The Lady of the Shroud by Bram Stoker (book series for 10 year olds .txt) đź“•
"Sorry. But, of course, you don't understand such things." Then he went on talking before father had time to say a word.
"Let us get back to business. As you do not seem to follow me, let me explain that it is BECAUSE I do not forget that I wish to do this. I remember my dear mother's wish to make Aunt Janet happy, and would like to do as she did."
"AUNT Janet?" said father, very properly sneering at his ignorance. "She is not your aunt. Why, even her sister, who was married to your uncle, was only your aunt by courtesy." I could not help feeling that Rupert meant to be rude to my father, though his words were quite polite. If I had been as much bigger than him as he was than me, I should have flown at him; but he was a very big boy for his age. I am myself rather thin. Mother says thinness is an "appanage of birth."
"My Aunt Janet, sir, is an aunt by love. Courtesy is a small word to use in connection with such devoti
Read free book «The Lady of the Shroud by Bram Stoker (book series for 10 year olds .txt) 📕» - read online or download for free at americanlibrarybooks.com
- Author: Bram Stoker
- Performer: -
Read book online «The Lady of the Shroud by Bram Stoker (book series for 10 year olds .txt) 📕». Author - Bram Stoker
My guns shall be trained on Ilsin, to which end I have come inshore.
You and your companions have free conduct back to port; such is due
to the white flag which you fly. Fifteen minutes will bring you back
whence you came. Go! And remember that whatever you may do amongst
your mountain defiles, at sea you cannot even defend yourselves.”
GOSPODAR (slowly and in a ringing voice). “The Land of the Blue
Mountains has its own defences on sea and land. Its people know how
to defend themselves.”
CAPTAIN (taking out his watch). “It is now close on five bells. At
the first stroke of six bells our guns shall open fire.”
GOSPODAR (calmly). “It is my last duty to warn you, sir—and to warn
all on this ship—that much may happen before even the first stroke
of six bells. Be warned in time, and give over this piratical
attack, the very threat of which may be the cause of much bloodshed.”
CAPTAIN (violently). “Do you dare to threaten me, and, moreover, my
ship’s company? We are one, I tell you, in this ship; and the last
man shall perish like the first ere this enterprise fail. Go!”
With a bow, the Gospodar turned and went down the ladder, we
following him. In a couple of minutes the yacht was on her way to
the port.
FROM RUPERT’S JOURNAL.
July 10, 1907.
When we turned shoreward after my stormy interview with the pirate
Captain—I can call him nothing else at present, Rooke gave orders to
a quartermaster on the bridge, and The Lady began to make to a little
northward of Ilsin port. Rooke himself went aft to the wheel-house,
taking several men with him.
When we were quite near the rocks—the water is so deep here that
there is no danger—we slowed down, merely drifting along southwards
towards the port. I was myself on the bridge, and could see all over
the decks. I could also see preparations going on upon the warship.
Ports were opened, and the great guns on the turrets were lowered for
action. When we were starboard broadside on to the warship, I saw
the port side of the steering-house open, and Rooke’s men sliding out
what looked like a huge grey crab, which by tackle from within the
wheel-house was lowered softly into the sea. The position of the
yacht hid the operation from sight of the warship. The doors were
shut again, and the yacht’s pace began to quicken. We ran into the
port. I had a vague idea that Rooke had some desperate project on
hand. Not for nothing had he kept the wheel-house locked on that
mysterious crab.
All along the frontage was a great crowd of eager men. But they had
considerately left the little mole at the southern entrance, whereon
was a little tower, on whose round top a signal-gun was placed, free
for my own use. When I was landed on this pier I went along to the
end, and, climbing the narrow stair within, went out on the sloping
roof. I stood up, for I was determined to show the Turks that I was
not afraid for myself, as they would understand when the bombardment
should begin. It was now but a very few minutes before the fatal
hour—six bells. But all the same I was almost in a state of
despair. It was terrible to think of all those poor souls in the
town who had done nothing wrong, and who were to be wiped out in the
coming blood-thirsty, wanton attack. I raised my glasses to see how
preparations were going on upon the warship.
As I looked I had a momentary fear that my eyesight was giving way.
At one moment I had the deck of the warship focussed with my glasses,
and could see every detail as the gunners waited for the word to
begin the bombardment with the great guns of the barbettes. The next
I saw nothing but the empty sea. Then in another instant there was
the ship as before, but the details were blurred. I steadied myself
against the signal-gun, and looked again. Not more than two, or at
the most three, seconds had elapsed. The ship was, for the moment,
full in view. As I looked, she gave a queer kind of quick shiver,
prow and stern, and then sideways. It was for all the world like a
rat shaken in the mouth of a skilled terrier. Then she remained
still, the one placid thing to be seen, for all around her the sea
seemed to shiver in little independent eddies, as when water is
broken without a current to guide it.
I continued to look, and when the deck was, or seemed, quite still—
for the shivering water round the ship kept catching my eyes through
the outer rays of the lenses—I noticed that nothing was stirring.
The men who had been at the guns were all lying down; the men in the
fighting-tops had leaned forward or backward, and their arms hung
down helplessly. Everywhere was desolation—in so far as life was
concerned. Even a little brown bear, which had been seated on the
cannon which was being put into range position, had jumped or fallen
on deck, and lay there stretched out—and still. It was evident that
some terrible shock had been given to the mighty war-vessel. Without
a doubt or a thought why I did so, I turned my eyes towards where The
Lady lay, port broadside now to the inside, in the harbour mouth. I
had the key now to the mystery of Rooke’s proceedings with the great
grey crab.
As I looked I saw just outside the harbour a thin line of cleaving
water. This became more marked each instant, till a steel disc with
glass eyes that shone in the light of the sun rose above the water.
It was about the size of a beehive, and was shaped like one. It made
a straight line for the aft of the yacht. At the same moment, in
obedience to some command, given so quietly that I did not hear it,
the men went below—all save some few, who began to open out doors in
the port side of the wheel-house. The tackle was run out through an
opened gangway on that side, and a man stood on the great hook at the
lower end, balancing himself by hanging on the chain. In a few
seconds he came up again. The chain tightened and the great grey
crab rose over the edge of the deck, and was drawn into the wheel-house, the doors of which were closed, shutting in a few only of the
men.
I waited, quite quiet. After a space of a few minutes, Captain Rooke
in his uniform walked out of the wheel-house. He entered a small
boat, which had been in the meantime lowered for the purpose, and was
rowed to the steps on the mole. Ascending these, he came directly
towards the signal-tower. When he had ascended and stood beside me,
he saluted.
“Well?” I asked.
“All well, sir,” he answered. “We shan’t have any more trouble with
that lot, I think. You warned that pirate—I wish he had been in
truth a clean, honest, straightforward pirate, instead of the measly
Turkish swab he was—that something might occur before the first
stroke of six bells. Well, something has occurred, and for him and
all his crew that six bells will never sound. So the Lord fights for
the Cross against the Crescent! Bismillah. Amen!” He said this in
a manifestly formal way, as though declaiming a ritual. The next
instant he went on in the thoroughly practical conventional way which
was usual to him:
“May I ask a favour, Mr. Sent Leger?”
“A thousand, my dear Rooke,” I said. “You can’t ask me anything
which I shall not freely grant. And I speak within my brief from the
National Council. You have saved Ilsin this day, and the Council
will thank you for it in due time.”
“Me, sir?” he said, with a look of surprise on his face which seemed
quite genuine. “If you think that, I am well out of it. I was
afraid, when I woke, that you might court-martial me!”
“Court-martial you! What for?” I asked, surprised in my turn.
“For going to sleep on duty, sir! And the fact is, I was worn out in
the attack on the Silent Tower last night, and when you had your
interview with the pirate—all good pirates forgive me for the
blasphemy! Amen!—and I knew that everything was going smoothly, I
went into the wheel-house and took forty winks.” He said all this
without moving so much as an eyelid, from which I gathered that he
wished absolute silence to be observed on my part. Whilst I was
revolving this in my mind he went on:
“Touching that request, sir. When I have left you and the Voivode—
and the Voivodin, of course—at Vissarion, together with such others
as you may choose to bring there with you, may I bring the yacht back
here for a spell? I rather think that there is a good deal of
cleaning up to be done, and the crew of The Lady with myself are the
men to do it. We shall be back by nightfall at the creek.”
“Do as you think best, Admiral Rooke,” I said.
“Admiral?”
“Yes, Admiral. At present I can only say that tentatively, but by
to-morrow I am sure the National Council will have confirmed it. I
am afraid, old friend, that your squadron will be only your flagship
for the present; but later we may do better.”
“So long as I am Admiral, your honour, I shall have no other flagship
than The Lady. I am not a young man, but, young or old, my pennon
shall float over no other deck. Now, one other favour, Mr. Sent
Leger? It is a corollary of the first, so I do not hesitate to ask.
May I appoint Lieutenant Desmond, my present First Officer, to the
command of the battleship? Of course, he will at first only command
the prize crew; but in such case he will fairly expect the
confirmation of his rank later. I had better, perhaps, tell you,
sir, that he is a very capable seaman, learned in all the sciences
that pertain to a battleship, and bred in the first navy in the
world.”
“By all means, Admiral. Your nomination shall, I think I may promise
you, be confirmed.”
Not another word we spoke. I returned with him in his boat to The
Lady, which was brought to the dock wall, where we were received with
tumultuous cheering.
I hurried off to my Wife and the Voivode. Rooke, calling Desmond to
him, went on the bridge of The Lady, which turned, and went out at
terrific speed to the battleship, which was already drifting up
northward on the tide.
FROM THE REPORT OF CRISTOFEROS, SCRIBE OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE
LAND OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS.
July 8, 1907.
The meeting of the National Council, July 6, was but a continuation
of that held before the rescue of the Voivodin Vissarion, the members
of the Council having been during the intervening night housed in the
Castle of Vissarion. When, in the early morning, they met, all were
jubilant; for late at night the fire-signal had flamed up from Ilsin
with the glad news that the Voivode Peter Vissarion was safe, having
been rescued with great daring on an aeroplane by his daughter and
the Gospodar Rupert, as the people call him—Mister Rupert Sent
Leger, as he is in his British name and degree.
Whilst
Comments (0)