Moonfleet by John Meade Falkner (best novels for teenagers .txt) ๐
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Moonfleet is a small village near the sea in the south of England, where village legend tells of the notorious Colonel John โBlackbeardโ Mohune who is buried in a family crypt under the church. He is said to have stolen and hidden a diamond from King Charles I. His ghost is said to wander at night looking for the diamond, and the mysterious lights in the churchyard are attributed to his activities.
One night a bad storm floods the village. While attending the Sunday service at church, John Trenchardโan orphan who lives with his auntโhears strange sounds from the crypt below. Investigating, he soon finds himself in a smugglerโs hideout, where he discovers a locket in a coffin that holds a piece of paper inscribed with Bible verses.
John soon finds himself swept up in a smuggling venture planned by Elzevir Block, the smugglersโ leader, and inadvertently finds out that the verses from Blackbeardโs locket contain a code that will reveal the location of the famous diamond.
Moonfleet was hugely popular in its day and was even sometimes studied in schools. Adaptations to screen, radio, and theater continue today.
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- Author: John Meade Falkner
Read book online ยซMoonfleet by John Meade Falkner (best novels for teenagers .txt) ๐ยป. Author - John Meade Falkner
Toll for the brave,
The grave that are no more;
All sunk beneath the wave
Fast by their native shore
The night was cold, and I had nothing on me save breeches and boots, and those drenched with the sea, and had been wrestling with the surf so long that there was little left in me. Yet once I clutched the rope I clung to it for very life, and in a minute found myself in the midst of the beachmen. I heard them shout again, and felt strong hands seize me, but could not see their faces for a mist that swam before my eyes, and could not speak because my throat and tongue were cracked with the salt water, and the voice would not come. There was a crowd about me of men and some women, and I spread out my hands, blindly, to catch hold of them, but my knees failed and let me down upon the beach. And after that I remember only having coats flung over me, and being carried off out of the wind, and laid in warmest blankets before a fire. I was numb with the cold, my hair was matted with the salt, and my flesh white and shrivelled, but they forced liquor into my mouth, and so I lay in drowsy content till utter weariness bound me in sleep.
It was a deep and dreamless sleep for hours, and when it left me, gently and as it were inch by inch, I found I was still lying wrapped in blankets by the fire. Oh, what a vast and infinite peace was that, to lie there half-asleep, yet wake enough to know that I had slipped my prison and the pains of death, and was a free man here in my native place! At last I shifted myself a little, growing more awake; and opening my eyes saw I was not alone, for two men sat at a table by me with glasses and a bottle before them.
โHe is coming-to,โ said one, โand may live yet to tell us who he is, and from what port his craft sailed.โ
โThere has been many a craft,โ the other said, โhas sailed for many a port, and made this beach her last; and many an honest man has landed on it, and never one alive in such a sea. Nor would this one be living either, if it had not been for that other brave heart to stand by and save him. Brave heart, brave heart,โ he said over to himself. โHere, pass me the bottle or I shall get the vapours. โTis good against these early chills, and I have not been in this place for ten years past, since poor Elzevir was cut adrift.โ
I could not see the speakerโs face from where I lay upon the floor, yet seemed to know his voice; and so was fumbling in my weakened mind to put a name to it, when he spoke of Elzevir, and sent my thoughts flying elsewhere.
โElzevir,โ I said, โwhere is Elzevir?โ and sat up to look round, expecting to see him lying near me, and remembering the wreck more clearly now, and how he had saved me with that last shove forward on the beach. But he was not to be seen, and so I guessed that his great strength had brought him round quicker than had my youth, and that he was gone back to the beach.
โHush,โ said one of the men at the table, โlie down and get to sleep againโ; and then he added, speaking to his comrade: โHis brain is wandering yet: do you see how
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