FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   >>  
e set himself to steal the charm and desert from the barkentine. From this point on to the catastrophe my information is somewhat hazy. I cannot say, for instance, just how the theft was committed, but it is certain that Freeman was not aware of it until a considerable time had passed. What did concern him particularly was the absence of the Malay when the barkentine was weighing anchor and giving a line for a tow out to sea. The Malay was a valuable sailor; to replace him adequately was clearly so impossible a task that Freeman decided, after a profitless and delaying search of hours, to leave port without him or another in his place. It was with a heavy heart, somewhat lightened by a confident assumption that the amulet was safe in his possession, that Freeman headed down the channel for the Golden Gate. Meanwhile, the Flying Devil was having strange adventures. In a hastily arranged disguise, the principal feature of which was a gentleman's street dress, in which he might pass careless scrutiny as a thrifty Japanese awkwardly trying to adapt himself to the customs of his environment, he emerged from a water-front lodging-house of the poorer sort, and ascended leisurely to the summit of Telegraph Hill, in order to make a careful survey of the city from that prominent height; for it was needful that he know how best to escape. From that alluring eminence he saw not only a great part of the city, but also nearly the whole of the bay of San Francisco and the shores, towns, and mountains lying beyond. His first particular attention was given to the "Blue Crane," upon which he looked nearly straight down as she rolled gently at her moorings at the foot of Lombard Street. Two miles to the west he saw the trees which conceal the soldiers' barracks, and the commanding general's residence on the high promontory known as Black Point, and these invited him to seek concealment in their shadows until the advent of night would enable him to work his way down the peninsula of San Francisco to the distant blue mountains of San Mateo. Surmising that Freeman would make a search for him, and that it would be confined to the docks and their near vicinity, he imagined that it would not be a difficult matter to escape. After getting his bearings the Malay was in the act of descending the hill by its northern flank, when he observed a stranger leaning against the parapet crowning the hill. The man seemed to be watching him. Not reflec
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   >>  



Top keywords:
Freeman
 

escape

 

Francisco

 

mountains

 

barkentine

 
search
 
Lombard
 

rolled

 
gently
 

attention


moorings

 

Street

 
looked
 

straight

 
alluring
 

eminence

 
needful
 
careful
 

survey

 

prominent


height

 

shores

 

invited

 

bearings

 

descending

 

matter

 

difficult

 

confined

 

vicinity

 

imagined


northern

 
watching
 

reflec

 

crowning

 

parapet

 
observed
 

stranger

 
leaning
 

Surmising

 
promontory

residence
 

general

 
conceal
 
soldiers
 

barracks

 

commanding

 
peninsula
 

distant

 
enable
 

concealment