Adventure Magazine Cover, November 10, 1924 — page 35: what you’re looking at

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

The Casual’s Return A crack of wood, a wailing cry that ended in a gurgle, and silence. “What’s that?” asked the deep voice. “Signal’s fell overboard.”’ “The ——— with him,” said the deep voice. ‘That air-filled head of his will keep him afloat. Give way together!” The boat crawled away with great splash- ing, and requests to be “careful o’ that —— oar.” Another boat come down silently, as if its crew were trained and competent. The falls were released and the boat shoved away from the vessel. It came to rest a few feet from Eadie’s raft, and the sergeant could see that it was full of officers, sitting quite calmly on the thwarts. The waters were becoming crowded. There were a great many rafts floating about, some with men on them, and some empty. Every so often a raft would be silhouetted on the crest of a sea, its grating against the sky like the bars of a cell. Someone was trying to climb on it and it had overturned. As soon as a raft acquired any kind of load, all the many swimmers made for it, because its load would keep it stable, and a lone swimmer might get on. There were so many lone swimmers that the rafts soon be- came overcrowded, and one might see a - yaft quite black with men and, within a circle of ten yards, half a dozen empty ones. Eadie looked again at the officer’s boat. What had happened? The gunwale did not seem half as high as it had. Surely— Consternation suddenly swept the off- cers on the boat. They stood up and at that second their boat sighed and went away from under them, leaving them but a “number of black dots on the surface of the sea. The soldiers on Eadie’s raft were prop- erly astonished, but they were able to pull one officer out of the wet and find a place for him to sit and shiver and dangle his feet in the Atlantic Ocean. “Leaky ole boat,” suggested some. “Boche spy bored holes in it,” said an- other. “Water melted the glue,” suggested a facetious soldier. THE reason fof the boat’s treachery was none of these. The handling of boats is quite a science in itself and one that is sadly neglected. The Navy, flooded with recruits, gave them as good q XN 53 training as it could, but a sailor can not be made overnight. At that, the Navy in its wildest moments, never remotely re- sembled the mob that went by the name of cs Army.” However, in the darkness of early morn- ing, in all the suddenness of a torpedoing, there are bound to be a few mistakes. The boat had been lowered with two sailors at the falls, who had been ordered to jump in at the last moment. The officers had believed the boat to be in good condition and the sailors thought it had been prepared for launching, since it was full when they got in. Unfortunately, there was a hole in the bot- tom of the boat that was left open for drain- age and the plug had not been inserted in this hole. The officers had sat quietly in the boat until it sank under them. The officer that the men on Eadie’s raft had rescued had a flashlight. He fished it from his soggy pocket and turned it on to see if it worked. It did. There was a diver- sion of opinion regarding its use, whether it would give their position away to the sub that had torpedoed them, or whether it would draw rescuers if by any chance there were such about. The latter opinion pre- vailed and the officer flashed his light about on the scattered wreckage, in search of those in need of rescue. Into the beam of the light came an object like a huge white ball. “That’s Jake,” cried Eadie. “Jake! I’d know that naked skull at the bottom.of the sea.” It was indeed Jake, who supported an- other man. “Gimme hand!” panted Jake, blowing water like a walrus. ‘I’m ’bout all in.” Half a dozen hands reached out to him. The officer turned the flashlight full upon Jake, who at that moment saw the face of the man he was supporting in the water. “Look!”’ cried some one on the raft. ‘“He’s got Honey Boy! Honey Boy got saved! Good for you, soldier.” Jake registered intense peeve. : “Hlave I been savin’ that there pug’s life?” he panted. He said no word, being chary of breath, but he opened his hand and the pug, alias Honey Boy, slid under a wave. “What the are you doing?’ cried some one on the raft. “Who the —— you shovin’?’’ cried others. PS, :; Comicbook C© 5}