The Best of Argosy #5 - The Monster of the Lagoon
Page 16
She was too weak to get out of the chair she was sitting in. When she was able to walk she went on deck. She saw Larry with his elbows on the rail staring at the silver gleam hovering over the island.
She saw his lips working, as a man’s will, when he is faced by a miracle, a fact too stupendous to be grasped.
She saw now that Larry was not staring at the sunrise. All this time his eyes had been fixed on the blue schooner. He swiveled his eyes around and saw her.
He walked down the deck to where she was standing. There was something new in his face, and there was something new in the color of his eyes. In spite of the pallor of sleeplessness and weariness and loss of blood, shadows were gone. He was like a different man.
He said, sighing, “Come here, baby.” And he took her in his arms and kissed her with gentleness. He folded his injured arm about her shoulder. The other he dropped about her waist and pulled her tight against him. “I can say it now. I’m pretty sick and shot and dazed — but I can say it.”
She whispered, “I want to hear it. I’ve grown thin and gaunt and deaf, listening for it!”
He laughed softly, “I love you, Julie.”
He patted the small of her back. “It’s going to take a long time to get organized on this new basis, too. It’s hard to realize that I’m not popping off next week or the week after. I don’t know what we’ll do, but we’ll have Captain McTavish marry us today. I suppose your mother will kick and scream.
Julie laughed softly, “Why, darling? Aren’t you a millionaire?”
He said, “Good Lord, I’d forgotten about that.” He held her off. “I’ll bet a dime you’re marrying me for my money!”
His expression suddenly changed. Color flashed into his face. His eyes went round and glittering with excitement. He dropped one of his hands. With the other he pulled her about to face the lagoon.
“Boat!” he cried.
She could not see it at first because of the white splintering light of the sun on the water. Then she made it out — one of the small boats in which the men had gone ashore last night.
It contained two men, one who sat in the stern, the other at the oars.
Julie shrieked: “It’s Sammy!” She danced up and down.
“Oangi’s rowing,” Larry said presently.
The small boat came alongside the ladder, and Sam came on deck. His hair, his shirt, his pants, were soaked. He said, grinning wearily: “For the first time in a million centuries or so, it’s safe to paddle around in the lagoon. Look what I’ve got!”
He removed from a pants pocket a small iron box, pitted with rust.
“The Dutchman’s pearls! The treasure!”
He opened the box. Glowing in the early sunlight were perhaps a score of pink pearls, blood pearls, perfectly matched, strung on a slender silver wire.
“Pretty, aren’t they. But they didn’t come from this lagoon. I think Bryce was right — the monster never left a clam or an oyster for long on the bottom. Old Vandernoot must have spent his life matching these pearls all over the Far East — and then came here to die.”
Sammy stared at Larry McGurk and said, “What was that I saw going on on deck here a while back. She broke you down, at last, did she?”
“My luck changed,” Larry said. “Dr. Plank changed it.”
Sammy listened to Larry’s recital of that stupendous revelation, then shook his hand and said, “Julie, you’d better see this guy stops pulling tigers’ whiskers.”
She said, “I’ll see to it. What happened to you ashore?”
“Ever since that fire burned down, Oangi and I’ve been hiding in the Dutchman’s cabin, waiting for a little daylight. When it was light enough, I dove down for these pearls.” He looked up and down the empty deck. “Where’s everybody?”
“In the bar, getting plastered,” Larry answered. “Yeah? I’ll bet Lucky’s outdrinking every man on board. I guess I’ll just join...”
He stopped, his eyes on Julie’s pale face, and stiffened a little.
“Isn’t Lucky aboard this ship?” he asked quietly.
“No, Sammy.”
“That thing didn’t —” he began, then, harshly: “I saw him get away! I saw him get clean away!”
“He went back looking for you,” Larry said. “He tried to save Bryce. It got them both.”
Singapore Sammy looked at him for fully a half minute without change of expression. His carrot-colored brows were knotted a little. His green-blue eyes were as clear as aquamarines. Then he looked at Julie.
His lower lip protruded a little. He took the wired blood-pearls out of the box and threw the box overboard. He looped the pearls about Julie’s neck and twisted the wire back.
“They look pretty nice there,” he said. “It’s a wedding present.”
Julie started to protest, but she did not dare. The look in his eyes would tolerate no protest.
He said quietly, “So long, Larry. Congratulations!” And shook Larry’s hand again. Then he turned to the ladder and said, “You can say so long to the rest of them for me.”
As he started to go down the ladder, Julie flew to him, threw her arms about his neck and fiercely kissed him.
“Oh, Sam —” she sobbed.
“Be yourself, brat,” he said, and went.
With tear-streaming eyes, Julie watched him go. He sat stolidly in the stern of the small boat, with the sun turning his red hair to fire. They watched him and Oangi go aboard, watched them raise the sails.
Larry growled: “I ought to be there.”
“No,” Julie said. “He wants to be alone.”
Captain McTavish came along the deck, limping. He paused to say, “We’re getting under way at once, Miss Farrington.”
“Where?”
“The Mediterranean — New York. Will you serve as relief mate, Mr. McGurk, until we can pick up a new crew?”
Larry McGurk accompanied him forward. Julie, left alone, heard the rumble of the anchor chain. She saw Sammy and Oangi getting up the schooner’s anchor. She watched the two figures go aft, and she saw the sails fill with wind — white sails, white as gull’s wings. She saw rain falling in the distance, an indigo banner of it.
The blue schooner was under way. The hull trembled with the quick thrust of the twin engines. She watched the schooner sailing into a purple and golden magic of wind and rain and sunlight.
THE END
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Introduction to The Best of Argosy
The Monster of the Lagoon
Chapter 1: Jungle Gauntlet
Chapter 2: Meet Mr. Barling
Chapter 3: “I Can’t Be Killed!”
Chapter 4: Pegleg’s Story
Chapter 5: Anchors Aweigh!
Chapter 6: Gone Overboard
Chapter 7: Stowaways
Chapter 8: Both Barrels
Chapter 9: The Island
Chapter 10: Pegleg’s Plan
Chapter 11: Vanished
Chapter 12: Where Is Pegleg?
Chapter 13: Wild Theories
Chapter 14: Julie Decides
Chapter 15: Into the Lagoon
Chapter 16: The Monster Strikes
Chapter 17: Bryce Explains
Chapter 18: King of the Island
Chapter 19: Devil Dance
Chapter 20: Larry Swims In
Chapter 21: War Canoes
Chapter 22: A Mad Scheme
Chapter 23: The Monster’s Fury
Chapter 24: Starvation
Chapter 25: Bryce Attacks
Chapter 26: Fiery Furnace
Chapter 27: Larry Learns
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