The Argosy, Christmas 1912 — page 100: what you’re looking at

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

86 Being short of cash for traveling ex- penses, he decided to remain the nec- essary time instead of moving with his whole crew to Halifax. He would continue to wait until he received a money-order that would enable them to exist until they could be picked up at Halifax by one of the firm's schooners. Arrived at this determination, some six hours after the departure of the Penguin, the whole oil-skinned, pipe- smoking procession clumped through the main street of the town toward the wharf, there to argue endlessly and wait for the next approaching meal- time. The street, passing behind a large canning factory, met the pier at an acute angle. Emerging from behind this obstruction, the whole crew, as one man, looked up and out to sea. Then, also as one, their jaws sagged and re- mained hanging, their eyes popped, and their limbs refused the service to which they were ordained. For there, trim as you please, un- damaged and ship-shape, rode the Ro- san, with young Del Tanner leaning over the rail and grinning in fiendish glee. Captain Bijonah found his fac- ulties first, and when he spoke it was with deep piety. “Tt’s her Flyin’ Dutchman come to ha’nt me fer my cussedness to me own blood brother!” he said, rubbing his sleeve across his eyes to dispel the vision. But there was no ghostliness about things when the voice of Del replied: “Tt’s time something come to ha’nt ye about it, ye old shell-back!” and the whole crew whooped aboard with a roar of unsteady laughter. . “ But what did ye do it for, ye young fiend?” asked Big Dick after all had mugged up in the cabin. ‘“ Why did ye go off an’ leave us that way? Was ye angry at Abijah here?” “ Angry, your sea-boots!” retorted the young scapegrace, who had sudden- ly become the hero of the occasion. “T heard that revenue cutter bellerin’ THE ARGOSY. - the fog, an’ I tried to get away from er.” “ But we didn’t hear any whistlin’! ” exclaimed Ellinwood. “ Ah, ha, I thought as much! You know as well as I do, Pete, what tricks a fog will play on a man. That was one of ’em. I heard it, an’ you did not. But that ain’t all. I figgered she was comin’ no’th and wouldn’t have a chance to seq the dories, except by dumb luck; while with me, alone on the schooner, my topmasts might have been gleamin’ in the sun. So what did I do but break for Painter’s Island, plannin’ to lie there until she had gone by. Whether Bijonah’s conscience told hirh he was fishin’ inside the three- mile limit, I suppose none of us’ll ever know; but mine told me that if I went inside Painter’s Island and got caught, there’d be nothing but confiscation of the Rosan and jail for me. “Powers o’ darkness, listen to this! After a while I didn’t hear no more bellerin’ of the whistle, an’ I thought I would just run round Painter’s and fetch up in my old berth. No sooner did I get the bowsprit past the island than I ran out into sunshine, and there was the Penguin goin’ south with me. Well, the. way they fired her must’ve broke some backs below. After that I just run.” “But the wreck! Del Ramsay was sure sartin you had gone to glory! What about that? ”’ “Wal, it’s like this. Bijonah there thinks I’m an idiot and don’t know nothin’ because I get wild once in a while. But I knew a thing or two this time. I knew the Rosan was light, because we hadn’t much fish in her, I knew the tides were exceptionally full just now, and I knew the Penguin couldn’t chase me into the shoals. So I broke across the shoals in four fathoms o’ water—the schooner draws three, you know—and headed for Gan- tle Rock close inshore. “You know how she stands out there like a great stone wall, with a deep channel between her and shore CoOMmicbook CO