Pirates' Hope

Оглавление

Lynde Francis. Pirates' Hope

I. INTRODUCING MR. MACHIAVELLI VAN DYCK

II. THE SHIP'S COMPANY

III. THE MAJOR – AND OTHERS

IV. THE LOG OF THE ANDROMEDA

V. ANY PORT IN A STORM

VI. A SEA CHANGE

VII. SHORE LEAVE

VIII. INTO THE PRIMITIVE

IX. THE BULLY

X. THE BONES OF THE "SANTA LUCIA."

XI. FINDERS KEEPERS

XII. BONTECK UNLOADS

XIII. THE WIND AND THE WAVES ROARING

XIV. HAND TO MOUTH

XV. THE MERRY WAR

XVI. A MARATHON AND AN ULTIMATUM

XVII. CAPTAIN ELIJAH SCORES

XVIII. UNDER A GIBBOUS MOON

XIX. THE FORWARD LIGHT

Отрывок из книги

We were on the sidewalk – "banquette," as it is called in New Orleans – in front of the hotel, and Van Dyck was marshaling a number of vehicles for a descent upon the railroad station, when a small man with his soft hat pulled well down over his eyes appeared at my elbow as silently as if he had materialized out of the rain-wet pavement.

"Pardon, M'sieu'," he murmured, in the broken English which placed him, apparently, as a native of the French quarter, "ze brother of my cousin ees h-ask me to fin' out for heem w'en M'sieu' Van Dyck's steamsheep comes on N' Orlean. 'Ees h-oncle been de chef h-on dat sheep, an' 'ee's want sand heem lettaire. Oui."

.....

"Let us get things straightened out – before the crowd messes in," I said. "Three years ago we were engaged to be married. One day I was obliged to tell your Aunt Mehitable that the comfortable fortune my father had left me had been swallowed up in an exhausted Colorado gold mine, and that I'd have to go to work for a living. She then told me – with what seemed to me to be unnecessary spitefulness – that her will was made in favor of some charitable institution, and since you would thus be left penniless, it was up to me to set you free and give you a chance to marry somebody who could provide for you. Am I stating it clearly?"

"Clearly enough."

.....