【英文读物】Captain Sparkle, Pirate.docx

《【英文读物】Captain Sparkle, Pirate.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《【英文读物】Captain Sparkle, Pirate.docx（127页珍藏版）》请在淘文阁 - 分享文档赚钱的网站上搜索。

1、【英文读物】Captain Sparkle, PirateCHAPTER I. CAPTAIN SPARKLE, THE PIRATE CHIEF.“Mr. Maxwell Kane!”The announcement was made by Nick Carters valet, Joseph, who threw open the door of his masters study with a gesture as nearly approaching a flourish as any in which he ever permitted himself to indulge. Jos

2、eph had a wholesome respect for millionaires, and many a one of them came at one time and another to the detective for consultation; but it was rarely that Joseph admitted such a one as Maxwell Kane.It was a name which was an open sesame at all doors, however exclusive; it was the name of a man who

3、counted his millions by hundredsof a man who, notwithstanding his great wealth, still found time to be a good fellow; of an athlete, a sportsmanin short, and in a word, a gentleman.It was also the name of a man whom Nick Carter counted among his personal and intimate friends; but Joseph was not awar

4、e of that fact when he threw open the door and announced the caller. He had taken the card to his master a moment before, in his study, and6 had been directed to “show the gentleman here, Joseph”; and Joseph knew that only persons who were privileged, indeed, were ever permitted to penetrate to Nick

5、 Carters study.Nick wore his house-coat, a short smoking-jacket, and had been engaged in consuming his after-breakfast cigar while he read the papers, when the caller was announced.“Hello, Nick!” was the greeting he received from Kane. “I got up before breakfast this morning; as you will observe. Wh

6、at time is it, anyhow?” he added, as he dropped into a chair which the detective indicated to him, and pulled out his watch. “Not yet eight oclock, eh? Have you had your breakfast?”“An hour ago,” replied the detective.“Have you got anything doing to-day?”“No; I was just congratulating myself that I

7、had not. All my assistants are out, however, so I can hardly call myself care free. I never am, you know.”“Yes, I know. Say, old chap, the Goalong”he referred to his palatial steam-yacht“is lying at the dock, over at the foot of West Twenty-third Street, waiting for us, and I want you to go aboard w

8、ith me. Will you?”“Id like to do so, Kane,” replied the detective; “but there are several things here to which I ought to give my attention to-day, now that I have a few moments at my disposal in which to do so. You see”“Hold on, Nick. I havent finished yet.”7“Well, go ahead, then.”“This is a busine

9、ss proposition Im making. I was boarded by pirates last night, and I want you to see if you cant catch them.”“Boarded bywhat?”“Piratesp-i-r-a-t-e-spirates. The real thing, too. Honest Injun, Nick! Did you ever read Coopers Red Rover? Well, I could take my oath that he has risen from the bottom of th

10、e sea and resumed business at the old stand. I hope to goodness he wont hear me; he might think I am joking, and I was never more in dead earnest in my life.”“Do you mean that the Goalong was boarded by piratesreally?”“Do I mean it! Huh! Cant you see that Ive lost flesh? It takes a pretty good-sized

11、 man, with a mighty big proposition on his side of the question, to scare me, Nick, as you are aware; but that pirate chap did the act, without a hitch. I havent got over it yet.”“You arent trying one of your jokes on me, are you, Kane?”“Noon my honor, no!”“Tell me all about it.”“Not here, old man.

12、Come aboard the yacht. Id rather tell you there. You see, that is what I have come here for. When this thing happened, I said to my wife and her sisterthey are aboard the Goalong with me, you knowI told them that there was only one thing for us to do, and that was to hurry to the city and find you;

13、and so, if you dont mindand you8 have just admitted that you can spare the timeIll take you aboard with me now, and you can hear the story there, all at once. I wont affront you by offering you anything for your services; but, all the same, if it were a question of bidding against another client in

14、order to secure you to-day, Id outbid Standard Oil. Can I put it any stronger than that, Nick?”“Not very well.”“And youll come, ehfor friendships sake?”“Yes; Ill be with you in a moment. Wait here.”The detective left the room, but presently he returned, ready for the street, and, without more delay,

15、 the two friends left the house together.“I came across in a car,” said Kane. “You dont mind, do you?”They boarded a west-bound Twenty-third Street car, and in a very short time were aboard the sumptuous yacht, which had been waiting to receive them.As soon as their feet were pressed upon the deck,

16、the plank was drawn in, and the lines cast off, and they had not advanced to the awning under which Kanes wife and two guests were seated while awaiting them, before the yacht was backing out into the river.“I found him, as you see,” said Kane, advancing rapidly. “Caught him alone, too, and with not

17、hing to do. Think of that! Carter, have you ever met my wifes sister? Here she is. Miss Bessie Harlan. If I hadnt asked my wife to marry me before I met her sister, it would have been a toss-up between them. Now, I couldnt pay Bessie a greater compliment than that9 could I? And this is Count Jean de

18、 Cadillac. I made the counts acquaintance in Paris last winter. We were quite chummy there, and when he showed up over here, a couple of weeks ago”“We became even chummier,” interrupted the count, with a smile, speaking in perfect English, and smiling so that he showed his perfect, white teeth.He wa

19、s a handsome man, too, this Count Cadillac, with his shining, black eyes, blacker mustache and imperial, gleaming teeth, and clear, white skin. And his manners were faultless, his dress perfect without being foppish.Nick greeted Mrs. Kane, and acknowledged the introductions while the yacht was backi

20、ng into the river; and then, turning to Kane, while he accepted one of the deck-chairs, he remarked:“Now, Max, give us the pirate story.”“You will understand, before I finish,” said Kane, “why I insisted upon your coming here before I told it. I wanted witnesses to support my statements, for I have

21、an idea that you wouldnt believe my unsupported word about this affair.”“Oh, yes”“Wait. You havent heard the story yet. Its really the most incredible thing you ever heard of, from beginning to end. Ill give you my word that I wouldnt believe a word of it if I hadnt seen it with my own eyes.”“It beg

22、ins promisingly,” said Nick.“You wait. We left Newport yesterday, about noon,10 I think; between noon and one oclock. We loafed along, for nobody was in a hurry, and last night, late in the evening, we ran in at the American Yacht Club anchorageyou know where that is, eh?”“Yes.”“We ran in there, and

23、 anchored for the night.”“We were intending to go ashore to call upon some friends who live near there,” said Mrs. Kane; “but we found that it was too late when we arrived, so we gave it up.”“It was a beautiful night,” continued Kane, “warm, and as nearly perfect as it could be made; and we sat out

24、here on the deck until almost one oclock before anybody thought of turning in. You see, Carter, it happened that we were alone at the anchorage. I dont suppose that thing would happen once again in a dozen summers, but it happened last night, all right.”“I liked it,” said Bessie Harlan. “It was a ch

25、ange.”“Well,” continued Kane, “the Sound was as smooth as glass. There wasnt a ripple anywhere, and”“And the moon was just heavenly!” interrupted Bessie, again; but Kane did not even turn his eyes in her direction.“I came back on deck after the others turned in,” he continued. “I wasnt sleepy, the n

26、ight was beautiful, and I wanted to smoke another cigar, all by my little lonesome. So I sat hereright where I am seated nowlighted my cigar, and smoked.“I am going to take you right back to that anchorage, Carter, so that you can see things just as they are, so11 far as the surroundings are concern

27、ed. We are headed for there now.”“That is a good idea,” said Nick.“Well, my cigar was something more than half-smoked, and, as I am a slow smoker, it must have been something like half an hour after I was alone before anything happened; and then it all happened so suddenly that it was on me before I

28、 knew it.”“What was?” asked the detective.“The pirate. Wait.”“Im waiting.”“The fellow made his approach from behind, which would account for my not seeing him or his craft until he was right there, on the deck, so to speak, but I dont think that would account for my not hearing him, do you?”“You mig

29、ht have been dozing in your chair,” suggested Nick.“Bosh! I was never wider awake in my life!”“You were, doubtless, so absorbed in what you were thinking about that you paid no attention to your surroundings.”“Thats all bosh, too. I was just as alert as I ever am. As I always am; and Im not generall

30、y known as a sleeper, or a dreamer, either.”“Thats quite true, Kane.”“I was just as wide-awake as I am now. I was just as much on the alert as I am now. The night was so still, and the yacht and everything aboard of her was so silent, that I could have heard a tack drop, the whole12 length of the Go

31、along. But the fact remains, all the same, that I did not hear a sound.“I was seated right here, in this position and in this same chair, looking off, as you observe, almost astern. The bow of the yacht was pointed toward the open Sound, for the tide was coming in.“My cigar was on the last quarterI

32、told you that once already; but never mindand I had about made up my mind to light a fresh one, when I discovered that I hadnt another one in my pocket, and would have to go below to get it. That settled it. If I had felt any doubt about smoking another cigar, the discovery of the fact that I had no

33、t another one in my possession made me want nothing on earth so much as that cigar. So I rose to go below.“You will observe, from my present position, that I was obliged to turn in order to do so.“The companionway is behind me.”“I got up, stretched myself, chucked my two-thirds-smoked cigar into the

34、 water, and turned”He paused, as if to give emphasis to the concluding statement; and, after a moment of silence, the detective said:“Well, what then?”“The pirate stood directly in front of me.”“On the deck of your own yachtof this yacht?”“Exactly. Right thereon that spot,” and Kane pointed with his

35、 finger toward a point on the deck directly in front of him, for he had risen while he was13 speaking, in order to act out this dramatic incident of his story.“Was he alone?” asked Nick.“No; there were six others directly behind him.”“Six others!” exclaimed the detective. “Do you mean to tell me tha

36、t seven men had succeeded in coming aboard your yacht, in the bright moonlight, when the Sound was as smooth as glass and the night was as still as a church, without rousing you, although you sat there on the deck smoking?”“That is exactly what they did do.”“How did they get aboard?”“To answer that

37、question now is to get ahead of my story,” said Kane. “I would rather tell you about it just as it happened, incident for incident.”“All right. Go ahead.”“You could have knocked me out with a crows feather when I discovered them,” continued Kane. “I hadnt a leg left to stand on, Carter. I opened my

38、mouth to speakI havent the least idea what I intended to say, thoughwhen the chief pirate raised one hand and touched his fingers to his lips.”“Which you construed as a command for you to remain silent?”“I think that gesture is so construed all over the world, isnt it?”“Quite so. Well, what next?”“Y

39、ou see, Carter, I knew by their appearance that they were robbers. It did strike me for an instant that the whole thing was some huge joke which somebody had14 put up on me, but I was quickly undeceived on that point.”“What was their appearance?”“Here is where I am going to test your credulity, old

40、man. But my wife and my friends can testify that I tell you the truth.”“So they saw the pirates, also?”“Yes, as you shall hear.”“Well, about their appearance, or how they appeared, eh? That part of the comedy seemed to impress you.”“It did. And it was no comedy, either, Ill beg you to understand! Ca

41、rter, the pirate chief was dressed in red, from head to feet, and he looked as if he might have stepped down out of a Shakespeare tragedy, as far as the cut of his costume was concerned. I think if you were to dress Romeo in red, you would about get the proper idea. Eh, count? What do you say?”“I th

42、ink you have given a very good description,” replied the count.“And the other six?” asked Nick. “Were they dressed the same?”“No, indeed! They were only common truck alongside of their master, I suppose. At all events, they appeared in ordinary black. Every man jack of them wore a half-mask over his

43、 features. The chiefs mask was red, like his costume; those of the men were black, the same as their costumes. They also wore rather tight-fitting caps on their heads, but the chief wore a regular Romeo hat, with an eagles feather stuck in it.”“Hm!” said Nick. “It makes quite a picture.”15“Youd have

44、 thought so if you had been in my place, Carter! I didnt know whether I was scared, amused, angry, or bored; and I didnt have time to analyze my sentiments, either, for when the chief touched his lips with his fingers, to signal me that he preferred that I should keep quiet, he remarked, quite calml

45、y and in a perfectly natural tone:“I dont suppose you wish needlessly to frighten the ladies, do you?“Well, no, I replied, I cant say that I do. They have retired, however, and we need not disturb them.“On the contrary, my friend, he said, it will be necessary that they are disturbed. But I am fond

46、of the ladies. I do not like to frighten themneedlessly. Then, again, sometimes they faint away, or scream, and that offends me.“Indeed? I said. Have I by mistake been smoking on the deck of your yacht, instead of my own? I intended that for sarcasm, Nick, but it fell flat. He didnt see the point at

47、 all, for he replied, calmly, that I would find things much more to my taste for a few moments if I would take that view of it. You may consider the Goalong as my property for the next half-hour, he said.”“Were they armed?” asked Nick.“The pirate said they were, and I have no doubt that they were, a

48、lthough I saw no sign of weapons of any kind, save that the chief wore a short, straight sword at his side, and while he talked to me he let his hand rest upon it, as if to call my attention to the fact.”16“What happened next?”“Well, when he said that I could look upon my yacht as his property for the next half-hour or so, I didnt seem to