A Bid for Fortune; Or, Dr. Nikola's Vendetta

"I don't know what to say," I answered, looking at it again. "One thing, however, is quite certain, and that is that, despite its curious wording, it is intended you should take...

First and foremost, my name, age, description, and occupation, as they say in the _Police Gazette_. Richard Hatteras, at your service, commonly called Dick, of Thursday Island,...

"When you left me, Mr. Hatteras, I remained in the house for half an hour or so reading. Then, thinking no harm could possibly come of it, I started out for a little excursion o...

It is strange with what ease, rapidity, and apparent unconsciousness the average man jumps from crisis to crisis in that strange medley he is accustomed so flippantly to call Hi...

As soon as Wetherell was able to speak again he said as feebly as an old man of ninety, "Take me home, Mr. Hatteras, take me home, and let us think out together what is best to...

For the moment I could hardly believe my ears. Gone? Why had they gone? What could have induced them to leave England so suddenly? I questioned the hall porter on the subject, b...

Fortunately for me my arrangements fitted in exactly, so that at one thirty p.m., on the seventh day after my fatal meeting with Dr. Nikola in the West of England express, I had...

The _Pescadore_, if she was slow, was certainly sure, and so the thirty-sixth day after our departure from Port Said, as recorded in the previous chapter, she landed us safe and...

The old saying, "Don't count your chickens before they're hatched," is as good a warning as any I know. For if we had not been so completely occupied filing through the staples...

The following morning I was sitting in my room at the hotel idly scanning the _Standard_, and wondering in what way I should employ myself until the time arrived for me to board...

For what length of time I lay unconscious after hearing Beckenham's cry, and feeling the cord tighten round my throat, as narrated in the preceding chapter, I have not the remot...

Now that I come to think the matter out, I don't know that I could give you any definite idea of what my first impressions of London were. One thing at least is certain, I had n...

Once we had left her side and turned our boat's nose towards the land, the yacht lay behind us, a black mass, nearly absorbed in the general shadow. Not a light showed itself, a...

To those who have had no experience of the South Pacific the constantly recurring beauties of our voyage would have seemed like a foretaste of Heaven itself. From Sydney, until...

The manager of the new Imperial Restaurant on the Thames Embankment went into his luxurious private office and shut the door. Having done so, he first scratched his chin reflect...

I travelled to Bournemouth by a fast train, and immediately on arrival made my way to the office of Messrs. Screw & Matchem, with a view to instituting inquiries regarding the y...

"For one very good reason," he answered. "If it is the stick Nikola is after, as I have every right to suppose, he may demand it as a ransom for my girl, and I am quite willing...