Spanish Doubloons by Camilla Kenyon
page 39 of 234 (16%)
page 39 of 234 (16%)
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from a wild welter of foam at the end of a long point, and shot
beyond it on the heave of a great swell into quiet water. We were in the little bay under the shadow of the frowning cliff's. At the head of the bay, a quarter of a mile away, lay a broad white beach shining under the moon. At the edge of dark woods beyond a fire burned redly. It threw into relief the black moving shapes of men upon the sand. The waters of the cove broke upon the beach in a white lacework of foam. Straight for the sand the sailors drove the boat. She struck it with a jar, grinding forward heavily. The men sprang overboard, wading half-way to the waist. And the arms of the Honorable Cuthbert Vane had snatched me up and were bearing me safe and dry to shore. The sailors hauled on the boat, dragging it up the beach, and I saw the Scotchman lending them a hand. The hard dry sand was crunching under the heels of Mr. Vane. I wriggled a little and Apollo, who had grown absent-minded apparently, set me down. Mr. Shaw approached and the two men greeted each other in their offhand British way. As we couldn't well, under the circumstances, maintain a fiction of mutual invisibility, Mr. Shaw, with a certain obvious hesitation, turned to me. "Only lady passenger, eh? Hope you're not wet through. Cookie's making coffee over yonder." "I say, Shaw," cried the beautiful youth enthusiastically, "Miss |
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