The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Son Of The Sun, by Jack London

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: A Son Of The Sun

Author: Jack London

Release Date: June 29, 2007 [EBook #21971]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SON OF THE SUN ***

Produced by David Widger

A SON OF THE SUN

BY JACK LONDON

1912

CONTENTS

I. A Son of the Sun

II. The Proud Goat of Aloysius Pankburn

III. The Devils of Fuatino

IV. The Jokers of New Gibbon

V. A Little Account With Swithin Hall

VI. A Goboto Night

VII. The Feathers of the Sun

VIII. The Peabls of Parlay

A SON OF THE SUN

Chapter One--A SON OF THE SUN

I

The _Willi-Waw_ lay in the passage between the shore-reef and the
outer-reef. From the latter came the low murmur of a lazy surf, but the
sheltered stretch of water, not more than a hundred yards across to the
white beach of pounded coral sand, was of glass-like smoothness. Narrow
as was the passage, and anchored as she was in the shoalest place that
gave room to swing, the _Willi-Waw's_ chain rode up-and-down a clean
hundred feet. Its course could be traced over the bottom of living
coral. Like some monstrous snake, the rusty chain's slack wandered
over the ocean floor, crossing and recrossing itself several times and
fetching up finally at the idle anchor. Big rock-cod, dun and mottled,
played warily in and out of the coral. Other fish, grotesque of form and
colour, were brazenly indifferent, even when a big fish-shark drifted
sluggishly along and sent the rock-cod scuttling for their favourite
crevices.

On deck, for'ard, a dozen blacks pottered clumsily at scraping the teak
rail. They were as inexpert at their work as so many monkeys. In fact
they looked very much like monkeys of some enlarged and prehistoric
type. Their eyes had in them the querulous plaintiveness of the monkey,
their faces were even less symmetrical than the monkey's, and, hairless
of body, they were far more ungarmented than any monkey, for clothes
they had none. Decorated they were as no monkey ever was. In holes in
their ears they carried short clay pipes, rings