A Protegee of Jack Hamlin's, and Other Stories

Оглавление

Bret Harte. A Protegee of Jack Hamlin's, and Other Stories

A PROTEGEE OF JACK HAMLIN’S

I

II

III

IV

AN INGENUE OF THE SIERRAS

I

II

THE REFORMATION OF JAMES REDDY

I

II

III

THE HEIR OF THE McHULISHES

I

II

III

AN EPISODE OF WEST WOODLANDS

I

II

THE HOME-COMING OF JIM WILKES

I

II

Отрывок из книги

The steamer Silveropolis was sharply and steadily cleaving the broad, placid shallows of the Sacramento River. A large wave like an eagre, diverging from its bow, was extending to either bank, swamping the tules and threatening to submerge the lower levees. The great boat itself—a vast but delicate structure of airy stories, hanging galleries, fragile colonnades, gilded cornices, and resplendent frescoes—was throbbing throughout its whole perilous length with the pulse of high pressure and the strong monotonous beat of a powerful piston. Floods of foam pouring from the high paddle-boxes on either side and reuniting in the wake of the boat left behind a track of dazzling whiteness, over which trailed two dense black banners flung from its lofty smokestacks.

Mr. Jack Hamlin had quietly emerged from his stateroom on deck and was looking over the guards. His hands were resting lightly on his hips over the delicate curves of his white waistcoat, and he was whistling softly, possibly some air to which he had made certain card-playing passengers dance the night before. He was in comfortable case, and his soft brown eyes under their long lashes were veiled with gentle tolerance of all things. He glanced lazily along the empty hurricane deck forward; he glanced lazily down to the saloon deck below him. Far out against the guards below him leaned a young girl. Mr. Hamlin knitted his brows slightly.

.....

With her head still bowed over the chair back, she murmured slowly somewhere from under her disheveled hair:—

“Honest Injin?” adjured Jack gravely.

.....