by OMNICAdmin
the same suit. Both men looked at their
Nugent, chuckling with confidence and hole-cards and then Miller pushed all his delight, again shuffled the cards, his stack
chips into the pot. Nugent called, and
showed twenty-two chips to Miller’s eight.
Miller, since it was a show-down, turned
But Miller was apparently over his hole-card, showing another ace.
unmoved. He considered himself the better
Nugent, with what looked like foolish
player and attributed Nugent’s winnings to
obstinacy, refused to show his hole-card.
an extraordinary run of luck. If he played
“Go on, what have you got, Bill?”
carefully, Nugent could never win.
cried Spritz eagerly.
But Nugent had no intention of
“I don’t have to show unless I want
letting him play carefully. Feeling sure that
till the hand’s dealt,” snapped Nugent.
the luck was on his side, he bet the size of
“Not even got another deuce,”
Miller’s stack on the first card; and Miller,
sneered Spritz.
with a pair of tens back to back, was in a
But Nugent continued obstinate and
quandary. Nugent’s card was an ace— Miller dealt him another deuce and gave what had he in the hole? Two tens was
himself another ace, at which Spritz
above the average hand, and the play, laughed again.
ordinarily, was to call Nugent’s bet. But to
“Three aces. Not so bad, eh, Miller?
do so meant all Miller’s chips. And Nugent
Bill has a couple of two spots and a three in
might have a pair of aces.
the hole—see if he hasn’t. But when is this
“Oh, bet ’em—what’s the matter crazy game going to end?”
Adventure
10
As there was no further betting to
So, illustrating the inevitability of
be done, Miller continued dealing, giving
natural law, these three exponents of the
himself the unusually large hand of an ace
doctrine of force little dreamed that years
full on sevens. He looked at Nugent, whose
later a nation called Germany, bred to the
exposed cards were three deuces and the
same doctrine, would end in the same
king of clubs—also a large hand, but one
direction—the satisfaction of lust.
that looked small against the ace full.
“Shall I take the pot, or have you
II
something in the hole to beat me?” drawled
Miller, who knew that there was only one
DIRTY JIM sat outside his shack, sober
card that could beat him.
but shaky, balancing the ledger of his thirty
“Nugent has four deuces. Don’t years of life; thinking chiefly how very steal the pot, Miller,” broke in Spritz long it was since he was respected as Jim sarcastically.
Annesty, since he rowed stroke in the
Nugent
smiled.
Oxford boat in that memorable race when
“You want to be careful, Tom, or
the dark blue crept up from behind and
people won’t know you.”
won by a quarter of a length. Why had he
“How?”
fallen so low, he wondered—wondered in
Spritz was somewhat puzzled.
vain, for this was during the days—
“Won’t know you—because of unhappily lingering yet in certain places—
your telling the truth,” chuckled Nugent,
when drunkenness was called vice instead
turning over his hole-card and showing the
of disease.
fourth deuce; the others gasping as he
One hundred years before Christian
ostentatiously raked in all the chips.
England, in Bedlam, had treated the insane
“You fellows want to put our as if they were responsible for their agreement in writing?” he asked with condition—with inconceivable brutality—
curious quietness.
and the same barbarity considered Jim a
“What
for?”
drunken brute when he was a sick man. So
Miller was about to argue the no one had offered to help him when point—bristling over his defeat—when ancestral tendencies broke out in him just Spritz broke in:
as tuberculosis might have manifested
“Writing—what for? You’re itself.
welcome to the ——- girl, for all of me. As
No one but little Miss Wood, that
I told you, I’m not interested in her—just
wonderfully sympathetic and curiously
played to pass the time. Kidnaping a white
charming young lady with such novel
woman looks a bit too dangerous, the more
views on religious subjects—views,
I think about it. Wish you joy all the same,
however, which only penetrated into poor
Bill, and no hard feelings. Course I won’t
Jim’s mind as sunlight penetrates into
say nothing, and if you get into a mess
muddy water. But the poor chap had come
come to me and I’ll do all I can to help
to worship her as saints are worshiped, and
you. You will, too, won’t you, Miller?” he
out of that worship was growing a desire to
asked with the heartiness of a disinterested
be better—not the mere wish common to
friend.
all sufferers from alcohol or drugs, but a
“I’m with you,” Miller agreed. desire which demanded satisfaction in
“Let’s drink the bridegroom’s health.”
effort and self-help.
Dirty Jim
11
The spice-scented darkness of the
“I wonder what they’ll say
island was soothing, and the faint murmur
tomorrow?” mused Spritz. “But never
of the sea against the beach was like a
mind. I’m going ashore now. I want two
lullaby. As Captain Sprite had observed,
good men in the boat. Soon as I come
Miss Wood, the Salvation Army girl, had
alongside hoist the signal. Then dump these
talked nearly all afternoon to the sleepers into their boat, lift the mud-hook beachcomber. She had talked as a kindly
and bring her to the wind. Better heave
sister, and Jim had listened. And now he
short after I go ashore—there’s no drag
looked up at the stars apparently staring at
worth speaking of.”
him from a moonless sky, and smiled.
“All right, sir.” Sydney Dick was as
He had found one resolve he could
interested as his captain, for the reason that
surely keep—even if he must have drink,
any form of villainy charmed him.
he could at least be a gentleman about it: he
Then Tom Spritz had a couple of
could keep himself clean-shaved, and his
his men row him ashore. He might have
clothing decent. He went into his shack, lit
been going to gather flowers so little was
the battered lamp, shaved, and with he spiritually disturbed. Which causes one difficulty trimmed his hair. Then he got out
to think sometimes that there are
his one pongee suit and silk shirt and automatons in the world without souls, yet dressed hi
mself, finding in it a delight to
clothed in the guise of men, set there by
which he had long been a stranger. The feel
Omnipotence to frighten us by their
of his smooth cheek under his hand was
wickedness into better ways of life.
inspiring, the touch of clean clothes against
his bathed body was luxurious. Never again
JIM ANNESTY was dreaming. He was in
would he look otherwise than he did then.
a lovely old-fashioned garden, lavish with
Like a child pleased with a new toy he lay
such blossoms as sweet-williams,
down to sleep on his cot—fully dressed.
mignonette, English wall-flowers, and
violets. The high walls were overgrown
AND as Jim Annesty closed his eyes, with ivy and the shade was soothing. And Captain Spritz, sitting at the head of his
near the walls were several fruit-trees, from
table, winked pleasantly at Sydney Dick
which he might take whatever fruit he
and looked mockingly at his two guests—
desired. But he was surprized to find that
whose heavy snores almost shook the little
he did not want any fruit, although he knew
cabin.
very well it was good for him; and he
“Pretty easy, eh?”
became restless, wandering about
“Yes, and they never expected it.
disconsolate, because there was something
They just swallowed dope and drink like as
he wanted that the garden did not contain;
if they wanted a good sleep.” Sydney Dick
and presently he found the gate, over which
laughed at his wit.
was an arch, and he opened the gate and
“All right,” Spritz went on. “Just tie
saw that the arch was studded with gin
’em up good, in case they wake, and put
bottles in such a way that the bottles
them in the spare room. You sent their boat
spelled the word “Katie.”
back?”
Then he heard a woman weeping
“Yes, sir—told the serang that and he went into the garden and found the when I signaled he was to come for the
Salvation Army girl weeping bitterly
Tuans.”
because he loved the bottles over the gate
Adventure
12
more than he loved her. Then, in the silly
rescue? Even if there were time to find
way of dreams, he began to explain that it
some man—for Annesty knew Spritz
really did not matter—as long as he loved
would put to sea at once—it would be
Katie what did it matter whether she was an
useless. For what was the use of tackling
array of bottles or a woman.
Spritz on board his own ship without half a
But to please her he said he would
dozen well-armed and determined men?
destroy the bottles and love her instead—it
And the beachcomber doubted that there
was only an unimportant detail, after all. So
was any one on Talee who cared whether
he raised his gun—in some way the gun
Spritz kidnaped the girl or not.
got into his hand—and began to shoot the
The moving boat left a stirring track
bottles off the arch; and at his first shot the
of phosphorescence, which Annesty
girl screamed and....
watched with a sort of stupid sorrow; and
Annesty woke up, sitting up on his
then like a hypodermic injection that takes
cot, trembling and staring into the effect the picture of the struggling girl darkness. Then, moved by something being hustled into the boat stirred the right beyond him, he pulled on his shoes and
depth of the reservoir of Annesty’s
went outside his shack.
subconscious mind, and he reacted with a
The night had grown very dark, quiver of anger.
clouds covering the stars. The world was
Deep in that tank of his ancestors’
still except down on the shingle about fifty
experiences was a memory—perhaps of a
yards from where Annesty stood shivering
gorilla-like creature who had suddenly
from his sudden waking. There a big man
found his mate struggling in the arms of his
whom the beach-comber recognized in a
rival. And that ancestor possessed Jim
moment was lifting into a boat something
Annesty—recharging his nervous system
that struggled vainly. It was like an unreal
with the vitality of an anger that sees red.
picture made by shadows which changes as
Half a dozen years before he had
one watches into half-imagined shapes. been a great athlete, but he had never Then the boat pushed off and began to row
known such a strength as he knew that
toward the Lady Ellen.
night. He acted with a purpose and
So the cry in the dream had been
certainty that he caught himself wondering
real. Annesty realized this, as he stood at—as if he were a spectator, as if he had there, with the semi-paralyzed nerves of the
relinquished the body of Jim Annesty to
alcoholic and with his mind, long some one else, who was performing unaccustomed to making a decision, marvels in it. And the first glimpse he had wavering between half a dozen possibilities
of himself was when he was swimming
of action. He could not see who the woman
swiftly but cautiously toward the schooner
was. But there was only one girl on the
because he had no boat.
island whom Spritz would be compelled to
The boat reached the schooner as
take aboard his schooner in this fashion and
Annesty swam and her shadow against the
at this hour. Apart from the suggestive faint sky light showed her ready for sea—
influence of the dream, cold logic pointed
her sails hoisted and shaking in what little
to the Salvation Army girl as the prisoner
wind came into the harbor; and Annesty
in the rapidly moving boat.
knew that the mere flap of her sails would
And who on the island would risk
take the schooner through the water faster
the wrath of Tom Spritz by attempting a
than he could swim. So he doubled his
Dirty Jim
13
efforts, careless now about being seen. schooner heeled slightly, and Annesty Then another boat rowed swiftly past him
realized she was under way. He must get
and so close that he had to dive to hide
aboard now or never.
himself; and this boat, to his great surprise,
He rested one hand on the molding,
was also making for the Lady Ellen.
made a spring and caught the edge of the
From the schooner came a confused
rail; then he brought up his other hand and
hum of voices. Annesty swam into the dark
raised himself until his eyes were above the
made by her quarter and saw something
rail and he could see along the decks. He
being dumped unceremoniously into the had been on board the schooner several second boat while other men were hoisting
times and knew his way about. For a few
the
first to its tiny davits. As he treaded
moments he watched carefully. Then he
water, he puzzled about this second boat
swung himself over the rail and ran swiftly
but could find no answer—knowing aft to the cabin.
nothing, of course, about the unhappy
He stood in the alleyway, breathing
condition of Captains Miller and Nugent.
hard, the awful reaction of collapse
Then he heard a voice—the deep voice of
clutching at his weakened physique. The
Spritz—whispering hoarsely:
sudden impulse of courage that had sent
“All
right,
Serang, take ’em aboard.
him swimming to the schooner had left him
Up with the mud-hook, Dick.”
and only the trembling of unusual over-
Then the second boat swung off exertion remained. All about the ship men into the darkness.
were running to the shouted orders of
Very cautiously Jim Annesty swam
Spritz and his mate. And then Annesty
to where the rail was lowest, keeping as
remembered that he had forgotten to pick
close to the ship as he could to avoid being
up a weapon.
noticed. He was thinking furiously. Spritz
The schooner was gliding through
would have locked the girl in his cabin,
the water. In a few moments Spritz would
intending to leave her there till he worked
leave the deck. For one horrible moment
the schooner into deep water. Until then
Jim Annesty wished he had not come and
she was safe.
thought of slipping over the rail again.
Sydney Dick and most of the crew
Then the man he used to be came to his
were now on the forecastle—getting the