Page:The Popular Magazine v72 n1 (1924-04-20).djvu/5



TUBBY, squat and insignificant, the steam schooner Adventure lay at anchor well up at the head of the Giudecco, and, resting quietly there in the moonlight, her character could have been no more certain to the seafaring mind if she boisterously had disturbed the night by bawling aloud, “I am a tramp of the seas.” So still were the waters that not the slightest sway or quiver moved her riding lights and the shadow she cast was as clearly defined as if there were two of her, each dark, one upright and afloat, the other slanting away like a silhouette of black paper, foreshortened until her single funnel appeared even more stubby than it was in reality, her masts slightly tilted, her deck housing and single bridge flattened down to meet the shadowy deck.

After a time a tiny shadow at the end of the bridge stirred vaguely, and then for a moment the picture was disturbed by the sharp glare of a match as the master and owner of the Adventure, Captain James Ware, lighted his pipe before again coming