FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   >>  
wondered why he did not insist. By what means, he cogitated, could he make her yield her will to his? Her resistance he set down to coyness; all women had freaks; they were alike in such matters. He divined after a while that she would let go the lasso at any moment if he proved restive; so he played the submissive to perfection. If she ever saw his eyes flame, or any gesture which contained a threat, he never knew it; but every revelation from him was a revelation to her of herself, and this was to be her education and her punishment. "Where is your friend Osgood?" he asked once. "He has been away a long time," she answered, looking him full in the face, but with rather a stony expression in her eyes. "He is your relative?" "Oh no." "No? I thought so, always seeing you in the same places." "Our families have been acquainted always." "Do you think he is handsome?" "Yes." "He is too short" (Barclay was tall), "and his eyes have a wandering, unsettled look." "He is following his destiny by them," she answered, bitterly. "I wish that I could follow mine as a man can." "Do you mean that you would like to follow Osgood's eyes?" "By no means; I must see destiny by your eyes." The words were pleasant, but the tone was malicious. It made his heart bound as if an invisible foe had come into his atmosphere to do battle with him, and he could do nothing. * * * * * "'With the vapors all around, and the breakers on our lee, Not a light is in the sky, not a light is on the sea.'-- barring the lantern abaft," roared Osgood, from the deck of the schooner _Bonita_, which was tossing outside Cape Malabar. "You may sing t'other side of your mouth afore long," bawled back the skipper. "We ain't fur from the Cormorant Rocks; the wind p'r'aps will shove us on the ledge." "What, when we are just going home with full barrels?" "The mackerel may be briled in Tophet for all we know." The skipper was at the helm; Osgood and he were in the radius of a lantern which revealed their faces to each other. Outside of that was pitch darkness; the rain drove in fierce slants against them, and the wind howled all round the sea. The skipper did not look concerned, neither did Osgood; but they were both wondering which would first break over the _Bonita_, the light of morning or the sea. "Them boys are asleep, I s'pose, wet to the bone?" the skipper yelled. "Yes."
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   >>  



Top keywords:
Osgood
 

skipper

 

revelation

 
Bonita
 

answered

 

follow

 

destiny

 

lantern

 

vapors

 

battle


schooner

 
bawled
 

atmosphere

 
breakers
 
tossing
 

barring

 

roared

 

Malabar

 

fierce

 

slants


howled

 

darkness

 

Outside

 

morning

 

asleep

 
concerned
 

wondering

 

revealed

 

radius

 

yelled


Cormorant

 

Tophet

 
briled
 

mackerel

 

barrels

 

wandering

 

gesture

 

perfection

 

proved

 

restive


played
 
submissive
 

contained

 

threat

 

education

 
punishment
 

friend

 
moment
 
resistance
 

cogitated