The Secret of the Reef
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Оглавление
Bindloss Harold. The Secret of the Reef
CHAPTER I – DISMISSED
CHAPTER II – A NEW VENTURE
CHAPTER III – THE FURY OF THE SEA
CHAPTER IV – THE ISLAND
CHAPTER V – AN INTERRUPTION
CHAPTER VI – BLOWN OFF
CHAPTER VII – GRUBSTAKED
CHAPTER VIII – PUZZLING QUESTIONS
CHAPTER IX – THE MINE AT SNOWY CREEK
CHAPTER X – THE WRECK OF THE KANAWHA
CHAPTER XI – FATHER AND SON
CHAPTER XII – READY FOR THE FRAY
CHAPTER XIII – THE REPULSE
CHAPTER XIV – FIGHTING FOR A LIFE
CHAPTER XV – ILLUMINATION
CHAPTER XVI – A GHOST OF THE PAST
CHAPTER XVII – THE STRONG-ROOM
CHAPTER XVIII – BOGUS GOLD
CHAPTER XIX – A DANGEROUS SECRET
CHAPTER XX – HOUNDED
CHAPTER XXI – JIMMY’S EMBARRASSMENT
CHAPTER XXII – A WARNING
CHAPTER XXIII – THE FIRST ATTACK
CHAPTER XXIV – THE GIRL IN THE BOAT
CHAPTER XXV – PAYING A DEBT
CHAPTER XXVI – AN UNEXPECTED DELAY
CHAPTER XXVII – ON THE BEACH
CHAPTER XXVIII – A TRUCE
CHAPTER XXIX – THE HIDDEN GOLD
CHAPTER XXX – THE LAST OF THE WRECK
CHAPTER XXXI – A GIFT FROM THE DEAD
CHAPTER XXXII – THE BARRIERS GO DOWN
Отрывок из книги
The sun had dipped behind a high black ridge crested with ragged pines, when Jimmy, dressed in brown overalls and a seaman’s jersey, sat cooking supper on a stony beach of Vancouver Island. In front of him the landlocked sea ran back, glimmering with a steely luster, into the east; behind, where the inlet reached the hillfoot, stood the City of the Springs, which then consisted of a shut-down sawmill, a row of dilapidated wooden houses, and two second-rate hotels. Shadowed by climbing pinewoods, sheltered by the rocks, the site was perhaps as beautiful as any in the romantic province of British Columbia, though man’s crude handiwork defaced its sylvan charm with rusty iron chimney-stacks, rows of blackened fir-stumps, and unsightly sawdust heaps. For all that, giant, primeval forest rolled close up to it, and in front lay the untainted sea. The air had in it a curious exhilarating quality; the balsamic scent of the firs mingled with the sharp odors of drying weed, tar, and cedar shavings that lay about the camp; and Jimmy, stooping over his frying-pan, sniffed the air with satisfaction. These were odors that belonged to the sea and the wilds; and he had lately renounced the comforts of civilization and embarked upon an adventure that appealed to him.
Near him, a man with a rugged, weatherbeaten face was engaged in fitting a plank into the bilge of a hauled-up sloop. She was a small but shapely vessel of about forty feet in length, and had been built after a design adopted by a famous yacht club on the Atlantic coast. Jimmy could see that she was fast; but she had been put to base uses, and had suffered from neglect. As a matter of fact, he never learned her history, and had always some doubt as to whether the man from whom he and his companion bought her had an indisputable right to sell her.
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Jimmy sat smoking for a few minutes after the others went on board the sloop. It was getting dark, but a band of pure green light still glimmered along the crest of the black ridge to the west. The air was cold and very still, and gray wood smoke hung in gauzy wreaths above the roofs of the town. The tall pines were growing blurred, but their keen, sweet fragrance hung about the beach, and the smooth swell lapped with a drowsy murmur upon the shingle.
Jimmy loved the sea; and now he was to go afloat again, in his own vessel, bound by no restrictions except the necessity for making the voyage pay. This would not be easy; but there was a romance about the undertaking that gave it a zest.
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