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195 pages

English

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During a formative period in his early adulthood, English-born author E. W. Hornung spent several years working as a tutor at a desolate outpost in the Australian wilderness. This experience proved to be instrumental as a source of inspiration in his later work. The intricately plotted mystery novel At Large unfurls against the backdrop of the unforgiving Australian landscape.

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Publié par	The Floating Press
Date de parution	01 juillet 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781776581559
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0134€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

AT LARGE
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E. W. HORNUNG

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At Large First published in 1902 Epub ISBN 978-1-77658-155-9 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77658-156-6 © 2013 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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I - A Nucleus of Fortune II - Sundown III - After Four Years IV - How Dick Came Home V - The First Evening at Graysbrooke VI - Sisyphus VII - South Kensington VIII - The Admirable Miles IX - A Dancing Lesson and its Consequences X - An Old Friend and an Old Memory XI - Dressing, Dancing, Looking On XII - "To-Morrow, and To-Morrow, and To-Morrow" XIII - In Bushey Park XIV - Quits XV - The Morning After XVI - Military Manoeuvres XVII - "Miles's Beggars" XVIII - Alice Speaks for Herself XIX - Conterminous Courses XX - Strange Humility XXI - An Altered Man XXII - Extremities XXIII - The Effect of a Photograph XXIV - The Effect of a Song XXV - Melmerbridge Church XXVI - At Bay XXVII - The Fatal Tress XXVIII - The Effort XXIX - Elizabeth Ryan XXX - Sweet Revenge XXXI - The Charity of Silence XXXII - Suspense: Reaction XXXIII - How Dick Said Good-Bye
I - A Nucleus of Fortune
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A hooded wagon was creeping across a depressing desert in the middle ofAustralia; layers of boxes under the hood, and of brass-handled,mahogany drawers below the boxes, revealed the licensed hawker of thebush. Now, the hawker out there is a very extensive development of hisprototype here at home; he is Westbourne Grove on wheels, with theprices of Piccadilly, W. But these particular providers were neither souniversal nor so exorbitant as the generality of their class. There werebut two of them; they drove but two horses; and sat shoulder to shoulderon the box.
The afternoon was late; all day the horses had been crawling, for thetrack was unusually heavy. There had been recent rains; red mud cloggedthe wheels at every yard, and clung to them in sticky tires. Littlepools had formed all over the plain; and westward, on the off-side ofthe wagon, these pools caught the glow of the setting sun, and filledwith flame. Far over the horses' ears a long low line of trees wasvisible; otherwise the plain was unbroken; you might ride all day onthese plains and descry no other horse nor man.
The pair upon the box were partners. Their names were Flint andEdmonstone. Flint was enjoying a senior partner's prerogative, andlolling back wreathed in smoke. His thick bare arms were idly folded. Hewas a stout, brown, bearded man, who at thirty looked many years older;indolence, contentment, and goodwill were written upon his face.
The junior partner was driving, and taking some pains about it—keepingclear of the deep ruts, and pushing the pace only where the track wasgood. He looked twenty years Flint's junior, and was, in fact, just ofage. He was strongly built and five-feet-ten, with honest gray eyes,fair hair, and an inelastic mouth.
Both of these men wore flannel shirts, buff cord trousers, gray feltwideawakes; both were public-school men, drawn together in the firstinstance by that mutually surprising fact, and for the rest as differentas friends could be. Flint had been ten years in the Colonies,Edmonstone not quite ten weeks. Flint had tried everything, and failed;Edmonstone had everything before him, and did not mean to fail. Flintwas experienced, Edmonstone sanguine; things surprised Edmonstone,nothing surprised Flint. Edmonstone had dreams of the future, and goldendreams; Flint troubled only about the present, and that very little. Infine, while Edmonstone saw licensed hawking leading them both by a shortcut to fortune, and earnestly intended that it should, Flint said theywould be lucky if their second trip was as successful as their first,now all but come to an end.
The shadow of horses and wagon wavered upon the undulating plain asthey drove. The shadows grew longer and longer; there was a noticeablechange in them whenever young Edmonstone bent forward to gaze at the sunaway to the right, and then across at the eastern sky already tingedwith purple; and that was every five minutes.
"It will be dark in less than an hour," the lad exclaimed at last, inhis quick, anxious way; "dark just as we reach the scrub; we shall haveno moon until eleven or so, and very likely not strike the riverto-night."
The sentences were punctuated with sharp cracks of the whip. An answercame from Edmonstone's left, in the mild falsetto that contrasted soqueerly with the bodily bulk of Mr. John Flint, and startled all whoheard him speak for the first time.
"My good fellow, I implore you again to spare the horseflesh and thewhipcord—both important items—and take it easy like me."
"Jack," replied Edmonstone warmly, "you know well enough why I want toget to the Murrumbidgee to-night. No? Well, at all events, you own thatwe should lose no time about getting to some bank or other?"
"Yes, on the whole. But I don't see the good of hurrying on now to reachthe township at an unearthly hour, when all the time we might camp incomfort anywhere here. To my mind, a few hours, or even a night or two,more or less—"
"Are neither here nor there? Exactly!" broke in Edmonstone, withincreasing warmth. "Jack, Jack! the days those very words cost us! Addthem up—subtract them from the time we've been on the roads—and we'dhave been back a week ago at least. I shall have no peace of mind untilI step out of the bank, and that's the truth of it." As he spoke, thefingers of Edmonstone's right hand rested for a moment, with a curious,involuntary movement, upon his right breast.
"I can see that," returned Flint, serenely. "The burden of riches, yousee—and young blood! When you've been out here as long as I have,you'll take things easier, my son."
"You don't understand my position," said Edmonstone. "You laugh when Itell you I came out here to make money: all the same, I mean to do it. Iown I had rotten ideas about Australia—all new chums have. But if Ican't peg out my claim and pick up nuggets, I'm going to do the nextbest thing. It may be hawking and it may not. I mean to see. But we mustgive the thing a chance, and not run unnecessary risks with the grossproceeds of our very first trip. A hundred and thirty pounds isn't afortune; but it may be the nucleus of one; and it's all we've gotbetween us in this world meanwhile."
"My dear old boy, I'm fully alive to it. I only don't see the point offinishing the trip at a gallop."
"The point is that our little all is concealed about my person," saidEdmonstone, grimly.
"And my point is that it and we are absolutely safe. How many more timesam I to tell you so?" And there was a squeak of impatience in the absurdfalsetto voice, followed by clouds of smoke from the bearded lips.
Edmonstone drove some distance without a word.
"Yet only last week," he remarked at length, "a store was stuck up onthe Darling!"
"What of that?"
"The storekeeper was robbed of every cent he had."
"I know."
"Yet they shot him dead in the end."
"And they'll swing for it."
"Meanwhile they've shown clean heels, and nobody knows where theyare—or are not."
"Consequently you expect to find them waiting for us in the next clump,eh?"
"No, I don't. I only deny that we are absolutely safe."
Flint knocked out his pipe with sudden energy.
"My dear boy," cried he, "have I or have I not been as many years outhere as you've been weeks? I tell you I was in the mounted police, downin Vic, all through the Kelly business; joined in the hunt myself; andback myself to know a real bushranger when I see him or read about him.This fellow who has the cheek to call himself Sundown is not abushranger at all; he and his mates are mere robbers and murderers. NedKelly didn't go shooting miserable storekeepers; and he was the last ofthe bushrangers, and is likely to remain the last. Besides, these chapswill streak up-country, not down; but, if it's any comfort to you, seehere," and Flint pocketed his pipe, made a long arm overhead and reacheda Colt's revolver from a hook just inside the hood of the wagon, "letthis little plaything reassure you. What, didn't you know I was a deadshot with this? My dear chap, I wasn't in the mounted police fornothing. Why, I could pick out your front teeth at thirty yards andpaint my name on your waistcoat at twenty!"
Flint stroked the glittering barrel caressingly, and restored the pistolto its hook: there was a cartridge in every chamber.
The other said nothing for a time, but was more in earnest than everwhen he did speak.
"Jack," said he, "I can only tell you this: if we were to lose our moneystraight away at the outset I should be a lost man. How could we go onwithout it—hawking with an empty wagon? How could I push, push,push—as I've got to—after losing all to start with? A hundred pounds!It isn't much, but it is everything to me—everything. Let me only keepit a bit and it shall grow under my eyes. Take it away from me and I amdone for—completely done for."
He forgot that he was using the first person singular instead of plural;it had become natural to him to think out the business and itspossibilities in this way, and it was no less in Flint's nature to seeno selfishness in his friend's speech. Flint only said solemnly:
"You shouldn't think so much about money, old chap."
"Money and home!" exclaimed Dick Edmonstone in a low, excited tone."Home and money! It's almost all I do think about."
Jack Flint leaned forward, and narrowly scanned the face of his friend;then lay back again, with a light laugh of forced cheerf