Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 56: what you’re looking at

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

686 Bashan roarings went off as meekly as a lamb, Pugsley was relieved to see that the cap- tain was occupied with the pilot on the quarter, and thus escaped the sight of his discomfiture. It was now nearly high water, and the tide would soon be running ebb. Ata signal from the captain, the first officer took charge on the top-gallant forecastle head, while the second mate and bo’s’un worked the main deck. The flood tide began to slacken and as the Valkyrie swung to the wind, the order was passed along from aft to weigh anchor, With a clear, melodious voice Richard Dunbar sang out: ‘‘ All hands, man the windlass.” To the tramp, tramp of sailor’s feet, the chanteyman led off. “We're outward bound, we’re outward bound, “ Heave, bully boys, heave, and pawl, “ Oh, pull that anchor up and down. “ Hurrah, we're outward bound! Hurrah, we're outward bound!” The chanteyman rolled on, till Dunbar sang out to the captain. “ Anchor’s apeak, sir.” “Very good, mister, loose sails, fore and aft.” So the canvas was set, topsails, topgal- lantsails, royals, and skysails, flat as boards. The inner and outer jibs were run up, and the sheets hauled to windward. The main and after yards were braced sharp -to the wind, and the new clipper, began to look like some great white pinioned sea-bird, fluttering before her flight. The anchor was hove up to a sounding chantey. As the ship gathered way, in the slack water, the ensign dipped, and the Valkyrie had started on her maiden voyage, followed by the cheers of a patriotic multi- tude. For the first time with sadness, Richard Dunbar beheld blue water increasing be- tween himself and the shore. Heretofore, he was never happier than when outward bound. Now he was divided between the love of a ship, and the love of a girl. At the moment of parting there came for Richard a dark cloud upon what had been ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, a clear sky. At the last minute, just as the ensign was dipped, Mary Williston ap- peared on the dock holding Nat Gertridge’s arm. At this sight, Richard wanted to jump ashore, to take her from him. ‘““ What might Gertridge do while he was gone?” Standing there, on the zesty topgallant forecastle head, there came to Richard Dun. bar a sudden rush of doubts and fears, as he watched the girl whom he loved, waving adieu with one hand, while with the other she clung to the man whom he hated. CHAPTER XVI. PACKET RATS, T sight of Nat Gertridge standing in proprietary manner beside the girl he loved, Dunbar felt the tiger slum- bering within him suddenly aroused and raging. Thanks to his distracted state, the first officer’s tasks were accomplished with no little bungling, to the added advantage of his rival. : Captain Forbes, on the poop, glowered upon-this flagrant inattention. “‘ Starting in bad,” he muttered. ‘‘ Looks as though Pugsley’s best man after all.” In the second mate’s mind there was no doubt as to who was the best man. Pugsley, a bluenose bucko, reprehended everything that savored of the upper class. His great- est boast was that he came to the cabin through the hawse-pipe. He was as hard as his iron Nova Scotian coast, as pitiless, and as cruel. In every way he was ideally qualified as a Western ocean manhandler. When Dunbar came down from the fore- castle head, Pugsley watched him with sin- ister eye. The trim figure, the erect head, the small blond mustache, the crisp hair closely cropped, the smartness of turnout, every detail of the crack officer was there, to be hated at sight by the less favored second mate. In a word, Richard Dunbar was an officer and a gentleman, who represented the playing field of Harvard transplanted to the Seven Seas. Mr. Bucko Pugsley, was a graduate of the scuppers, who still stunk of the scuppers, and gloried in that LI GOmMmiGsdookssco 5}