Adventure Magazine Cover, June 20, 1925 — page 152: what you’re looking at

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

134 So rather than lead Captain Ira on a chase—which would prove to be disastrous in the end if Ira were really bent on running him down—Captain Dan held the nose of the Pelamon straight toward the trawler’s bow. Mel hastily limped to the fore deck from the pulpit, and the men in the mast- head, taking no chances on being caught aloft if the two vessels collided, descended the ratlines like monkeys. | But before they had reached the deck, the Pelamon had swung off to starboard of the Comber, and the trawler churned past, missing the schooner by a wide margin, Captain Ira taking no chances on bringing his craft about abruptly as he had done the previous night to save her from the liner. And when the trawler had been swallowed astern by the fog, Captain Dan shut off the engine. “Good lord Christopher!” ejaculated Mel, sitting on the deck house and eying the skipper admiringly. ‘“‘When it comes to quick thinkin’—you’re there!” Captain Dan motioned for Mel to be quiet. He listened until the throbbing of the Comber’s engines died away in the dis- tance. Then he opened up the engine. “All right, boys!’ Captain Dan sang out. “We'll keep on fishin’ now.” And to Mel, “T see Captain Ira’s game now. He’s plan- nin’ to run us down. The whelp!” “He won’t—not while you’ve got your eyes open like you just proved you have,” Mel commended the skipper. He slouched forward without another word, and took his place in the pulpit. Captain Dan was surprized at the tone of disappointment in Mel’s remarks. Could it be that Mel was disappointed because the Comber had failed in what appeared to be the deliberate attempt of Captain Ira to run down the schooner? ‘To all appear- ances Mel had been Dan’s iriend, who had sacrificed his season’s fishing to put the veteran on his feet financially. But Mel had also been friendly with Captain Ira before the Pelamon sailed that summer. And for Mel to show disappointment Good heavens! Could it be that Mel was in with Captain Ira on this? That the whole summer’s fishing had been a part of Ira’s plot to run Captain Dan off the water? Captain Ira was well-to-do; he could easily afford to make Mel’s treachery to Dan an object financially. And it had not been likely that Mel had given up his Adventure summer’s fishing in the Victory to put Dan on his feet. Dan cursed himself for not thinking of that before. He knew Captain Ira’s methods; why had Dan been so gullible at Mel’s pro- fession of friendship? Now it looked very much to Dan as if Ira had bribed Mel to assure Dan a successful fishing season,,. then planned to sink the Pelamon on her last trip, rescuing her crew handily, they to swear subsequently in court that it had resulted from an unavoidable accident. That was what Mel and Iva had planned when they got together before swordfishing season. And Mel’s eagerness for Captain Dan to keep on fishing proved that Mel had a hid- den motive in prolonging the trip. And Luke Carey of Mel’s crew was on the Comber Dan felt strangely sad and alone. There he was, an old man, practically at the mercy of Captain Ira and Mel. For now he was sure that Mel was Ira’s confederate. Dan knew he wasn’t such a good fisherman as he used to be. But he loved the thrill of swordfishing, even its countless dangers. This was his pay for an honest life, for his kindness to Mel when Mel needed a friend. How could Mel enter such a conspiracy with Captain Ira against the best friend he had in the States? Captain Dan quickly made up his mind. He would head for Boston at once. If the Comber chased him he couid give her a merry race, and possibly he could lose her in the fog, although Captain Ira, like most swordfishing skippers, had an uncanny knack of Jocating vessels in thick weather. He would ‘*DERELIC’ ahead!” Shiny \. shouted from the masthead. “Port!” Captain Dan swung the wheel to port. Past the star- board side of the Pelamon drifted a half- submerged hull, dismasted. Its deck was awash, its stern completely out of sight, its bow riding high and clear of the surface. It was evident that it was the wreck of a lumber schooner, for only a cargo of lum- ber would permit the derelict to float in that position. The light cargo held up the bow, the heavier stern following the law of gravitation and settling underwater at an angle of forty-five degrees or more. Captain Dan looked for her name, but it COMIGDIOOKSEEO