The Sign of the Spider

The sway of Lilith Ormskirk over the saloon and quarter-deck of the _Persian_ was as complete as any woman's sway ever is. From the grizzled captain--nominally under whose charg...

As he sat waiting, the soft subdued hush of the shaded room, in its cool fragrance, struck upon his senses as with an influence of depression, of sadness, of loss. He had come t...

If the population of Johannesburg devoted its days to doing _konza_ to King Scrip, it devoted its nights to amusing itself. There was an enterprising theatrical company and a li...

Johannesburg once more. The great, restless gold-town had passed through many changes, many booms and rumours of booms--the latter for the most part--since that quiet _trek_ now...

It was the middle of the morning. Her passengers, scattered around her quarter-deck in the coolness of the sheltering awning, were amusing themselves after their kind; some greg...

"I'd sell my immortal soul, twenty times over, for a few thousands of the damnation stuff; but as that article isn't negotiable, why, better make an end of the whole bother."

The other laughed, as they shook hands. He was a man of Laurence's own age, straight and active, and his bronzed face wore that alert, eager look which was noticeable upon the f...

Vampire--insect--devil--what _was_ the thing? From the length and thickness of those frightful tentacle-like legs, stretching forth from the cranny--Laurence--who had not halted...

"The Sign of the Spider!" Laurence Stanninghame lying there, his faculties half dazed by the shock of his fall and the pain of his wound, hearing the words--uttered as they were...

The throb of the propeller has almost ceased; faint, too, is the vibration of the slowed-down engines. The _Persian_ is gliding with well-nigh imperceptible motion through the s...

No more foolish passion was ever implanted in the human breast than that of jealousy--unless it were that of which it is the direct outcome--nor is there any which the average h...

Some there were who ardently wished that Johannesburg itself had gone thither, before they had heard of its unlucky and delusive existence, and among this daily increasing numbe...

"What the devil is that?" was the characteristic exclamation that burst from Laurence--and there was something of a quaver in the tone. For his nerves were quite overstrung, and...

All these questions did Laurence Stanninghame ask himself by turn as he recovered his confused and scattered senses; and there was abundant scope for such conjecture for, in tru...

A woman, young, tall, perfectly proportioned, light of colour, and with the bright and pleasing expression common among the well-born of the Ba-gcatya maidens, enhanced by large...

"There, there, Holmes. Do you quite intend to maim a chap for life, or what?" exclaimed Laurence, liberating, with an effort, his hand from the other's wringing grasp. "And Hazo...

The next few days were spent by the Ba-gcatya in dancing and ceremonial--and by Laurence Stanninghame in trying to find out all he could about the Ba-gcatya. He laid himself out...

Around the wilderness spreads in rolling undulation, open here for the most part, though dotted with clumps of bush and trees, which seem to have become detached from the dark l...

Now, if Laurence Stanninghame's prospects were brightening, and his lines beginning to fall in pleasant places,--relatively speaking, that is, for everything is relative in the...

"I don't know. You see they let me off, and I didn't want to be outdone in civility even by a lot of scurvy dogs who eat each other. There was no feeling about the matter."

This was a thing she frequently did, and she had two ways of doing it. One was to talk at him through a third party when they two were not alone together; the other to convey mo...

The sun is setting above the tropical forest--hot and red and smoky--his fiery ball imparting something of a coppery molten hue to the vast seas of luxuriant verdure, rolling, w...

From where they stood the ground fell away in great wooded spurs to a broad level valley, or rather plain,--shut in on the farther side by rolling ranges of forest-clad hills. T...

Ten or a dozen tall savages were advancing through the somewhat sparse scrub. Yielding to a first impulse of self-preservation, Laurence, quick as thought, stepped behind the st...

They were now on the other slope of the great mountain chain which shut in the Ba-gcatya country on that side, and, judging by the landmarks, it seemed to Laurence that the surr...

Not much sleep did Laurence get that night--such, indeed, as he obtained being of the "with one eye open" order. Simple trust in anybody or anything was not one of his failings,...

Both men rose to their feet, but leisurely, and turned to confront the approaching tumult. And formidable enough this was. The Wangoni advanced in a compact mass, beating their...

The days went by and Hazon's preparations were nearly completed, and it became patent to the Rand at large that "The Pirate" intended to relieve that delusive locality of his un...

For some three hours the party moves forward through the forest shades. Then a halt is called, and, sentinels having been posted, soon the smoke of bivouac fires ascends, and th...

Crash! crash! A long, detonating roar, then crash! again. The rock-circle is a perfect ring of flame, sheeting forth in red jets athwart the hanging sulphurous smoke. Death-yell...

Laurence gave way, and Tricksie darted off, perhaps a trifle too vivaciously for a learner of the noble art of horsemanship. But the girl kept her seat bravely, and the conceded...