The Island of Gold: A Sailor's Yarn

From Madeira, where we stayed for many days, going on shore every forenoon to sell some of our cargo to the shopkeepers, and every afternoon for a long ride--horse and hammock--...

"That same forenoon," continued Halcott, "the wind went veering round to the southward and east. The sea was darkly, intensely blue all day. The sky was intensely blue at night,...

So long as the wind blew free, even though it did not always blow fair, there was joy, and jollity, too, in every heart that beat on board the saucy _Sea Flower_, fore as well a...

Captain Halcott sat on the skylight, and near him sat Tandy his mate, while between them--tacked down with pins to the painted canvas, so that the wind might not catch it--lay a...

Only one week ago she was sailing over a rippling sea on the wings of a favouring breeze, every wavelet dancing joyously in the sunlight. On board, whether fore or aft, there wa...

"I never had a secret from James Malone; no, not so much as one. Had I known what was the matter with me on the evening before, I should have told James manfully and in a moment.

Hardly had Ransey finished his story ere a bright flash of lightning lit up the ship from stem to stern--a flash that seemed to strike the top of every rolling wave and hiss in...

It was now two years and over since the beautiful barque _Sea Flower_ had sailed away from Southampton. Not a very long time, it may be said. No; and yet it seemed a century to...

"Back in a month, Mrs Farrow. It'll soon pass, ye know. But I--I am a kind o' sorry to leave you too, for ye've been so good to Babs and Bob and me."

Then he commenced to build a fire at a little distance, and laid out some fish all ready to cook as soon as the blazing wood should die down to red embers.

As he crawled out of his bed--a kind of big box arrangement at the farther end of the one-roomed cottage--he gave a glance towards the corner where Babs slept in an elongated ki...

"She's in for a regular forenooner, Bob," said the boy, "and I'm not sure I don't like Babs just as well when she is asleep. Seems so innercent-like, you know."

During such an attack, not only would the defenders have to do all they could to stop a rush down the sloping bank, but protect themselves also from the spears that would be hur...

"That's a truism, I believe. Why, the very sight of the waves out yonder, with the evening sunlight dancing and playing on their surface, makes me even at this moment long to tr...

The barge floats on, and soon the village appears in sight. Yes, thoroughly English, and therefore pretty: the old grey houses only half seen in the midst of the foliage; the wr...

Tandy and his child were sitting together, that autumn evening, in the best parlour. They were waiting for the postman to come round the corner; and as the waves were making a c...

Next morning broke bright and fair. Not a cloud in all the heaven's blue; not a ripple on the water, just a gentle swell that broke in long lines of snow-white foam on the cresc...

With a yell that once more scared the sea-birds, and sent them screaming in terror across the waves, a yell that seemed to awaken the echoes in every rock and hill from end to e...

The barque had been dashed stern-foremost upon the rocks. She had been lifted by one of those mighty waves, or "bores," that during a storm like this sometimes rise to the heigh...

During the time the memorable visit lasted no one took much notice of Ransey Tansey's pets. Yet each one of the three of them was interested, and each showed his interest in his...

All along the Somali coast was Tandy's "chief market ground," as he called it. Here he knew he could drive precisely the kind of bargains he wished to make; and as for the Somal...

As far as curiosity went, Babs was quite on an equality with her sex, and the meal finished, and the bones eaten by Bob, she wanted to know at once what the man with the pretty...

I trust that, from what he has already seen and heard of Ransey Tansey, the reader will not imagine I desire this little hero of mine to pose as a real saint. Boys should be boy...

Not a word about gold was spoken that night. To Halcott had been restored that which is better far than much fine gold--the friendship of a true and honest heart.

On the contrary, Halcott determined he should rest far out in the blue, lone sea, where nothing might disturb his rest until "the crack of doom." The last words were those of Ha...

It was a very lovely day now. The sea all round towards the eastern side of the island was deep and blue; but the waters to the west were here and there more shallow, so that th...

Is it any wonder that when they found themselves once more out in the jungle, with flowers and foliage all around them and the breath of heaven fanning their faces, James Malone...

Ransey was quite a man, Babs told him, and she felt sure he would soon have a moustache. Indeed, she brought a small magnifying-glass to strengthen her convictions on this point.

"Yes," he said, "there is a little more of my story yet untold; there is a portion of it still in the future, I trust. With this, however, destiny alone has to do. Suffice it to...

"Just there, Tandy," said Halcott, as the two stood together a day or two after on the brink of a rocky chasm, at the bottom of which the river swept slowly along, dark and deep...

The enemy was routed, the king was slain. For a time, at least, there would be a cessation of strife. For how long no one troubled himself to consider; sorrow seemed everywhere,...