A Bid for Fortune by Guy Boothby (top 5 ebook reader .txt) ๐
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Guy Newell Boothby, born in Adelaide, was one of the most popular of Australian authors in the late 19th and early 20th century, writing dozens of novels of sensational fiction.
A Bid for Fortune, or Dr. Nikolaโs Vendetta is the first of his series of five books featuring the sinister mastermind Dr. Nikola, a character of gothic appearance usually accompanied by a large black cat, and who has powers of mesmerism.
In this first novel, the protagonist is a young Australian, Richard Hatteras, who has made a small fortune in pearl-diving operations in the Thursday Islands. With money in his pocket, he decides to travel. Visiting Sydney before taking ship for England, he meets and falls in love with the daughter of the Colonial Secretary, Sylvester Wetherell. As the story moves on, it is revealed that Wetherell has fallen foul of the evil Dr. Nikola, who has developed a devious scheme to force Wetherell to submit in to his demands to give him a mysterious oriental object he has acquired. The life and liberty of Hatterasโ lady-love are imperilled as Nikolaโs plot moves on, and Hatteras has to make strenuous efforts to locate and free her.
Boothbyโs novels, particularly the Dr. Nikola books, achieved considerable popular success, particularly in his native country of Australia. A study of library borrowings in the early 20th Century has shown that Boothbyโs works were almost as frequently borrowed in Australia as those of Charles Dickens and H. Rider Haggard.
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- Author: Guy Boothby
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Rumoured Important Engagement in High Life
We have it on the very best authority that an engagement will shortly be announced between a certain illustrious young nobleman, now a visitor in our city, and the beautiful daughter of one of Sydneyโs most prominent politicians, who has lately returned from a visit to England. The Evening Mercury tenders the young couple their sincerest congratulations.
Could this be the solution of the whole mystery? Could it be that the engagement of Baxter, the telegram, the idea of travel, the drugging, the imprisonment in Port Said, the substitution of the false marquis were all means to this end? Was it possible that this man, who was masquerading as a man of title, was to marry Phyllis (for there could be no possible doubt as to the persons to whom that paragraph referred)? The very thought of such a thing was not to be endured.
There must be no delay now, I told myself, in revealing all I knew. The villains must be unmasked this very night. Wetherell should know all as soon as I could tell him.
As I came to this conclusion I crushed my paper into my pocket and set off, without a momentโs delay, for Potts Point. The night was dark, and now a thick drizzle was falling.
Though it really did not take me very long, it seemed an eternity before I reached the house and rang the bell. The butler opened the door, and was evidently surprised to see me.
โIs Mr. Wetherell at home?โ I asked. For a moment he looked doubtful as to what he should say, then compromising matters, answered that he would see.
โI know what that means,โ I said in reply. โMr. Wetherell is in, but you donโt think heโll see me. But he must! I have news for him of the very utmost importance. Will you tell him that?โ
He left me and went along the hall and upstairs. Presently he returned, shaking his head.
โIโm very sorry, sir, but Mr. Wetherellโs answer is, if you have anything to tell him you must put it in writing; he cannot see you.โ
โBut he must! In this case I can accept no refusal. Tell him, will you, that the matter upon which I wish to speak to him has nothing whatsoever to do with the request I made to him this morning. I pledge him my word on that.โ
Again the butler departed, and once more I was left to cool my heels in the portico. When he returned it was with a smile upon his face.
โMr. Wetherell will be glad if you will step this way, sir.โ I followed him along the hall and up the massive stone staircase. Arriving at the top he opened a door on the left-hand side and announced โMr. Hatteras.โ
I found Mr. Wetherell seated in a low chair opposite the fire, and from the fact that his right foot was resting on a sort of small trestle, I argued that he was suffering from an attack of his old enemy the gout.
โBe good enough to take a chair, Mr. Hatteras,โ he said, when the door had been closed. โI must own I am quite at a loss to understand what you can have to tell me of so much importance as to bring you to my house at this time of night.โ
โI think I shall be able to satisfy you on that score, Mr. Wetherell,โ I replied, taking the Evening Mercury from my pocket and smoothing it out. โIn the first place will you be good enough to tell me if there is any truth in the inference contained in that paragraph?โ
I handed the paper to him and pointed to the lines in question. Having put on his glasses he examined it carefully.
โI am sorry they should have made it public so soon, I must admit,โ he said. โBut I donโt deny that there is a considerable amount of truth in what that paragraph reports.โ
โYou mean by that that you intend to try and marry Phyllisโ โMiss Wetherellโ โto the Marquis of Beckenham?โ
โThe young man has paid her a very considerable amount of attention ever since he arrived in the colony, and only last week he did me the honour of confiding his views to me. You see I am candid with you.โ
โI thank you for it. I, too, will be candid with you. Mr. Wetherell, you may set your mind at rest at once, this marriage will never take place!โ
โAnd pray be so good as to tell me your reason for such a statement!โ
โIf you want it bluntly, because the young man now staying at Government House is no more the Marquis of Beckenham than I am. He is a fraud, an impostor, a cheat of the first water, put up to play his part by one of the cleverest scoundrels unhung.โ
โMr. Hatteras, this is really going too far. I can quite understand your being jealous of his lordship, but I cannot understand your having the audacity to bring such a foolish charge against him. I, for one, must decline to listen to it. If he had been the fraud you make him out, how would his tutor have got those letters from his Grace the Duke of Glenbarth? Do you imagine his Excellency the Governor, who has known the family all his life, would not have discovered him ere this? No, no, sir! It wonโt do! If you think so, who has schooled him so cleverly? Who has pulled the strings so wonderfully?โ
โWhy, Nikola to be sure!โ
Had I clapped a revolver to the old gentlemanโs head, or had the walls opened and Nikola himself stepped into the room, a greater effect of terror and consternation could not have been
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