Max Pemberton
Captain Black
Published by Good Press, 2020
EAN 4064066437251
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I THE HUNCHBACK OF DOLPHIN'S COVE
CHAPTER II THE LAST OF THE STRANGERS
CHAPTER III THE MAD DOCTOR IS HEARD OF AGAIN
CHAPTER IV WE ARRIVE AT ICE HAVEN
CHAPTER V THE MURDER ON THE SHIP
CHAPTER VI WE MEET JO MITCHELL
CHAPTER VII THE GREAT STONE ROLLS BACK
CHAPTER VIII THE ORDEAL OF THE CAVERN
CHAPTER XI THE BEGINNING OF THE TERROR
CHAPTER XII THE "VESPA" IS FIRED
CHAPTER XIII I SEE THE ENGLISH COAST AGAIN
CHAPTER XIV WE FIGHT BELOW THE SEA
CHAPTER XVI THE RED FLAME BEARS WITNESS
CHAPTER XVIII THE CAVES OF VARES
CHAPTER XIX WE BRING THE TREASURE ASHORE
CHAPTER XX THE SILENCE OF THE CAVERN
CHAPTER XXII THE HORROR OF THE "VENGEUR"
CHAPTER XXIII THE CAVERN OF THE TORRENTS
CHAPTER XXV I AM ALONE ON THE SHIP
CHAPTER XXVI THE GREAT CAPTAIN PUTS OUT TO SEA
FOREWORD
It is nineteen years since Captain Black first sailed from Spezzia upon the Nameless Ship, and taught the world the meaning of the new piracy. A gigantic hull of phosphor bronze harboured the gas-engines by which the great vessel was driven; an inlet upon the shores of Greenland, known as Ice Haven, received the treasure and the ship when the Governments of the world awoke to the truth. Black and his men fell by a great mischance, and rumour said that he was dead. The ship that he built, then derided by the experts, is the ship of the new century, and the yards are already resounding with the bruit of a copy which shall be driven by oil-engines and banish steam from the high seas.
The Nameless Ship was sunk in the Atlantic; but the man who commanded her did not die. Just as, twenty years ago, he taught the experts what the naval battle of the future must be, so now it is possible that they may learn a further lesson from this new record of his daring. Possessed of a submarine, which would seem to embody the dreams of the scientist, the great Captain sails the seas to-day. Whatever mad impulse may lie at the back of his emprise, whatever gospel of plunder may excuse his assault upon the commerce of the world, the fact remains that no wit has yet been able to ensnare him, no ship to make him captive.
Deep down in the heart of the ocean, the pirate lies. The dogged persistence of the youth, Mark Strong, whose life the Captain spared, has permitted this further account of him to come into my hands. It is the story of the treasure which Black amassed when the Nameless Ship was the mistress of the ocean and the cities echoed the seamen's fables and learned at last that they were true. At the bidding of one man's voice, the nineteenth century came to understand the peril of the deep as the seventeenth century had known it. Shall we say, while Black lives, that our own age has less to fear from such a menace and may despise it?
CHAPTER I
THE HUNCHBACK OF DOLPHIN'S COVE
I do not know that I could begin to tell you of Captain Black's treasure upon any better day than the one which brought the lame seaman to Dolphin's Cove in Cornwall. This filled me with so many doubts about the voyage that I was upon the point of regretting we had planned it at all.
We were to weigh anchor with the tide about ten o'clock that night. The old yacht, the Celsis, glorious in her shining brass and new white paint, then lay in the river below the very windows of the little house wherein I had spent so many happy months since the Nameless Ship brought me fame and fortune. I waited but for my friend Roderick Stewart and his madcap sister Mary: and when the train carried them from town, England would know me no more for many months. So you will imagine what I thought of it when old Nick Venning, the village constable, came stumbling up the steps from the harbour mole to tell me of three strange men at "The Falmouth Arms," and of what they had been doing and what they had been saying—to the great scandal and surprise of the simple folk round about.
"You'll niver have heard of such a thing, Master Mark," says he—I don't suppose old Nicholas would know me by any other name, though he has carried up many a letter addressed to Mark Strong, Esq.—"you'll never have heard of such a thing. Three of them are