Argosy, Vol. 85, No. 3 — page 119: what you’re looking at

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

“IT WAS WAR.” wireless names. We even tried to head you off wo days ago by a storm warning you did not choose to heed. We tried again this morning, but could not get you. ‘““ Now, we see that you have passed forty or fifty more attractive islands with- out giving them a look. You choose this of all others. You will not mind explain- ing why, I hope.” If worse came to worst I could have ex- plained the only reason I had ever come. My desire to be anywhere on that island had begun when I had caught sight of that pretty girl who had turned out very disappointing thus far. It might be an unpleasant thing to explain in the pres- ence of the young lady herself; but it wasn’t pleasant having that pink boy looking at us as if he thought we were dangerous while he had it in his power to order us blindfolded and shot. I had come because Louie had brought me thus far. But Louie— ‘“‘ Well,” Louie faltered, something rais- ing within him a creepy sensation that what he had to say didn’t sound much like sense, “‘ you see, this island is down on the chart as uninhabited. Nobody seemed to know much of anything about it except that it was on the chart. I—I got the notion it might be interesting to explore—er—explore the place up a little, don’t you know? I[—” He broke off, growing red in the face. Exploring an island as small-as that, and already perfectly indicated on the charts —it did sound weak. ‘“‘T see,” our inquisitor broke in. ‘‘ Some such curiosity, I take it, as animated His Excellency, Ex-President Roosevelt, to discover the River of Doubt,” this with the merest trace of a smile under the fuzzy mustache. Louie and I both laughed nervously. “Oh, I—I just took the notion—whim, I guess you might call it.” Hartmann’s boyish nonchalance was all but going to pieces. “TI see—I see.” The young officer spoke as if in a hurry to let it go at that. He was wonderfully businesslike, con- 461 sidering his apparent age. ‘And, no doubt, it was a similar whim which led you to come in close behind our mine- field, under cover of a fog, at the top of the tide. Also, seeing you had no idea about the place, except that it was unin- habited, beyond what the charts show, it was certainly not reason, but whim pure and simple which caused you to anchor your vessel outside, when the charts indi- cated a safe harbor as the only possible advantage of the spot.” Louie threw up his hands. amiably at the girl. ‘“* Murder will out,” he cried, flushing. ‘““T hope this young lady will. forgive me. You ’”’—he turned again toward her— ‘ will have to admit that he’s driving me to it. “The captain got a little mixed, dead- reckoning in the fog, and we thought we were going down to the front’ door of your harbor all right,” he went on. “In fact, we thought we were over a mile beyond it and making a wide circuit to get the end of the channel as the chart shows. If the fog had waited another ten minutes to lift, I imagine we’d have come very near trying to climb your coal mound, for we thought we had half a mile more to the turn. “The first look I got at the shore gave me the notion that I didn’t want to land at all, and I was on the point of giving the order to back out and start for some- thing more interesting, when I happened to see the lady here. The island was not uninhabited. I credit all of you with taste enough to understand that such a sample citizen of any land would tempt one to take the shortest cut to some ac- quaintance with it.” It might have broken the tension en- tirely—but its effect did not reach .that. The boyish lieutenant blushed a shade deeper while he smiled, as if he would re- buke himself for levity in so serious a mo- ment. Only Rudy seemed to laugh whole- heartedly, as if we had somehow tickled his personal vanity. Of course Louie and He grinned CO DOOK AMUC C©