starter he knows how to make the
pace when he once gets going; indeed, he travels so fast and so far that
merely to follow him in fancy is a breathless business. When I have told
you that _Diccon_ belonged to the spacious times of ELIZABETH, I need
hardly add that his methods of winning fame and fortune on the sea were
as rough as they were ready. Mercifully he had a steady head and a very
strong back, or something must have given way under the strain that his
creator puts upon him. No hero in modern fiction has jumped so
frequently from the frying-pan into the fire with so little injury to
himself. But if I cannot altogether believe in _Diccon_ I admit an
affection for him. He was as loyal a lover and friend as could be found
in the Elizabethan or any other age, and although he treated troublesome
men without mercy his behaviour to women was marked by the extreme of
propriety; so, though you may insist that he was merely a pirate, I
shall still go on calling him a gentleman-adventurer, and leave him at
that.

* * * * *

[Illustration: OUR CURIO CRANKS.

THE MAN WHO COLLECTS THE CHALK USED BY FAMOUS BILLIARD-PLAYERS.]

* * * * *

_The Barbados Standard_ on an approaching Royal visit:--

"The visit it is understood is fixed to begin on April 29 and to
last until April 25. The visit is probably unprecedented."

It is.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI, VOL.
146, APRIL 15, 1914***

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