Adventure Magazine, December 10, 1924 — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

50 found out. When he discovered that a ship’s officer, and a friend of the owners, was aboard—Andy was no coward, but he shuddered. A man like Stivers would rather risk murder on the high seas—where the log the captain keeps is evidence in any law court—rather than face proved charges of barratry. Holding his breath, Andy started to creep aft, away from the lifeboat. At all cost he must not be found in a place where Stivers would know that his plans had been overheard. Andy edged behind a tub of line as the captain threw back the cover of the lifeboat. He had got five feet away, moving with infinite caution, when he coughed. “‘Who’s there!”’ whispered Stivers fiercely, and jumped to the deck. Andy drew him- self into the darkest shadow, and gripped his mouth in his hand. Despite his efforts, the tickling in his throat increased. “We can’t let him tell the crew!’’ gasped Johansen, his voice staccato and trembling in the panic of a weak man cornered. Andy coughed again. Pistol in hand, the mate jumped for the sound, but before he could aim and fire Andy’s tall figure sprang erect and his fist swung desperately to the angle of the mate’s jaw. There was a flash of fire as the pistol exploded harmlessly. Feet pounded along the deck from aft. Andy jumped the mate’s body as it fell, and started running aft. His only hope was to warn the crew. But to the left, in- stead of in front as he expected, the red glare of the side light caught Stivers’ face, contorted with rage. Andy swung and ducked, but his fist missed, and as Stivers jeaped upon him, Andy felt a blue-white h of fire in his head; and then thick darkness, through which he was sinking down, down, down. i » and painfully. First, Andy was aware of a throbbing headache; next that he was lying in a bunk with a heavy bandage about his head ;inally, that he was handcuffed. He remembered the footsteps he had heard running forward just before the captain had struck. When Stivers had knocked him down with the butt of a pistol, then, he had not dared to toss him over- board before witnesses. Andy opened his eyes with a stifled groan CONSCIOUSNESS returned slowly himself. Adventure and saw Stivers sitting beside his bunk, chewing at an unlighted cigar. Andy started so that his handcuffs clinked. He had expected he would be in the forecastle, and not between sheets in an officer’s bunk. ‘“You’re persistent, ain’t you, Bud,” Stivers snarled out of the corner of his mouth, a cold glare in his blue eyes. “I was hoping you was going to croak, too.” Andy turned his face to the wall without answering. He heard the captain rise, and braced himself for a blow, but intead Stivers only grunted with a sort of grim humor. “T wish I’d soaked you harder, Bud. But your bean was too thick, and it’s too late now. D’ye remember what hap- pened?” Andy stirred feverishly on the bunk. “Why did the mate pull his gun, Cap- tain?’’ he bluffed in a weak voice. “I heard you coming and was trying to get away aft when he jumped me.” ‘So you didn’t hear me say I was wishing I’d taken you aboard?” inquired Stivers softly. It was a leading question, but Andy saw that the captain was seeking to trap him into admitting he had been able to overhear what had been said. “T heard you two talking but the wash along the sides made so much noise I couldn’t hear what you said,” Andy lied. Possibly he could bluff his way out yet. If he could persuade the skipper he was nothing but a stowaway—— ‘“What’s the idea of the handcuffs?” he added with as much indignation as he could muster. Stivers watched him keenly, chewing slowly on his cigar for what seemed hours. Then he gave the quick nod of a man that has made up his mind, and grinned— grimly, but not unkindly; in the way a man does when he has a worthy antagonist, but has beaten him. “You lanky down-Easters are pretty cute, ain’t you?” he stated. “It’s no use, Bud. You can’t play poker. You’re in the log as a crazy stowaway who attacked the mate and was subdued by the captain after a struggle.” Stivers chuckled to “And the whole crew can swear to Johansen’s black eye. We put on the irons because you were dangerous, but we couldn’t put a crazy man in with the crew, CoMmiclhook A) CO =