FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   >>  
eanor was already there--alone, crushed, and with lips absolutely sealed. She had divested herself of everything that linked her to Farquharson; she refused to adopt her married name. "I shall bless every saint in heaven when we have quite done with this dreadful business of Eleanor's," Mrs. Stanleigh confided to me from her deck-chair. "This trip that she insists on making herself seems quite uncalled for. But you needn't think, Captain Barnaby, that I'm going to set foot on that dreadful island--not even for the satisfaction of seeing Mr. Farquharson's grave--and I'm shameless enough to say that it _would_ be a satisfaction. If you could imagine the tenth part of what I have had to put up with, all these months we've been traveling about trying to locate the wretch! No, indeed--I shall stay right here on this boat and intrust Eleanor to your care while ashore. And I should not think it ought to take long, now should it?" I confessed aloud that I did not see how it could. If by any chance the girl's secret conjecture about Leavitt's identity was right, it would be verified in the mere act of coming face to face with him, and in that event it would be just as well to spare the unsuspecting aunt the shock of that discovery. We reached Muloa just before nightfall, letting go the anchor in placid water under the lee of the shore while the _Sylph_ swung to and the sails fluttered and fell. A vast hush lay over the world. From the shore the dark green of the forest confronted us with no sound or sign of life. Above, and at this close distance blotting out half the sky over our heads, towered the huge cone of Lakalatcha with scarred and blackened flanks. It was in one of its querulous moods. The feathery white plume of steam, woven by the wind into soft, fantastic shapes, no longer capped the crater; its place had been usurped by thick, dark fumes of smoke swirling sullenly about. In the fading light I marked the red, malignant glow of a fissure newly broken out in the side of the ragged cone, from which came a thin, white trickle of lava. There was no sign of Leavitt, although the _Sylph_ must have been visible to him for several hours, obviously making for the island. I fancied that he must have been unusually absorbed in the vagaries of his beloved volcano. Otherwise he would have wondered what was bringing us back again and his tall figure in shabby white drill would have greeted us from the shore. Instead, there
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   >>  



Top keywords:
making
 

island

 

Leavitt

 

Farquharson

 

Eleanor

 
satisfaction
 
dreadful
 

feathery

 
Lakalatcha
 

scarred


querulous

 

flanks

 
blackened
 

forest

 
fluttered
 

confronted

 
blotting
 
distance
 

towered

 

fancied


absorbed

 

unusually

 

visible

 

trickle

 

vagaries

 

beloved

 

shabby

 

figure

 

greeted

 

Instead


Otherwise

 
volcano
 

wondered

 

bringing

 

ragged

 
crater
 

capped

 
usurped
 

longer

 
shapes

fantastic
 

swirling

 
fissure
 
broken
 

malignant

 

sullenly

 
fading
 

marked

 
verified
 

Captain