Long Odds

Оглавление

Bindloss Harold. Long Odds

CHAPTER I. THOMAS ORMSGILL

CHAPTER II. RESTITUTION

CHAPTER III. HIS OWN PEOPLE

CHAPTER IV. THE SUMMONS

CHAPTER V. A DETERMINED MAN

CHAPTER VI. DESMOND MAKES AN ADMISSION

CHAPTER VII. ORMSGILL KEEPS HIS WORD

CHAPTER VIII. THE BONDSWOMAN

CHAPTER IX. ANITA BECOMES A RESPONSIBILITY

CHAPTER X. ORMSGILL ASKS A FAVOR

CHAPTER XI. DESMOND VENTURES A HINT

CHAPTER XII. LISTER OFFERS SATISFACTION

CHAPTER XIII. HIS BENEFICENT INFLUENCE

CHAPTER XIV. HERRERO'S IMPRUDENCE

CHAPTER XV. NARES COUNTS THE COST

CHAPTER XVI. NEGRO DIPLOMACY

CHAPTER XVII. THE AMBUSCADE

CHAPTER XVIII. DOM CLEMENTE LOOKS ON

CHAPTER XIX. THE DELAYED MESSAGE

CHAPTER XX. DESMOND GOES ASHORE

CHAPTER XXI. ON THE BEACH

CHAPTER XXII. UNDER STRESS

CHAPTER XXIII. THE SLACKENING OF RESTRAINT

CHAPTER XXIV. BENICIA MAKES A BARGAIN

CHAPTER XXV. DOMINGO APPEARS

CHAPTER XXVI. THE DAY OF RECKONING

CHAPTER XXVII. AN ERROR OF JUDGMENT

CHAPTER XXVIII. THE CHEFE STANDS FAST

CHAPTER XXIX. DOM CLEMENTE STRIKES

CHAPTER XXX. ORMSGILL BEARS THE TEST

CHAPTER XXXI. ON HIS TRIAL

CHAPTER XXXII. BENICIA UNDERTAKES AN OBLIGATION

Отрывок из книги

Darkness had closed down suddenly on the forest, but it was hotter than ever in the primitively furnished general room of Lamartine's house, where the lamp further raised the already almost insupportable temperature. There was also a deep, impressive silence in the bush that shut the rickety dwelling in, though now and then the sound of a big drop splashing upon a quivering leaf came in through the open window with startling distinctness. Lamartine, the French trader, was dead, and had been buried that afternoon, as was customary, within an hour or two after the breath has left his body. His career, like that of most men in his business, had not been a very exemplary one, but he had, at least, now and then shown that he possessed certain somewhat fantastic and elementary notions of ethics, which he was in the habit of alluding to as his code of honor. It was, as Father Tiebout, who had once or twice given him spiritual advice when he was very sick of fever, admitted, a rather indifferent one, but very few white men in that country had any code at all, and, as the good padre said, it was possible that too much would not be expected from any one who had lived in that forest long.

In any case, Lamartine had gone to answer for the deeds that he had done, and the three men who had buried him and had constituted themselves his executors sat about his little table with the perspiration dripping from them. There was Nares, gaunt and hollow-faced, weak from fever and worn with watching; Father Tiebout, the Belgian priest, little, and also haggard; and Ormsgill, the gray-eyed, brown-faced Englishman, who sat looking at them with set lips and furrowed forehead. Their creeds were widely different, but men acquire a certain wide toleration in the land of the shadow, where it is exceedingly difficult to believe in any thing beyond the omnipotence of evil.

.....

"Ah," he said, "we all grow, some towards the beneficent light, and some in the blighting shadow. The training and the pruning we are subjected to also has its effect. Her people?"

"I almost think you would consider them children of this world," said Ormsgill dryly.

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