Adventure Magazine, December 10, 1924 — page 172: what you’re looking at

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

150 “Honest, old man, you’re as nutty as the coconut-grove!”’ “Listen to me,” insisted Wade. ‘Not so nutty as you’d think. Parson Jessup and his wife—she’s aboard—will be glad to help us. I'll pile into a hammock and play sick. You go for the parson, tell him I’m dying— honest sailor stuff—shipwrecked and all that. Well, they can’t let a sick man stay here if there’s a chance of saving his life. Work on him, and he’ll take us to some port where there’s a doctor—anyhow, out of here.”’ “Sure!” said Doxey. ‘That’ll be nice; some port where there are doctors and hos- pitals and police.”’ He was mildly ironical now, and finished off his words with a rasping little laugh of scorn at the absurdity of Wade’s idea. “What,” asked Wade, imitating Doxey’s mildness, ‘would you do if you had a nice little three-masted schooner, a missionary schooner, to take you anywhere you wanted to gor” For more than a minute Doxey looked straight into Wade’s eyes. Then the short man opened his mouth and drew in his breath sharply. “Say!” he exclaimed. drift!” “Not a bad idea, eh? Considering the fact that you’ve got a first-class sheath- knife and I’ve got a navy revolver wrapped in oiled silk, with plenty of ammunition, this Salvation Jessup and his wife and his native crew, and maybe a white mate, ain’t such an awful lot of folks to handle, eh? Simply a matter of getting aboard by hook or crook and out to sea. The rest would be easy.” He lazily lighted a fresh cigaret, his air that of a man who had solved a problem so perfectly that nothing remained to do but put the thing into motion. “Tf we can get aboard her and stay long enough so the schooner’ll be to sea, yes,” admitted Doxey. ‘“That’s the trouble— getting aboard. But what if this Parson Jessup won’t have us near his schooner, much less aboard her?”’ “Mr. Parson Salvation Jessup’ll have mighty little to say about it and what he does say he can say into the muzzle of my navy revolver. Twig that?” “Ever meet this Salvation Jessup guy?” asked Doxey. Wade shook his head. “T begin to get the Adventure “No. But he’s the usual soft-headed mis- sionary, I’ve heard. For that matter, so far’s I’m concerned he can be hard as nails. I’ve bullets that’ll be harder, Pll bet.”’ “What’s this sick stuff you pulled a min- ute back?” ‘Just an idea. I hear Jessup likes to help sailors who are down and out. Well, that’s what we are so far as he’s concerned. We'll get out our clothes, dress up and look re- spectable enough to suit this sea-going preacher.” He reached up under the thatch and took down a long package of irregular shape. It was greasy and stained his fingers as he be- gan to unwrap it. “We’ve got to do a little scouting around to find out how many whites he’s got in his crew,” suggested Doxey. “I rather think we can put Parut and his gang on that job.” “‘Parut can help, yes,” said Wade, as he took out a new blued-steel revolver with a long barrel and began to wipe away the thick oil which coated it. ‘“‘We’ll have to deal with a woman,” sug- gested Doxey. ‘What if she should give us so much trouble that we’d have to——” ‘We can’t let a woman stand between us and this chance,” replied Wade. “Well, if we start this thing, we’ve got to be ready to go to any extreme. No half measures. A woman left alive would be the means of hanging us, and we’re pretty deep in as it-is.”’ “T’ve thought of that, Dox. This is our chance. If we don’t grab it, we’re stuck here another year or two; maybe ten. Any old day we may be picked up by the coast guard. I don’t trust Parut or any of the other natives.”’ “‘No, we can’t hang on here forever and be safe,” agreed Doxey. “‘There’s another thing,” reminded Wade, going on with his revolver-cleaning. ‘It’s been easy enough to keep out of sight while no whites were on the island. But you know there’s a possibility of a trading sta- tion being put in here, with white men. And plantation concessions are likely to be going any day. We can’t expect to keep hidden here even under the best of circum- stances, for the natives can’t be trusted too far. But there’s another little thing that got into my mind this morning when I saw that Holy Joe boat.” ““What’s that?” “This visit of the Gospel Argonaut with CoMmicbook A) CO =