Project Gutenberg's Gascoyne, the Sandal-Wood Trader, by R.M. Ballantyne

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Title: Gascoyne, the Sandal-Wood Trader

Author: R.M. Ballantyne

Illustrator: R.M. Ballantyne

Release Date: November 6, 2007 [EBook #23384]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GASCOYNE, THE SANDAL-WOOD TRADER ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

Gascoyne, the Sandal-Wood Trader, by R.M. Ballantyne.

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An exciting story set in the Pacific. Is Gascoyne a pirate, or isn't
he? Quite a gripping tale, and well worth reading.

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GASCOYNE, THE SANDAL-WOOD TRADER, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.

CHAPTER ONE.

THE SCHOONER.

The Great Pacific is the scene of our story. On a beautiful morning,
many years ago, a little schooner might have been seen floating, light
and graceful as a sea-mew, on the breast of the slumbering ocean. She
was one of those low black-hulled vessels, with raking, taper masts,
trimly cut sails, and elegant form, which we are accustomed to associate
with the idea of a yacht or a pirate.

She might have been the former, as far as appearance went, for the sails
and decks were white as snow, and every portion of brass and copper
above her water-line shone in the hot sun with dazzling brilliancy. But
pleasure-seekers were not wont, in those days, to take such distant
flights, or to venture into such dangerous seas--dangerous alike from
the savage character of the islanders, and the numerous coral-reefs that
lie hidden a few feet below the surface of the waves.

Still less probable did it seem that the vessel in question could belong
to the lawless class of craft to which we have referred; for, although
she had what may be styled a wicked aspect, and was evidently adapted
for swift sailing, neither large guns nor small arms of any kind were
visible.

Whatever her nature or her object, she was reduced, at the time we
introduce her to the reader, to a state of inaction by the dead calm
which prevailed. The sea resembled a sheet of clear glass. Not a clou