All-Story Cavalier Weekly, July 11, 1914
Wild Norene
by Johnston McCulley
CHAPTER I.
in a far corner, at which there were two
The Girl in the Doorway.
chairs, both unoccupied.
As he sat down he glanced over the
room.
ENOR GUERRERO led the way
There was a bar along one wall,
down the dark and narrow alley and
with a crowd of men before it. There were
S softly opened the door. The man scores of tables to which silent-footed behind him waited close to the wall.
Chinese carried liquor. On a platform in
A shaft of light pierced the one corner was an old piano, a woman darkness. With it came the sound of strong
playing it. Another woman stood beside her
voices raised in ribald song and the tinkling
and sang in a cracked voice.
of a piano scarcely heard above the din.
In another corner were poker-tables,
Feet shuffled, liquor gurgled, where the players silently eyed one glasses rang as they were placed on the
another, speaking in low voices only when
tables.
it was necessary. There were faro-tables
Foul air rushed out, bearing odors
and roulette-tables. And there were women
of stale tobacco-smoke and cheap liquor. In
who mingled in the throng, painted women
an instant the clean smell of water-soaked
dressed in gaudy gowns.
pine was gone, and the breeze that swept
“It is a place,” said Captain Adams
up the street from the river and the distant
slowly and with conviction, “where a man
sea seemed instantly polluted.
would expect to find a traitor.”
“The coast, I think, is clear,” Senor
Strong men of the sea called Adams
Guerrero whispered.
king. He was a relic of the days of bucko
He slipped inside, and Captain Bill
mates. He had slain a man with a single
Adams followed and stood against the wall
blow of his fist. He had quelled mutiny
for a moment while Guerrero closed the
single-handed.
door behind them.
His name was a synonym for fear
Captain Adams had a soft hat from Valdez to Cape Horn, in Honolulu, in pulled down to his eyes and his coat collar
the ports of China and Japan, Australia, and
turned up in an attempt to pass without
the South Seas.
being recognized. There was no disguising
That name also was coupled with
his broad shoulders, great hands, and justice, for Captain Adams never gave a massive form, yet the risk was small, for
demonstration of brute force without good
those men in the room who knew him were
and sufficient provocation.
scattered in the crowd or sitting at tables
He
always
showed his strength at
near the street door.
sea, never on land. The usual haunts of
Adams’s lips curled in scorn as he
sailormen did not know him. He left his
followed Guerrero along the wall to a table
ship only to transact business. He was an
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2
abstainer, and morally clean.
a long voyage,” suggested Guerrero.
Because he never appeared in a
“This isn’t relaxation! They spend
gathering to refute them, seamen told great
two months’ wages here in a night,
tales of his strength and brutality when
drinking vile liquor, trying to beat
provoked, thus making his reputation in
gambling games that cannot be beaten. I’ve
that regard thrice what he deserved.
been a sailor for thirty years, and I don’t
Now he bent forward at the table,
need this sort of relaxation. And the
his keen eyes taking in the scene before
women—”
him. Guerrero had ordered liquor, and as
“That tall one who was playing the
soon as the Chinese waiter had gone piano is Sally Wood,” said Guerrero.
Captain Adams had thrown his in a “Every one in Astoria knows her. She has a cuspidor.
history.”
“If our suspicions prove true—”
“I don’t doubt it.”
Guerrero began.
“Not the sort you think, senor. She
“We’ll say nothing until we are lived in Seattle as a girl. A man won and certain,” the captain interrupted. “It’s a bad
married her. Then he took her aged father’s
thing to accuse a man of unless there is an
savings and deserted her, left her penniless
abundance of proof.”
with a baby— the old story.”
“And if we get the proof?”
“And she turned to this sort of
Captain Adams straightened his thing?”
shoulders and waited a moment before
“Again, senor, not as you think. She
replying.
turned to this sort of thing because she can
“If we get the proof I’ll attend to the
play a piano, and because she gets more
matter personally,” he said. “You are not
money here in a night than she could any
concerned in it, senor, except that you are a
place else in a month. The sailors worship
sort of guide for me ashore.”
her, senor. Sometimes when she plays they
“Not concerned in it!” exclaimed
throw silver and gold on the platform,
the other hoarsely. “Not concerned in it?
showers of it, and she thanks them
When there may depend on it success or
prettily.”
failure?”
“Pity she wouldn’t take her silver
“Screech, senor, and tell our and gold and get out of here, then.”
business to the world,” the captain advised.
“She stays because she needs much
“There are some in this place, I believe,
silver and gold. Every one seems to know
who would be glad to hear.”
the story. She is laying it by. When she has
“I beg your pardon,” Guerrero said,
an adequate amount she intends trailing the
and fell silent.
man who deserted her, and when she finds
Captain Adams looked over the him—ah, senor, when she finds him! Such room again. The woman at the piano had
a woman will know how to take her
ceased playing and was standing at the end
revenge.
of the platform, talking with some men.
“Her child is a girl—she keeps the
She was tall, graceful, and fair, despite her
little one in a school. I admire Sally Wood,
painted face; but there were lines about her
senor; she mingles here with the scum of
eyes and a wistful look was about her lips.
the earth, yet is not defiled. She is a good
�
��What a place!” Adams gasped.
girl; countless men will tell you so.
“Sailors must have relaxation after
Countless men would fight for her in an
Wild Norene
3
instant to avenge an insult. They know her
“He has the making of a man in him
story, tell it to every newcomer, help her in
then,” the captain decided. “Sailorman out
every way.”
of a job, eh? I need a couple more men.”
Captain Adams showed sudden
“A very devil of a fellow, senor; I
interest.
have seen him. I do not know, of course,
“If that story is true, if she is a good
whether he would be the man for our
girl and can mingle with this sort and keep
business. He has an independent way about
her goodness for such an object, I pray
Heaven she finds the man,” he said
Voices near the door had been
earnestly.
raised in eager greeting! The throng parted,
“There is also another story,” and through it strode a man the appearance continued Guerrero. “There is a man of whom made Captain Adams’s eyes hereabouts by name Jack Connor, a sparkle.
pleasant giant, a happy-go-lucky devil of a
More than six feet he stood, with
sailorman of the usual sort. He is at present
shoulders almost the equal of the captain’s.
out of a place, and is here in Astoria His hair was yellow, his eyes blue, his face visiting his aged father. He is a favorite of
boyish. He walked with an easy swagger
men and women. He drinks with the men—
that betrayed his agility.
but he has no use for the women.”
Such was Jack Connor.
“Half sensible, at any rate,” said the
Friends crowded close to him;
captain.
voices called to ask him what his drink
“Sally Wood, so the story goes, rebuked
would be. A bartender, smiling in
him on a certain night because he was
welcome, brought forward a private bottle
drinking heavily. The proprietor of this and sat it on the bar before him and place even lets her do such a thing as that,
polished a glass and sat beside it.
for it delights his customers to see one of
He and his friends drank.
their number the subject of a sermon. Jack
“Jack, the woman-hater, caught at
Connor treated the girl courteously, but last!” one of the men shrieked in laughter.
continued drinking. If he had done as she
Guerrero tapped the captain on the
requested she would have forgotten him;
shoulder.
since he refused to obey her wish, she
“The man who is talking, the one
loved him.”
with his arm on Connor’s shoulder, is his
“Womanly,” said Captain Adams.
best friend, a sailorman by name Morgan,”
“So she loves him?”
he whispered.
“In her own sweet way, senor. All
“Listen!” the captain commanded.
have noticed it. Her eyes follow him
There had come a flush into Jack
continually when he is here. And he Connor’s face not caused by liquor. He continues to treat her courteously, but that
turned toward Morgan menacingly, but still
is all.
smiling.
“Jack Connor, say his friends, has
“ Hold him while I tell the story!”
little use for women. He respects them—
Morgan cried. “It is too good to keep.”
the good ones—too much to ask one of
“If you open your mouth—”
them to share his lot, he says; and the other
Connor began.
sort he does not respect enough to consider
But, laughing, three of them held
at all.”
him. The others in the room had grown
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4
quiet to listen.
out anew.
Morgan ran away a few paces and
Jack Connor and half a dozen of his
faced them.
friends made their way across the room to a
“We were walking down table within fifteen feet of where Captain Commercial Street,” he said. “A girl Adams and Guerrero were sitting.
passed. Her eyes met Connor’s. My friend
The captain turned toward the wall,
Jack was done then and there!”
his back to the room, and there he
“Love at first sight, eh?” cried remained, talking with Guerrero in another.
whispers, until he heard his own name
“Wait!” Morgan cried. “He insisted
mentioned. It was Jack Connor speaking.
on following her. Think of that—Jack “The
Amingo is the cutest little
Connor, who never looks at a woman! Oh,
steam schooner that ever carried a cargo of
he did it in a proper fashion! He never took
his eyes from her. She dropped a until she dropped down the river from handkerchief—”
Portland this morning, but I’ve heard a few
“They always do something like things about her and her skipper.”
that,” interrupted another.
“Who hasn’t?” Morgan asked.
With a roar of rage Jack Connor
“If all I hear of Cap’n Adams is
hurled away the men who held him and
true—”
looked into the crowd.
“You can bet it is,” Morgan
“Understand
me?”
he cried. “The
interrupted, and the others nodded their
young lady— lady, I said—dropped her heads.
handkerchief. I ran forward and picked it
“Then I’ve got to set eyes on the
up. I’m not ashamed of it. I never saw her
old sea-dog some time. He’s turned some
before—I don’t know her name!
good tricks in his day, but he’s getting
“But she’s a lady—and not to be
careless. Must be feeling his age.”
talked about in a crowd like this.
Captain Adams’s shoulders
Understand me?
straightened, but Guerrero warned him and
“I walked down the street with her,
he slouched forward in his chair again.
talked with her while Morgan waited. She’s
“Meaning just what?” Morgan
the sweetest girl I ever saw. I’m not worthy
asked.
to speak of her, and if I am not, neither are
“What’s his old scow doing?” asked
any of you. So we’ll drop the subject. Connor.
Understand?”
“Lumber, Portland to Mazatlan,”
There was no answer; no man’s said Morgan.
eyes met his. He smiled at them again and
“Oh, she carries a deck-load of
motioned toward the bar. The men crowded
lumber, all right,” said Connor, laughing.
forward.
“But what she carries in her hold is the
“He strikes me as pretty much of a
joke.”
man,” said Captain Adams to Guerrero in
“Contraband?” one of the men
their corner.
asked.
Sally Wood, sitting at her piano,
“Not so loud, friend. We don’t want
had heard. Now she began playing to queer Cap’n Adams’s deal. Only he’s furiously, and some of the men near the
getting careless. I know what he’s up to;
platform began to sing, and the noise broke
and if I know it, what must persons know
Wild Norene
5
whose business it is to find but. He isn’t
wait for vengeance—that to betray himself
carrying opium or chinks, if that is what
now meant to spoil their enterprise.
you mean. But he’s got an interesting
Morgan and the others were
cargo, all the same.”
laughing.
“Meaning?” asked Morgan.
“Why, she won’t even look at a
“Meaning it is none of our man,” said Morgan. “She’s waiting to find business,” said Connor. “Only I’d hate to
one that measures up to her uncle, Cap’n
see an old sea-dog like Cap’n Adams spend
Bill Adams; and she’ll have a long wait,
his last years in a Federal prison.”
I’m thinkin’.”
The face of Captain Adams flushed,
“If what I hear is true, she’ll have a
then grew ashen as the meaning of the
long wait,” assented Connor. “Won’t look
man’s words came to him.