The Thousandth Woman

Оглавление

Hornung Ernest William. The Thousandth Woman

I. A SMALL WORLD

II. SECOND SIGHT

III. IN THE TRAIN

IV. DOWN THE RIVER

V. AN UNTIMELY VISITOR

VI. VOLUNTARY SERVICE

VII. AFTER MICHELANGELO

VIII. FINGER-PRINTS

IX. FAIR WARNING

X. THE WEEK OF THEIR LIVES

XI. IN COUNTRY AND IN TOWN

XII. THE THOUSANDTH MAN

XIII. QUID PRO QUO

XIV. FAITH UNFAITHFUL

XV. THE PERSON UNKNOWN

Отрывок из книги

Southampton Water was an ornamental lake dotted with fairy lamps. The stars above seemed only a far-away reflex of those below; but in their turn they shimmered on the sleek silken arm of sleeping sea. It was a midsummer night, lagging a whole season behind its fellows. But already it was so late that the English passengers on the Kaiser Fritz had abandoned all thought of catching the last train up to London.

They tramped the deck in their noisy, shiny, shore-going boots; they manned the rail in lazy inarticulate appreciation of the nocturne in blue stippled with green and red and countless yellow lights. Some delivered themselves of the patriotic platitudes which become the homing tourist who has seen no foreign land to touch his own. But one who had seen more than sights and cities, one who had been ten years buried in the bush, one with such yarns to spin behind those outpost lights of England, was not even on deck to hail them back into his ken. Achilles in his tent was no more conspicuous absentee than Cazalet in his cabin as the Kaiser Fritz steamed sedately up Southampton Water.

.....

"You forget," said Cazalet, "that he was robbed as well."

"Do they claim that?" said Hilton Toye. "I guess I skipped some. Where does it say anything about his being robbed?"

.....