Split (1)

train · 10.3k rows

chapter_number stringlengths 1 2	title stringlengths 3 691	text stringlengths 38 376k	metadata dict
51	None	Dick Shand Goes To Cambridgeshire The news of Shand's return was soon common in Cambridge. The tidings, of course, were told to Mr. Caldigate, and were then made known by him to Hester. The old man, though he turned the matter much in his mind,--doubting whether the hopes thus raised would not add to Hester's sorrow...	{ "id": "11643" }
52	None	The Fortunes of Bagwax An altogether new idea had occurred to Bagwax as he sat in his office after his interview with Sir John Joram;--and it was an idea of such a nature that he thought that he saw his way quite plain to a complete manifestation of the innocence of Caldigate, to a certainty of a pardon, and to an i...	{ "id": "11643" }
53	None	Sir John Backs His Opinion Well, Mr. Bagwax, I'm glad that it's only one envelope this time.' This was said by Sir John Joram to the honest and energetic post-office clerk on the morning of Wednesday the 3d September, when the lawyer would have been among the partridges down in Suffolk but for the vicissitudes of Jo...	{ "id": "11643" }
54	None	Judge Bramber A secretary of State who has to look after the police and the magistrates, to answer questions in the House of Commons, and occasionally to make a telling speech in defence of his colleagues, and, in addition to this, is expected to perform the duties of a practical court of appeal in criminal cases, m...	{ "id": "11643" }
55	None	How the Conspirators Throve There had been some indiscretion among Caldigate's friends from which it resulted that, while Judge Bramber was considering the matter, and before the police intelligence of Scotland Yard even had stirred itself in obedience to the judge's orders, nearly all the circumstances which had be...	{ "id": "11643" }
56	None	The Boltons Are Very Firm While all this was going on, as the general opinion in favour of Caldigate was becoming stronger every day, when even Judge Bramber had begun to doubt, the feeling which had always prevailed at Puritan Grange was growing in intensity and converting itself from a conviction into a passion. T...	{ "id": "11643" }
57	None	Squire Caldigate at the Home Office When October came no information from the Secretary of State's office had yet reached Folking, and the two inhabitants there were becoming almost despondent as well as impatient. There was nobody with whom they could communicate. Sir John Joram had been obliged to answer a letter ...	{ "id": "11643" }
58	None	Mr. Smirkie Is Ill-used It was on a Tuesday that Mr. Caldigate made his visit to the Home Office, and on the Thursday he returned to Cambridge. On the platform whom should he meet but his brother-in-law Squire Babington, who had come into Cambridge that morning intent on hearing something further about his nephew. H...	{ "id": "11643" }
59	None	How The Big-Wigs Doubted It's what I call an awful shame.' Mr. Holt and parson Bromley were standing together on the causeway at Folking, and the former was speaking. The subject under discussion was, of course, the continued detention of John Caldigate in the county prison. 'I cannot at all understand it,' said M...	{ "id": "11643" }
60	None	How Mrs. Bolton Was Nearly Conquered One morning about the middle of October, Robert Bolton walked out from Cambridge to Puritan Grange with a letter in his pocket,--a very long and a very serious letter. The day was that on which the Secretary of State was closeted with the barrister, and on the evening of which he...	{ "id": "11643" }
61	None	The News Reaches Cambridge The tidings of John Caldigate's pardon reached Cambridge on the Saturday morning, and was communicated in various shapes. Official letters from the Home Office were written to the governor of the jail and to the sub-sheriff, to Mr. Seely who was still acting as attorney on behalf of the pr...	{ "id": "11643" }
62	None	John Caldigate's Return The carriage started with the old man in it as soon as the horses could be harnessed; but on the Folking causeway it met the fly which was bringing John Caldigate to his home,--so that the father and son greeted each other in the street amidst the eyes of the villagers. To them it did not muc...	{ "id": "11643" }
63	None	How Mrs. Bolton Was Quite Conquered Nearly a week passed over their heads at Puritan Grange before anything further was either done or said, or even written, as to the return of John Caldigate to his own home and to his own wife. In the meantime, both Mrs. Robert and Mrs. Daniel had gone out to Folking and made visi...	{ "id": "11643" }
64	None	Conclusion The web of our story has now been woven, the piece is finished, and it is only necessary that the loose threads should be collected, so that there may be no unravelling. In such chronicles as this, something no doubt might be left to the imagination without serious injury to the story; but the reader, I t...	{ "id": "11643" }
1	PRESENTIMENT	The man was short and fat, and greasy above the dark beard line. In addition, he was bowlegged as a greyhound, and just now he moved with a limp as though very footsore. His coarse blue flannel shirt, open at the throat, exposed a broad hairy chest that rose and fell mightily with the effort he was making. And therein ...	{ "id": "11683" }
2	FULFILMENT	The log cabin of Settler Rowland, as a landmark, stood forth. Barred it was--the white of barked cotton-wood timber alternating with the brown of earth that filled the spaces between--like the longitudinal stripes of a prairie gopher or on the back of a bob-white. Long wiry slough grass, razor-sharp as to blades, punge...	{ "id": "11683" }
3	DISCOVERY	More than a mere name was Fort Yankton. Original in construction, as necessity ever induces the unusual, it was nevertheless formidable. To the north was a typical entrenchment with a ditch, and a parapet eight feet high. To the east was a double board wall with earth tamped between: a solid curb higher than the head o...	{ "id": "11683" }
4	RECONSTRUCTION	The day of the Indian terror had passed. No longer did the name of Little Crow carry stampede in its wake. The battles of Big Mound, of White Stone Hill, and of the Bad Lands had been fought, had become mere history; dim already to the newcomer as Lexington or Bull Run. Still in the memory, to be sure, was the half-inv...	{ "id": "11683" }
5	THE LAND OF LICENCE	For twenty-four hours the two cowmen from the distant Clay Creek ranch had owned Coyote Centre. An hour before sunset on the day previous they had suddenly blown in from the north; a great cloud of yellow dust, lifting lazily on the sultry air, a mighty panting of winded bronchos, a single demoniacal dare-man whoop her...	{ "id": "11683" }
6	THE RED MAN AND THE WHITE	Well out upon the prairie, clear of the limits of the tiny town, two men were headed due west, into the night, apparently into the infinite. There was no moon, but here, with nothing to cast a shadow, it was not dark. The month was late October, and a suggestion of frost was in the air: on the grass blades of the low p...	{ "id": "11683" }
7	A GLIMPSE OF THE UNKNOWN	It was very late, so late that the sun entering at the south windows of the room shone glaringly upon the white counterpane of his bed when Craig awoke the next morning. Breakfast had long been over, but throughout the unplastered ranch house the suggestion of coffee and the tang of bacon still lingered. At home those ...	{ "id": "11683" }
8	THE SKELETON WITHIN THE CLOSET	Comparatively few men of cheerful outlook and social inclination attain the age of five and fifty without contracting superfluous avoirdupois and distinctive mannerism. That Colonel William Landor was no exception to the first rule was proven by the wheezing effort with which he made his descent from the two-seated can...	{ "id": "11683" }
9	THE VOICE OF THE WILD	Eight miles out on the prairie, out of sight of the Buffalo Butte ranch house--save for a scattering herd of grazing cattle in the distance, and a hobbled mouse-coloured broncho feeding near at hand, out of sight of every living thing--a man lay stretched full length upon the ground. It was the time of day that Landor ...	{ "id": "11683" }
10	THE CURSE OF THE CONQUERED	It was late, very late on the prairie, when How Landor returned that evening. The herd safely corralled for the night, he rode slowly toward the ranch house, and, without leaving the pony's back, opened and closed the gate of the barb wire fence surrounding the yard and approached the house. There was a bright light in...	{ "id": "11683" }
11	THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE	The darkness that precedes morning had the prairie country in its grip when Howard, the gaunt foreman of the B.B. ranch, drew rein before the silent tent, and with the butt end of his quirt tapped on the heavy canvas. "Wake up," he called laconically. "You're wanted at the ranch house." Echo-like, startling in its ...	{ "id": "11683" }
12	WITHIN THE CONQUEROR'S OWN COUNTRY	It was the day set for the wedding, the eighteenth since the girl had left, the sixteenth since a new mound had arisen on the bare lot adjoining that beneath which rested Landman Bud Smith, the twelfth since How Landor had arrived to haunt the tiny railway terminus. The one train from the East was due at 8:10 of the mo...	{ "id": "11683" }
13	THE MYSTERY OF SOLITUDE	Westward across the unbroken prairie country, into the smiling, sun-kissed silence and emptiness, two people were driving: a white girl of two-and-twenty summers and an Indian man a few years older. Back of them, in the direction from which they had come, was the outline of a straggling, desolate village. Ahead, to eit...	{ "id": "11683" }
14	FATE, THE SATIRIST	Four months drifted by. The will of Colonel William Landor had been read and executed. According to its provisions the home ranch with one-tenth of the herd, divided impartially as they filed past the executor, were left to Mary Landor; in event of her death to descend to "an only nephew, Clayton Craig by name." A seco...	{ "id": "11683" }
15	THE FRUIT OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE	A shaggy grey wolf, a baby no longer but practically full grown, swung slowly along the beaten trail connecting the house and the barn as the stranger appeared. He did not run, he did not glance behind, he made no sound. With almost human dignity he vacated the premises to the newcomer. Not until he reached his destina...	{ "id": "11683" }
16	THE RECKONING	It was later than usual when How Landor returned that evening, and as he came up the path that led from the stable, he shuffled his feet as one unconsciously will when very weary. He was wearing his ready-made clothes and starched collar; but the trousers were deplorably baggy at the knees from much riding, and his lin...	{ "id": "11683" }
17	SACRIFICE	A week had gone by. Each day of the seven the thoroughbred with the slender legs and the tiny sensitive ears had stood in the barren dooryard before Elizabeth Landor's home. Moreover, with each repetition the arrival had been earlier, the halt longer. Though the weather was perfect, nevertheless the beast had grown imp...	{ "id": "11683" }
18	REWARD	The month was late September. The time, evening. The place, the ranch house of a rawboned Yankee named Hawkins. Upon the scene at the hour the supper table was spread appeared a traveller in an open road waggon. The vehicle was covered with dust. The team which drew it were dust-stained likewise, and in addition, on be...	{ "id": "11683" }
19	IN SIGHT OF GOD ALONE	An hour had passed. Manning had gone; and on the horizon to the east whither he had taken his way not even a dot now indicated his former presence. Even the close-fed grass whereon the wheels of the old road waggon had temporarily blazed a trail had returned normally erect. Suddenly, as a rain cloud forms over the parc...	{ "id": "11683" }
1	MY EARLY HOME	The first place that I can well remember was a pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it. Over the hedge on one side we looked into a plowed field, and on the other we looked over a gate at our master's house, which stood by the roadside. While I was young I lived upon my mother's milk, as I could not eat grass....	{ "id": "11860" }
2	THE HUNT	Before I was two years old a circumstance happened which I have never forgotten. It was early in the spring; there had been a little frost in the night, and a light mist still hung over the woods and meadows. I and the other colts were feeding at the lower part of the field when we heard what sounded like the cry of do...	{ "id": "11860" }
3	MY BREAKING IN	I was now beginning to grow handsome, my coat had grown fine and soft, and was bright black. I had one white foot and a pretty white star on my forehead. I was thought very handsome; my master would not sell me till I was four years old; he said lads ought not to work like men, and colts ought not to work like horses t...	{ "id": "11860" }
4	BIRTWICK PARK	It was early in May, when there came a man from Gordon's, who took me away to the Hall. My master said, "Good-bye, Darkie; be a good horse and always do your best." I could not say "good-bye," so I put my nose in his hand; he patted me kindly, and I left my first home. I will describe the stable into which I was taken;...	{ "id": "11860" }
5	A FAIR START	The name of the coachman was John Manly; he had a wife and one child, and lived in the coachman's cottage, near the stables. [Illustration] The next morning he took me into the yard and gave me a good grooming, and just as I was going into my box, with my coat soft and bright, the squire came in to look at me, and s...	{ "id": "11860" }
6	MERRYLEGS	Mr. Blomefield, the vicar, had a large family of boys and girls; sometimes they used to come and play with Miss Jessie and Flora. One of the girls was as old as Miss Jessie; two of the boys were older, and there were several little ones. When they came, there was plenty of work for Merrylegs, for nothing pleased them s...	{ "id": "11860" }
7	GOING FOR THE DOCTOR	One night I was lying down in my straw fast asleep, when I was suddenly roused by the stable bell ringing very loud. I heard the door of John's house open, and his feet running up to the Hall. He was back again in no time; he unlocked the stable door, and came in, calling out, "Wake up, Beauty! you must go well now, if...	{ "id": "11860" }
8	THE PARTING	I had lived in this happy place three years, but sad changes were about to come over us. We heard that our mistress was ill. The doctor was often at the house, and the master looked grave and anxious. Then we heard that she must go to a warm country for two or three years. The news fell upon the household like the toll...	{ "id": "11860" }
9	EARLSHALL	The next morning after breakfast, Joe put Merrylegs into the mistress' low chaise to take him to the vicarage; he came first and said good-bye to us, and Merrylegs neighed to us from the yard. Then John put the saddle on Ginger and the leading rein on me, and rode us across the country to Earlshall Park, where the Earl...	{ "id": "11860" }
10	A STRIKE FOR LIBERTY	One day my lady came down later than usual, and the silk rustled more than ever. "Drive to the Duchess of B----'s," she said, and then after a pause, "Are you never going to get those horses' heads up, York? Raise them at once, and let us have no more of this humoring nonsense." York came to me first, while the groom...	{ "id": "11860" }
11	A HORSE FAIR	No doubt a horse fair is a very amusing place to those who have nothing to lose; at any rate, there is plenty to see. Long strings of young horses out of the country, fresh from the marshes, and droves of shaggy little Welsh ponies, no higher than Merrylegs; and hundreds of cart horses of all sorts, some of them with...	{ "id": "11860" }
12	A LONDON CAB HORSE	My new master's name was Jeremiah Barker, but as every one called him Jerry, I shall do the same. Polly, his wife, was just as good a match as a man could have. She was a plump, trim, tidy little woman, with smooth, dark hair, dark eyes, and a merry little mouth. The boy was nearly twelve years old, a tall, frank, good...	{ "id": "11860" }
13	DOLLY AND A REAL GENTLEMAN	The winter came in early, with a great deal of cold and wet. There was snow, or sleet, or rain, almost every day for weeks, changing only for keen driving winds or sharp frosts. The horses all felt it very much. When it is a dry cold, a couple of good thick rugs will keep the warmth in us; but when it is soaking rain, ...	{ "id": "11860" }
14	POOR GINGER	One day, while our cab and many others were waiting outside one of the parks where music was playing, a shabby old cab drove up beside ours. The horse was an old worn-out chestnut, with an ill-kept coat, and bones that showed plainly through it, the knees knuckled over, and the fore-legs were very unsteady. I had been ...	{ "id": "11860" }
15	None	At a sale I found myself in company with a lot of horses--some lame, some broken-winded, some old, and some that I am sure it would have been merciful to shoot. [Illustration] The buyers and sellers, too, many of them, looked not much better off than the poor beasts they were bargaining about. There were poor old me...	{ "id": "11860" }
16	MY LAST HOME	One day, during this summer, the groom cleaned and dressed me with such extraordinary care that I thought some new change must be at hand; he trimmed my fetlocks and legs, passed the tar-brush over my hoofs, and even parted my forelock. I think the harness had an extra polish. Willie seemed half-anxious, half-merry, as...	{ "id": "11860" }
1	A CASTLE AMONG THE CRAGS	Like the Israelites of old, mankind is prone to worship false gods, and persistently sets up the brazen image of a sham hero, as its idol. I should like to write the history of the world, if for no other reason than to assist several well-established heroes down from their pedestals. Great Charlemagne might come to ear...	{ "id": "12057" }
2	KNIGHTS-ERRANT	The good mother had made a bundle for her son that would have brought a smile to my lips had it not brought tears to my eyes. There were her homely balsams to cure Max's ailments; true, he had never been ill, but he might be. There was a pillow of down for his head, and a lawn kerchief to keep the wind from his delicat...	{ "id": "12057" }
3	YOLANDA THE SORCERESS	Several days passed, during which we saw the Castlemans frequently. One evening after supper, when we were all sitting in the parlor, Yolanda enticed Max to an adjoining room, on the excuse of showing him an ancient piece of tapestry. When it had been examined, she seated herself on a window bench and indicated a chair...	{ "id": "12057" }
4	DOWN THE RHINE TO BURGUNDY	Notwithstanding the idle, happy life we were leading, I was anxious to begin our journey to Burgundy. Just what would--or could--happen when we should reach that land of promise--perhaps I should say of no promise--I did not know. I hoped that by some happy turn of fortune--perhaps through Twonette's help--Max might be...	{ "id": "12057" }
5	WHO IS YOLANDA?	Next morning Yolanda came to breakfast smiling, bedimpled, and sparkling as a sunlit mountain brook. Max, who was gloomy, took her sprightliness amiss, thinking, no doubt, that her life also ought to be darkened by the cloud that he thought was over-shadowing him. There was no doubt in my mind that Yolanda had inspired...	{ "id": "12057" }
6	DUKE CHARLES THE RASH	Our caravan travelled with the mournfulness of a funeral procession. Early in the evening Max spoke to Yolanda:-- "I hear your uncle desires Sir Karl and me to leave you at Metz." "Yes," she answered dolefully, hanging her head, "we part at Metz. I shall see you there before I leave, and then--and then--ah, Sir Max,...	{ "id": "12057" }
7	A RACE WITH THE DUKE	Neither road clung to the river in all its windings, but at too frequent intervals both touched the stream at the same points. At places the roads hugged the Somme, separated only by its width--perhaps two hundred yards. These would be our danger points. I did not know them, and Yolanda's knowledge of the road was impe...	{ "id": "12057" }
8	ON THE MOAT BRIDGE	Awaiting Castleman's return, we remained housed up at The Mitre, seldom going farther abroad than Grote's garden save in the early morning or after dark. But despite our caution trouble befell us, as our burgher friend had predicted. Within a week Max began to go out after dark without asking me to accompany him. Whe...	{ "id": "12057" }
9	THE GREAT RIDDLE	Max was cautious in the matter of making promises, as every honest man should be, since he had no thought of breaking them once they were given. Therefore, he wished to know that he could keep his word before pledging it. His lifelong habit of asking my advice may also have influenced him in refusing the promise that h...	{ "id": "12057" }
10	THE HOUSE UNDER THE WALL	To leave Max and myself in our underground dungeon, imprisoned for an unknown, uncommitted crime, while I narrate occurrences outside our prison walls looks like a romancer's trick, but how else I am to go about telling this history I do not know. Yolanda is quite as important a personage in this narrative as Max and m...	{ "id": "12057" }
11	PERONNE LA PUCELLE	The next morning Duke Charles went down to the great hall of the castle to hear reports from his officers relating to the war that he was about to wage against the Swiss. When the duke ascended the three steps of the dais to the ducal throne, he spoke to Campo-Basso who stood upon the first step at the duke's right. ...	{ "id": "12057" }
12	A LIVE WREN PIE	The next day came the invitation to sup at Castleman's, and we were on hand promptly at the appointed time--four o'clock. Before leaving the inn I had determined to ask Castleman to satisfy my curiosity concerning Yolanda. With good reason I felt that it was my duty and my right to know certainly who she was. She might...	{ "id": "12057" }
13	A BATTLE IN MID AIR	A day or two after the supper of the wren pie, Max bought from a pedler a gray falcon most beautifully marked, with a scarlet head and neck, and we sent our squires to Hymbercourt, asking him to solicit from the duke's seneschal, my Lord de Vergy, permission to strike a heron on the marshes. The favor was easily obtain...	{ "id": "12057" }
14	SIR KARL MEETS THE PRINCESS	The duke and I passed through the door by which Max and Hymbercourt had left the hall, and entered a narrow passageway eight or ten yards long, having two doors at the farther end. The door to the right, I soon learned, led to the little parley room where Max and Hymbercourt had gone. The door to the left opened into a...	{ "id": "12057" }
15	THE CROSSING OF A "T"	Yolanda and her stepmother remained on the divan in silence for fully an hour after the duke had left. The duchess was first to speak. "Be resigned, sweet one, to your fate. It is one common to women. It was my hard fate to be compelled to marry your father. It was your mother's, poor woman, and it killed her. God wi...	{ "id": "12057" }
16	PARTICEPS CRIMINIS	That evening after supper Max and I walked over to Castleman's. The evening was cool, and we were sitting in the great parlor talking with Castleman and Twonette when Yolanda entered. The room was fully fifty feet long, and extended across the entire front of the house. A huge chimney was built at the east end of the r...	{ "id": "12057" }
17	TRIAL BY COMBAT	Max had waited until Calli's arm was mended to bring up the subject of the trial by combat; but when he would have taken it before the duke, I dissuaded him by many pretexts, and for a few days it was dropped. But soon it was brought forward in a most unpleasant way. Max and I were in the streets of Peronne one afterno...	{ "id": "12057" }
18	YOLANDA OR THE PRINCESS?	After these adventures we could no longer conceal Max's identity, and it soon became noised about that he was Count of Hapsburg. But Styria was so far away, and so little known, even to courtiers of considerable rank, that the fact made no great stir in Peronne. To Frau Kate and Twonette the disclosure came with almost...	{ "id": "12057" }
19	MAX GOES TO WAR	The next morning at dawn our army marched. Although Duke Charles would not encumber himself with provisions for his men, he carried a vast train of carts filled with plate, silk tents, rich rugs, and precious jewels; for, with all his bravery, this duke's ruling passion was the love of display in the presence of foreig...	{ "id": "12057" }
20	A TREATY WITH LOUIS XI	The next day Castleman and I were called to the castle, and talked over the situation with the duchess and the Princess Mary. In the midst of our council, in walked Hymbercourt and Hugonet. They were devoted friends of Mary. Our first move was to send spies to the court of France; so two trusted men started at once. ...	{ "id": "12057" }
1	AN INTRODUCTORY DISASTER	Early in the spring of the year 1884 the three-masted schooner _Castor_, from San Francisco to Valparaiso, was struck by a tornado off the coast of Peru. The storm, which rose with frightful suddenness, was of short duration, but it left the _Castor_ a helpless wreck. Her masts had snapped off and gone overboard, her r...	{ "id": "12190" }
2	A NEW FACE IN CAMP	The morning after the departure of the boat, Captain Horn, in company with the Englishman Davis, each armed with a gun, set out on a tour of investigation, hoping to be able to ascend the rocky hills at the back of the camp, and find some elevated point commanding a view over the ocean. After a good deal of hard climbi...	{ "id": "12190" }
3	A CHANGE OF LODGINGS	The great face stared down upon the little party gathered beneath it. Its chin was about eight feet above the ground, and its stony countenance extended at least that distance up the cliff. Its features were in low relief, but clear and distinct, and a smoke-blackened patch beneath one of its eyes gave it a sinister ap...	{ "id": "12190" }
4	ANOTHER NEW FACE	As the cook had gone, Mrs. Cliff and Miss Markham prepared breakfast, and then they discovered how little water there was. There was something mysterious about the successive losses of his men which pressed heavily upon the soul of Captain Horn, but the want of water pressed still more heavily. Ralph had just asked h...	{ "id": "12190" }
5	THE RACKBIRDS	The new African was sitting on the ground, as far back from the edge of the ledge as he could get, shivering and shaking, for the water was cold. He had apparently reached the culmination and termination of his fright. After his tumble into the water, which had happened because he had been unable to stop in his mad fli...	{ "id": "12190" }
1	DUKE CASIMIR RIDES LATE	Well do I, Hugo Gottfried, remember the night of snow and moonlight when first they brought the Little Playmate home. I had been sleeping--a sturdy, well-grown fellow I, ten years or so as to my age--in a stomacher of blanket and a bed-gown my mother had made me before she died at the beginning of the cold weather. Sud...	{ "id": "12191" }
2	THE LITTLE PLAYMATE COMES HOME	But there was to be no Session in the Hall of Judgment that night. The great court-yard, roofed with the vault of stars and lit by the moon, was to see all done that remained to be done. The torches were planted in the iron hold-fasts round about. The plunder of the captured towns and castles was piled for distribution...	{ "id": "12191" }
3	THE RED AXE OF THE WOLFMARK	Just as clearly do I remember the next morning. The Little Playmate lay by me on my bed, wrapped in one of my childish night-gowns--which old Hanne had sought out for her the night before. It was a brisk, chill, nippy daybreak, and I had piled most of the bedclothes upon her. I lay at the nether side clipped tight in m...	{ "id": "12191" }
4	THE PRINCESS HELENE	"What devil's work is this?" he said, frowning at her severely. And I confess that I trembled, but not so the little maid. "Do not be afraid, mannie," she said, laying down the axe on the stock of the couch, against which its broad red blade and glass-clear cutting edge made an irregular patch of light. "Come and s...	{ "id": "12191" }
5	THE BLOOD-HOUNDS ARE FED	But the Princess-Playmate spoke to me again. I was even permitted to call her Helene. Me she addressed uniformly as "Hugo Gottfried." But neither her name nor mine interfered with our plays, which were wholly happy and undisturbed by quarrelling--at least, so long as I did exactly what she wished me to do. On these t...	{ "id": "12191" }
6	DUKE CASIMIR'S FAMILIAR	I mind it was some tale of years later that I got my first glimpse below the surface of things in the town of Thorn, and especially in the castle of the Wolfsberg. Duke Casimir continued to move, as of yore, in cavalcade through his subject city. The burghers bowed as obsequiously as ever when they could not avoid me...	{ "id": "12191" }
7	I BECOME A TRAITOR	Much was I flattered, and very naturally so, when Michael Texel made so manifest a work about pleasing me and having me for his comrade. For though I was now nineteen, he was five years my senior, and his father, being both Burgomeister and Chief Brewer, was of the first consideration in the town of Thorn. "Hugo," sa...	{ "id": "12191" }
8	AT THE BAR OF THE WHITE WOLF	"Who waits at the bar with you, brother?" said a voice which, though disguised, carried with it a suggestion of Michael Texel. The announcement was made by the officer who brought me in. " 'Tis one Hugo Gottfried, son of Gottfried Gottfried, hereditary executioner to the tyrant." I could hear the thrill of interes...	{ "id": "12191" }
9	A HERO CARRIES WATER IN THE SUN	With all which adventuring and bepraisement back and forth, as those who know nineteen will readily be assured, I went home no little elated. For had I not come without dishonor through a new and remarkable experience, and even defied the Mystery of the White Wolf, at perhaps more risk to myself than at the time I had ...	{ "id": "12191" }
10	THE LUBBER FIEND	At five of the clock I lifted the great wolf's-head knocker of shining brass which frowned above the door of Master Gerard von Sturm in the port of the Weiss Thor. Hardly had I let it fall again when a small wicket, apparently about two feet above my head, opened, and a huge round head with enormous ears at either side...	{ "id": "12191" }
11	THE VISION IS THE CRYSTAL	Master Gerard, however, did not seem to be aware of her presence, for he continued his catechism steadily. "You mocked at their terrors, did you not, and told them that you, who had seen the teeth of the Duke's hounds, had nothing to fear from the bare gums of the White Wolf?" "I knew that they but played," I answe...	{ "id": "12191" }
12	EYES OF EMERALD	It was a strange little room into which the Lady Ysolinde brought me, full of quaint, changeful scents, and all ablaze with colors the like of which I had never seen. For not only were rugs and mats of outlandish Eastern design scattered over the floor, but there was vividly colored glass in the small, deeply set windo...	{ "id": "12191" }
13	CHRISTIAN'S ELSA	It was about this time, and after we had made our quarrel up, that Helene began to call me "Great Brother." After all, there is manifest virtue in a name, and the Little Playmate seemed to find great comfort in thus addressing me. And after that I had called her "Little Sister" once or twice she was greatly assured a...	{ "id": "12191" }
14	SIR AMOROUS IS PLEASED WITH HIMSELF	For, as I say, women have curious ways, and there are a good many of them recorded in this book. And yet more I have observed which I cannot find room for in a chronicle of so many sad and bad and warlike happenings. But none of them all is more notable than this--that women, or at least (for it is no use saying "women...	{ "id": "12191" }
15	THE LITTLE PLAYMATE SETTLES ACCOUNTS	But I admit that the smile discouraged me. Nevertheless I proceeded gallantly. "Ah, Jungfrau Texel," said I, "you cannot know how your presence brightens our lives here in the Red Tower. Wherefore will you not come oftener to our grim abode?" I thought that, on the whole, pretty well; but, looking up at Helene, I s...	{ "id": "12191" }
16	TWO WOMEN--AND A MAN	It was the forenoon of a Sunday, a dull, sleepy time in all countries, and one difficult to get overpast. I was as usual busy with my accoutrement, recently bought with the loan of Master Gerard. The Little Playmate was just returned from the cathedral, and had indeed scarcely laid her finery aside, when there came a l...	{ "id": "12191" }
17	THE RED AXE IS LEFT ALONE	Gottfried Gottfried bowed to the guest of his house with the noble manner which comes to every serious-minded man who deals habitually in the high matters of life and death. I made his introductions to the Lady Ysolinde, and as readily and gracefully he returned his acknowledgments. For the rest I allowed Master Gerard...	{ "id": "12191" }
18	THE PRIME OF THE MORNING	Now so strange a thing is woman that, so soon as we were started down the High Street of the city of Thorn, the Little Playmate dried her eyes, turned towards me in her saddle, and straightway began to take me to task as though I had been to blame. "I have left," said she, "the only home I ever knew, and the only man...	{ "id": "12191" }
19	WENDISH WIT	The gray plain of the Wolfmark, which we had been traversing ever since we descended out of the steep Weiss Thor of the city of Thorn, had now begun to break into ridges and mounded hills of stiff red clay. And I, who had often kept my watch on the highest pinnacle of the Red Tower, looked with astonishment back upon t...	{ "id": "12191" }
20	THE EARTH-DWELLERS OF NO MAN'S LAND	Then presently we came to a strange place, the like of which I have never seen, save here on the borders of the Mark and the northern Wendish lands. An amalgam of lime, or binding stuff of some sort, had glued the clay of the ravines together, and set it stiff and fast like dried plaster. So, as we went up the narrow, ...	{ "id": "12191" }
21	I STAND SENTRY	There are (say some) but two things worth the trouble of making in the world--war and love. So once upon a time I believed. But since--being laid up during the unkindly monotony of our Baltic spring by an ancient wound--I fell to the writing of this history, I would add to these two worthy adventures--the making of boo...	{ "id": "12191" }
22	HELENE HATES ME	However, when the provision came to the outer port, we three sat down about it, and then, by my troth, there was little to marvel at in the tardiness of our eating. For the rabbits seemed to come alive and positively leaped down our throats, the partridges almost flew at us out of the pot, the pigeons fairly rejoiced t...	{ "id": "12191" }
23	HUGO OF THE BROADAXE	But as for me, sleep I could not. And indeed that is small wonder. For it was the first night I had ever slept out of the Red Tower in my life. I seemed to lack some necessary accompaniment to the act of going to sleep. It was a long while before I could find out what it could be that was disturbing me. At last I dis...	{ "id": "12191" }
24	THE SORTIE	The door was open, and the next I mind was my axe whirling about my head and Jorian rushing out of the other door a step ahead of me, with his broadsword in his hand. I cannot tell much about the fight. I never could all my days. And I wot well that those who can relate such long particulars of tales of fighting are th...	{ "id": "12191" }
25	MINE HOST RUNS HIS LAST RACE	Hearty were the greetings when the soldiers found us all safe and sound. They shook us again and again by the hand. They clapped us on the back. They examined professionally the dead who lay strewn about. "A good stroke! Well smitten!" they cried, as they turned them over, like spectators who applaud at a game they c...	{ "id": "12191" }
26	PRINCE JEHU MILLER'S SON	Yet now, when she was in her own country, and as good as any queen thereof, I found the Lady Ysolinde in no wise different from, what she had been in the city of Thorn and in her father's house. She called me often to ride beside her, Helene being on my other side, while the Lubber Fiend, who had saved all our lives, g...	{ "id": "12191" }

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