The Port of Missing Men

“Thank you!” laughed John Armitage, to whom he had spoken. “You have lost none of your old amiability; but for a renowned diplomat, you are remarkably frank. When I called on yo...

“I must say I like his persistence!” exclaimed the young fellow, turning again to the table. “In America I should call him out and punch his head, but over here—”

The second day thereafter Shirley Claiborne went into a jeweler’s on the Grand Quai to purchase a trinket that had caught her eye, while she waited for Dick, who had gone off in...

All things are bright in the track of the sun, All things are fair I see; And the light in a golden tide has run Down out of the sky to me.

The man clenched Armitage about the body with his legs while he struck a match on a box he produced from his pocket. The suddenness with which he had been flung into the kitchen...

Geneva is a good point from which to plan flight to any part of the world, for there at the top of Europe the whole continental railway system is easily within your grasp, and y...

“Then I shall have to take the part of the rebellious and doubting crew. There is no America, and we’re sure to get into trouble if we don’t turn back.”

John Armitage lingered in New York for a week, not to press the Claibornes too closely, then went to Washington. He wrote himself down on the register of the New American as Joh...

Lo! as I came to the crest of the hill, the sun on the heights had arisen, The dew on the grass was shining, and white was the mist on the vale; Like a lark on the wing of the d...

Armitage dined alone that evening and left the hotel at nine o’clock for a walk. He unaffectedly enjoyed paved ground and the sights and ways of cities, and he walked aimlessly...

As music and splendor Survive not the lamp and the lute, The heart’s echoes render No song when the spirit is mute— No songs but sad dirges, Like the wind through a ruined cell,...

—Who climbed the blue Virginia hills Against embattled foes; And planted there, in valleys fair, The lily and the rose; Whose fragrance lives in many lands, Whose beauty stars t...

April, April, Laugh, thy girlish laughter; Then, the moment after, Weep thy girlish, tears! April, that mine ears Like a lover greetest, If I tell thee, sweetest, All my hopes a...

Armitage uncovered smilingly. Chauvenet stared mutely as Armitage paused with his back to the Claiborne gate. Chauvenet was dressed with his usual care, and wore the latest carn...

Nightingales warble about it All night under blossom and star; The wild swan is dying without it, And the eagle crieth afar; The sun, he doth mount but to find it Searching the...

The black-caps pipe among the reeds, And there’ll be rain to follow; There is a murmur as of wind In every coign and hollow; The wrens do chatter of their fears While swinging o...

Oh, sweetly fall the April days! My love was made of frost and light, Of light to warm and frost to blight The sweet, strange April of her ways. Eyes like a dream of changing sk...

When youth was lord of my unchallenged fate, And time seemed but the vassal of my will, I entertained certain guests of state— The great of older days, who, faithful still, Have...

When he came where the trees were thin, The moon sat waiting there to see; On her worn palm she laid her chin, And laughed awhile in sober glee To think how strong this knight h...

My mistress bent that brow of hers; Those deep dark eyes where pride demurs When pity would be softening through, Fixed me a breathing-while or two With life or death in the bal...

Oscar’s eye, roaming the landscape as he left Shirley Claiborne and started for the bungalow, swept the upland Claiborne acres and rested upon a moving shadow. He drew rein unde...

So, exultant of heart, with front toward the bridges of battle, Sat they the whole night long, and the fires that they kindled were many. E’en as the stars in her train, with th...

O to mount again where erst I haunted; Where the old red hills are bird-enchanted, And the low green meadows Bright with sward; And when even dies, the million-tinted, And the n...

Cowards and laggards fall back; but alert to the saddle, Straight, grim and abreast, vault our weather-worn galloping legion, With a stirrup-cup each to the one gracious woman t...

Fast they come, fast they come; See how they gather! Wide waves the eagle plume, Blended with heather. Cast your plaids, draw your blades, Forward each man set! Pibroch of Donui...

“These gentlemen doubtless wish to confer—let them sequester themselves!” and Armitage waved his hand to the line of empty sleeping-rooms. “I believe Monsieur Durand already kno...

Claiborne called Oscar through the soft dusk of the April evening. The phalanx of stars marched augustly across the heavens. Claiborne lifted his face gratefully to the cool nig...

If so be, you can discover a mode of life more desirable than the being a king, for those who shall be kings; then the true Ideal of the State will become a possibility; but not...