e girl regarded Philip for a second in silence, and then quietly asked, "For the betterment of whose life after death?"
"I was speaking of those who have carried on only the forms of religion. Wrapped in the sanctity of their own small circle, they feel that their tiny souls are safe, and that they are following the example and precepts of Christ.
"The full splendor of Christ's love, the grandeur of His life and doctrine is to them a thing unknown. The infinite love, the sweet humility, the gentle charity, the subordination of self that the Master came to give a cruel, selfish and ignorant world, mean but little more to us to-day than it did to those to whom He gave it."
"And you who have chosen a military career say this," said the girl as her brother joined the pair.
To Philip her comment came as something of a shock, for he was unprepared for these words spoken with such a depth of feeling.
Gloria and Philip Dru spent most of graduation day together. He did not want to in
the air without in the rooms you sleep in? Butfor this, you must have sufficient outlet for the impure air you makeyourselves to go out; sufficient inlet for the pure air from without tocome in. You must have open chimneys, open windows, or ventilators; noclose curtains round your beds; no shutters or curtains to your windows,none of the contrivances by which you undermine your own health ordestroy the chances of recovery of your sick.[4]
[Sidenote: When warmth must be most carefully looked to.]
A careful nurse will keep a constant watch over her sick, especiallyweak, protracted, and collapsed cases, to guard against the effects ofthe loss of vital heat by the patient himself. In certain diseasedstates much less heat is produced than in health; and there is aconstant tendency to the decline and ultimate extinction of the vitalpowers by the call made upon them to sustain the heat of the body. Caseswhere this occurs should be watched with the greatest care from hour tohour, I had almost said
Co., bankers, of Liverpool. I join herewith a series of cheques, signed by me, which will allow you to draw upon the said Messrs. Marcuart for the above-mentioned sum. You do not know me, but that is of no consequence. I know you: that is sufficient. I offer you the place of second on board the brig Forward for a voyage that may be long and perilous. If you agree to my conditions you will receive a salary of 500 pounds, and all through the voyage it will be augmented one-tenth at the end of each year. The Forward is not yet in existence. You must have it built so as to be ready for sea at the beginning of April, 1860, at the latest. Herewith is a detailed plan and estimate. You will take care that it is scrupulously followed. The ship is to be built by Messrs. Scott and Co., who will settle with you. I particularly recommend you the choice of the Forward's crew; it will be composed of a captain, myself, of a second, you, of a third officer, a boatswain, two engineers, an ice pilot,
whispered the pirate captain dubiously, aside.
"Speak on!" again commanded he of the blue eyes. "But your life blood dyes the deck if you seek to deceive Jean Lafitte, or Henry L'Olonnois!"
(So then, thought I, at last I knew their names.)
In reply I reached to my belt and drew out quickly--so quickly that they both flinched away--the long handled knife which, usually, I carried with me for cutting down alders or other growth which sometimes entangled my flies as I fished along the stream. "Listen," said I, "I swear the pirates' oath. On the point of my blade," and I touched it with my right forefinger, "I swear that I pondered on two things when you surprised me."
"Name them!" demanded Jimmy L'Olonnois fiercely.
"First, then," I answered, "I was wondering what I could use as a cork to my phial, when once I had yonder Anopheles in it----"
"Who's he?" demanded Jean Lafitte.
"Anopheles? A friend of mine," I replied; "a mosquito, in short."
"Jimmy, he's cr
ng device. It will keep your novel or short fiction piece focused and can even be used for publishing and marketing purposes. With a little tweaking you already have a blurb for your back cover and press release!
Every story breaks down to this essential statement. But how can one sentence sum up a novel length story? Consider Wally Lamb's 800 plus-page novel, I Know This Much Is True: An angry, resentful brother feels obligated to keep his schizophrenic twin out of harm's way. In Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code: A man under suspicion must solve a murder that is shrouded in ancient Christian ritual. In Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita: An aging professor is obsessed with a troubled girl.
Let's go back to Mary and her mother.
"Who is Mary's mother? What's her name?"
"Her name is Adele," you say.
"And what does Adele want?"
"Adele has what she wants. She wants Mary to be dependent on her. She wants to keep her that way."
The problem with this story goal is that it is reac
ctantly for a titter, and bowed to it when it arrived. "You will then return to Wady Halfa, and there remain two hours to suspect the Camel Corps, including the grooming of the beasts, and the bazaar before returning, so I wish you a very happy good-night."
There was a gleam of his white teeth in the lamplight, and then his long, dark petticoats, his short English cover-coat, and his red tarboosh vanished successively down the ladder. The low buzz of conversation which had been suspended by his coming broke out anew.
"I'm relying on you, Mr. Stephens, to tell me all about Abousir," said Miss Sadie Adams. "I do like to know what I am looking at right there at the time, and not six hours afterwards in my state-room. I haven't got Abou-Simbel and the wall pictures straight in my mind yet, though I saw them yesterday."
"I never hope to keep up with it," said her aunt. "When I am safe back in Commonwealth Avenue, and there's no dragoman to hustle me around, I'll have time to read about it all,
th whom personally I had but a slight acquaintance, although I knew them somewhat by reputation. The younger one, Clinton Browne, is a young artist whose landscapes were beginning to attract wide attention in Boston, and the elder, Charles Herne, a Western gentleman of some literary attainments, but comparatively unknown here in the East. There is nothing about Mr. Herne that would challenge more than passing attention. If you had said of him, "He is well-fleshed, well-groomed, and intellectually well-thatched," you would have voiced the opinion of most of his acquaintances.
This somewhat elaborately upholstered old world has a deal of mere filling of one kind and another, and Mr. Herne is a part of it. To be sure, he leaves the category of excelsior very far behind and approaches very nearly to the best grade of curled hair, but, in spite of all this, he is simply a sort of social filling.
Mr. Browne, on the other hand, is a very different personage. Of medium height, closely knit, with the lat
ople were blessed and shriven by the tremblingpriests. Outside no bird flew, and there came no rustling fromthe woods, nor any of the homely sounds of Nature. All was still,and nothing moved, save only the great cloud which rolled up andonward, with fold on fold from the black horizon. To the west wasthe light summer sky, to the east this brooding cloud-bank,creeping ever slowly across, until the last thin blue gleam fadedaway and the whole vast sweep of the heavens was one great leadenarch.
Then the rain began to fall. All day it rained, and all the nightand all the week and all the month, until folk had forgotten theblue heavens and the gleam of the sunshine. It was not heavy, butit was steady and cold and unceasing, so that the people wereweary of its hissing and its splashing, with the slow drip fromthe eaves. Always the same thick evil cloud flowed from east towest with the rain beneath it. None could see for more than abow-shot from their dwellings for the drifting veil of ther
Miller said irritably.
"Lots of silly things there's no accounting for," the agent replied. "And you can't realise the reputation the island's got around this part of the country. And, see here! Don't you be putting me down as foolish too. I've told you what they say. I don't know anything about spooks--never saw one. All I do claim is, there's a kind of a spell on Captain's Island that reaches out for you and--and sort of scares you. That's all I say--a sort of spell you want to get away from. Maybe you're right and it's just the climate, and that jungle, and the loneliness."
"And I," Miller said, "have been picturing it as a popular winter resort."
"You'll have to ask the snakes and the spooks about that," the agent laughed.
He turned to an entering customer.
Miller went back to the Dart, telling himself that the problem of Anderson's note was as undecipherable as ever. He would have to wait for an explanation until he had seen Anderson that night. Therefore he was all th
ub offer Tuzun Thune that would make of him a foul traitor?"
"Gold, power, and position," grunted Brule. "The sooner you learn that men are men whether wizard, king, or thrall, the better you will rule, Kull. Now what of her?"
"Naught, Brule," as the girl whimpered and groveled at Kull's feet. "She was but a tool. Rise, child, and go your ways; none shall harm you."
Alone with Brule, Kull looked for the last time on the mirrors of Tuzun Thune.
"Mayhap he plotted and conjured, Brule; nay, I doubt you not, yet--was it his witchery that was changing me to thin mist, or had I stumbled on a secret? Had you not brought me back, had I faded in dissolution or had I found worlds beyond this?"
Brule stole a glance at the mirrors, and twitched his shoulders as if he shuddered. "Aye, Tuzun Thune stored the wisdom of all the hells here. Let us be gone, Kull, ere they bewitch me, too."
"Let us go, then," answered Kull, and side by side they went forth from the House of a Thousand M
e girl regarded Philip for a second in silence, and then quietly asked, "For the betterment of whose life after death?"
"I was speaking of those who have carried on only the forms of religion. Wrapped in the sanctity of their own small circle, they feel that their tiny souls are safe, and that they are following the example and precepts of Christ.
"The full splendor of Christ's love, the grandeur of His life and doctrine is to them a thing unknown. The infinite love, the sweet humility, the gentle charity, the subordination of self that the Master came to give a cruel, selfish and ignorant world, mean but little more to us to-day than it did to those to whom He gave it."
"And you who have chosen a military career say this," said the girl as her brother joined the pair.
To Philip her comment came as something of a shock, for he was unprepared for these words spoken with such a depth of feeling.
Gloria and Philip Dru spent most of graduation day together. He did not want to in
the air without in the rooms you sleep in? Butfor this, you must have sufficient outlet for the impure air you makeyourselves to go out; sufficient inlet for the pure air from without tocome in. You must have open chimneys, open windows, or ventilators; noclose curtains round your beds; no shutters or curtains to your windows,none of the contrivances by which you undermine your own health ordestroy the chances of recovery of your sick.[4]
[Sidenote: When warmth must be most carefully looked to.]
A careful nurse will keep a constant watch over her sick, especiallyweak, protracted, and collapsed cases, to guard against the effects ofthe loss of vital heat by the patient himself. In certain diseasedstates much less heat is produced than in health; and there is aconstant tendency to the decline and ultimate extinction of the vitalpowers by the call made upon them to sustain the heat of the body. Caseswhere this occurs should be watched with the greatest care from hour tohour, I had almost said
Co., bankers, of Liverpool. I join herewith a series of cheques, signed by me, which will allow you to draw upon the said Messrs. Marcuart for the above-mentioned sum. You do not know me, but that is of no consequence. I know you: that is sufficient. I offer you the place of second on board the brig Forward for a voyage that may be long and perilous. If you agree to my conditions you will receive a salary of 500 pounds, and all through the voyage it will be augmented one-tenth at the end of each year. The Forward is not yet in existence. You must have it built so as to be ready for sea at the beginning of April, 1860, at the latest. Herewith is a detailed plan and estimate. You will take care that it is scrupulously followed. The ship is to be built by Messrs. Scott and Co., who will settle with you. I particularly recommend you the choice of the Forward's crew; it will be composed of a captain, myself, of a second, you, of a third officer, a boatswain, two engineers, an ice pilot,
whispered the pirate captain dubiously, aside.
"Speak on!" again commanded he of the blue eyes. "But your life blood dyes the deck if you seek to deceive Jean Lafitte, or Henry L'Olonnois!"
(So then, thought I, at last I knew their names.)
In reply I reached to my belt and drew out quickly--so quickly that they both flinched away--the long handled knife which, usually, I carried with me for cutting down alders or other growth which sometimes entangled my flies as I fished along the stream. "Listen," said I, "I swear the pirates' oath. On the point of my blade," and I touched it with my right forefinger, "I swear that I pondered on two things when you surprised me."
"Name them!" demanded Jimmy L'Olonnois fiercely.
"First, then," I answered, "I was wondering what I could use as a cork to my phial, when once I had yonder Anopheles in it----"
"Who's he?" demanded Jean Lafitte.
"Anopheles? A friend of mine," I replied; "a mosquito, in short."
"Jimmy, he's cr
ng device. It will keep your novel or short fiction piece focused and can even be used for publishing and marketing purposes. With a little tweaking you already have a blurb for your back cover and press release!
Every story breaks down to this essential statement. But how can one sentence sum up a novel length story? Consider Wally Lamb's 800 plus-page novel, I Know This Much Is True: An angry, resentful brother feels obligated to keep his schizophrenic twin out of harm's way. In Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code: A man under suspicion must solve a murder that is shrouded in ancient Christian ritual. In Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita: An aging professor is obsessed with a troubled girl.
Let's go back to Mary and her mother.
"Who is Mary's mother? What's her name?"
"Her name is Adele," you say.
"And what does Adele want?"
"Adele has what she wants. She wants Mary to be dependent on her. She wants to keep her that way."
The problem with this story goal is that it is reac
ctantly for a titter, and bowed to it when it arrived. "You will then return to Wady Halfa, and there remain two hours to suspect the Camel Corps, including the grooming of the beasts, and the bazaar before returning, so I wish you a very happy good-night."
There was a gleam of his white teeth in the lamplight, and then his long, dark petticoats, his short English cover-coat, and his red tarboosh vanished successively down the ladder. The low buzz of conversation which had been suspended by his coming broke out anew.
"I'm relying on you, Mr. Stephens, to tell me all about Abousir," said Miss Sadie Adams. "I do like to know what I am looking at right there at the time, and not six hours afterwards in my state-room. I haven't got Abou-Simbel and the wall pictures straight in my mind yet, though I saw them yesterday."
"I never hope to keep up with it," said her aunt. "When I am safe back in Commonwealth Avenue, and there's no dragoman to hustle me around, I'll have time to read about it all,
th whom personally I had but a slight acquaintance, although I knew them somewhat by reputation. The younger one, Clinton Browne, is a young artist whose landscapes were beginning to attract wide attention in Boston, and the elder, Charles Herne, a Western gentleman of some literary attainments, but comparatively unknown here in the East. There is nothing about Mr. Herne that would challenge more than passing attention. If you had said of him, "He is well-fleshed, well-groomed, and intellectually well-thatched," you would have voiced the opinion of most of his acquaintances.
This somewhat elaborately upholstered old world has a deal of mere filling of one kind and another, and Mr. Herne is a part of it. To be sure, he leaves the category of excelsior very far behind and approaches very nearly to the best grade of curled hair, but, in spite of all this, he is simply a sort of social filling.
Mr. Browne, on the other hand, is a very different personage. Of medium height, closely knit, with the lat
ople were blessed and shriven by the tremblingpriests. Outside no bird flew, and there came no rustling fromthe woods, nor any of the homely sounds of Nature. All was still,and nothing moved, save only the great cloud which rolled up andonward, with fold on fold from the black horizon. To the west wasthe light summer sky, to the east this brooding cloud-bank,creeping ever slowly across, until the last thin blue gleam fadedaway and the whole vast sweep of the heavens was one great leadenarch.
Then the rain began to fall. All day it rained, and all the nightand all the week and all the month, until folk had forgotten theblue heavens and the gleam of the sunshine. It was not heavy, butit was steady and cold and unceasing, so that the people wereweary of its hissing and its splashing, with the slow drip fromthe eaves. Always the same thick evil cloud flowed from east towest with the rain beneath it. None could see for more than abow-shot from their dwellings for the drifting veil of ther
Miller said irritably.
"Lots of silly things there's no accounting for," the agent replied. "And you can't realise the reputation the island's got around this part of the country. And, see here! Don't you be putting me down as foolish too. I've told you what they say. I don't know anything about spooks--never saw one. All I do claim is, there's a kind of a spell on Captain's Island that reaches out for you and--and sort of scares you. That's all I say--a sort of spell you want to get away from. Maybe you're right and it's just the climate, and that jungle, and the loneliness."
"And I," Miller said, "have been picturing it as a popular winter resort."
"You'll have to ask the snakes and the spooks about that," the agent laughed.
He turned to an entering customer.
Miller went back to the Dart, telling himself that the problem of Anderson's note was as undecipherable as ever. He would have to wait for an explanation until he had seen Anderson that night. Therefore he was all th
ub offer Tuzun Thune that would make of him a foul traitor?"
"Gold, power, and position," grunted Brule. "The sooner you learn that men are men whether wizard, king, or thrall, the better you will rule, Kull. Now what of her?"
"Naught, Brule," as the girl whimpered and groveled at Kull's feet. "She was but a tool. Rise, child, and go your ways; none shall harm you."
Alone with Brule, Kull looked for the last time on the mirrors of Tuzun Thune.
"Mayhap he plotted and conjured, Brule; nay, I doubt you not, yet--was it his witchery that was changing me to thin mist, or had I stumbled on a secret? Had you not brought me back, had I faded in dissolution or had I found worlds beyond this?"
Brule stole a glance at the mirrors, and twitched his shoulders as if he shuddered. "Aye, Tuzun Thune stored the wisdom of all the hells here. Let us be gone, Kull, ere they bewitch me, too."
"Let us go, then," answered Kull, and side by side they went forth from the House of a Thousand M