway so that no one will see me if I’m at the other end of this one.” HE REMOVED his overcoat and sat on the sill of the door near the ~ main passage to remove his puttees and shoes. The sills of these staterooms water that might sneak in from the deck. Eadie pulled upon a shoe with vigor. It came off suddenly and he went backward. The panels of the door yielded easily and he reclined upon the back of his neck in the stateroom, to the accompaniment of a tremendous crash, “Pardon me!” he exclaimed to the dark- ness. ‘I’m sorry.” He scrambled to his feet expecting to hear muttered questions and he had a lively apprehension lest some nervous officer start to probe the darkness with lead from a forty-five. The room was silent. There was no bubbling sound of breath, no smell of men. The air was warm, it had an odor of clean paint, of salt water, and of plush. Eadie stamped his shod foot on the deck. No response. “If this isn’t an empty stateroom,” cried Eadie, ‘then I’m a cook’s police in a pill battery.” ; He groped toward the wall and his hand immediately found a water-proof light switch. First making sure that the door was, closed, he turned the switch. Nothing happened. The lights were all turned off at the main switchboard, to prevent any absent-minded officer or man turning a switch and sending a beam of light across the sea that could be seen for eighty miles or so. | Eadie grunted and felt along the wall with his hand. Two bunks. Both empty, with nothing therein but mattresses. Two more on the next wall, likewise empty. A plush couch, and a cold steel wall that must be the ship’s side. A wash-stand in the corner, nothing more back to the door again. ° “Oh, boy,” exclaimed Eadie. “I think I’ve fallen into something soft!’ _ He explored the door again. The key was in the lock. “T’ll say I have. It’s warm enough in here so we don’t need any blankets and we can dust out the minute reveille blows. j were about a foot high, to keep out any ' 19 But what’s to prevent our hanging out in here all day? Nothing. Soft. There'll be lights on during the day and we can read and live the life of Riley. I must go down and get Hairy Jake.” As he went to the door he paused. “By gosh,” he decided, ‘‘I never could find him in all that mixup. I don’t even know where he bunks. And what would I tell him? He wouldn’t get out of a bunk and follow me just because I dragged at his arm. And if I told him about this place, the whole compartment would want to come. Nope. It’s tough on Jake, but he’s got to wait until morning. I’d better try it out alone, anyway, because if some one should come in here during the night and sling me out on my ear it won’t be as bad as if both of us got thrown out. Nope, Jake, maftana you can have a bunk in this state- room, but not tonight.” The sergeant reached out into the pas- sage for his overcoat, secured it,.locked the door, and having selected the bunk that felt the most comfortable, lay down upon it, and after a little time of marveling at his good fortune, he slept. oe IN THE morning the chow line was ( Y much larger than it had been the ~ day before. It was a fine sparkling ' day, a strong breeze driving the spray across the decks, and the ships dancing and curt- seying like fat old dowagers in their second childhood. Appetites are good on such a morning at sea. Eadie would have sought Jake at once, but stomach first is one of the best of the unwritten army regulations. Bacon, boiled eggs and fried potatoes hav- ing been consumed and seconds tried for without success, the sergeant went in search of Jake. First he inspected his own bunk, folded the blankets in regulation manner and made all snug, so that any inspector would not know the bunk had an oceupant during the night. Then he sought among the bunks for Jake. . ‘“‘Where’s Jake Brown’s bunk?” he asked a man who read a paper novel under a light in the deck above. “Who in ——’s Jake Brown?”’ asked the man. “The big hairy guy,”’ said Eadie. “Oh, that big guy? I don’t know where he sleeps. Over back there with the rest of the elephants.” Eadie went in the indicated direction. Comichook ) (© 5}