initial commit of ebook 3687HEADmain

1 files changed, 1700 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/3687.txt b/3687.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..21fa673
--- /dev/null
+++ b/3687.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1700 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ruby of Kishmoor, by Howard Pyle
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Ruby of Kishmoor
+
+Author: Howard Pyle
+
+Posting Date: April 29, 2009 [EBook #3687]
+Release Date: January, 2003
+First Posted: July 16, 2001
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RUBY OF KISHMOOR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Paul J. Hollander.  HTML version by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Ruby of Kishmoor
+
+
+By
+
+Howard Pyle
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+Prologue
+
+I. Jonathan Rugg
+
+II. The Mysterious Lady with the Silver Veil
+
+III. The Terrific Encounter with the One-eyed Little Gentleman in Black
+
+IV. The Momentous Adventure with the Stranger with the Silver Ear-rings
+
+V. The Unexpected Encounter with the Sea-captain with the Broken Nose
+
+VI. The Conclusion of the Adventure with the Lady with the Silver Veil
+
+Epilogue
+
+
+
+
+Prologue
+
+
+A very famous pirate of his day was Captain Robertson Keitt.
+
+Before embarking upon his later career of infamy, he was, in the
+beginning, very well known as a reputable merchant in the island of
+Jamaica.  Thence entering, first of all, upon the business of the
+African trade, he presently, by regular degrees, became a pirate, and
+finally ended his career as one of the most renowned freebooters of
+history.
+
+The remarkable adventure through which he at once reached the pinnacle
+of success, and became in his profession the most famous figure of his
+day, was the capture of the Rajah of Kishmoor's great ship, The Sun of
+the East.  In this vessel was the Rajah's favorite Queen, who, together
+with her attendants, were set upon a pilgrimage to Mecca.  The court of
+this great Oriental potentate was, as may be readily supposed, fairly
+a-glitter with gold and jewels, so that, what with such personal
+adornments that the Queen and her attendants had fetched with them,
+besides an ample treasury for the expenses of the expedition, an
+incredible prize of gold and jewels rewarded the freebooters for their
+successful adventure.
+
+Among the precious stones taken in this great purchase was the splendid
+ruby of Kishmoor.  This, as may be known to the reader, was one of the
+world's greatest gems, and was unique alike both for its prodigious
+size and the splendor of its color.  This precious jewel the Rajah of
+Kishmoor had, upon a certain occasion, bestowed upon his Queen, and at
+the time of her capture she wore it as the centre-piece of a sort of a
+coronet which encircled her forehead and brow.
+
+The seizure by the pirate of so considerable a person as that of the
+Queen of Kishmoor, and of the enormous treasure that he found aboard
+her ship, would alone have been sufficient to have established his
+fame.  But the capture of so extraordinary a prize as that of the
+ruby--which was, in itself, worth the value of an entire Oriental
+kingdom--exalted him at once to the very highest pinnacle of renown.
+
+Having achieved the capture of this incredible prize, our captain
+scuttled the great ship and left her to sink with all on board. Three
+Lascars of the crew alone escaped to bear the news of this tremendous
+disaster to an astounded world.
+
+As may readily be supposed, it was now no longer possible for Captain
+Keitt to hope to live in such comparative obscurity as he had before
+enjoyed.  His was now too remarkable a figure in the eyes of the world.
+Several expeditions from various parts were immediately fitted out
+against him, and it presently became no longer compatible with his
+safety to remain thus clearly outlined before the eyes of the world.
+Accordingly, he immediately set about seeking such security as he might
+now hope to find, which he did the more readily since he had now, and
+at one cast, so entirely fulfilled his most sanguine expectations of
+good-fortune and of fame.
+
+Thereafter, accordingly, the adventures of our captain became of a more
+apocryphal sort.  It was known that he reached the West Indies in
+safety, for he was once seen at Port Royal and twice at Spanish Town,
+in the island of Jamaica.  Thereafter, however, he disappeared; nor was
+it until several years later that the world heard anything concerning
+him.
+
+One day a certain Nicholas Duckworthy, who had once been gunner aboard
+the pirate captain's own ship, The Good Fortune, was arrested in the
+town of Bristol in the very act of attempting to sell to a merchant of
+that place several valuable gems from a quantity which he carried with
+him tied up in a red bandanna handkerchief.
+
+In the confession of which Duckworthy afterward delivered himself he
+declared that Captain Keitt, after his great adventure, having sailed
+from Africa in safety, and so reached the shores of the New World, had
+wrecked The Good Fortune on a coral reef off the Windward Islands; that
+he then immediately deserted the ship, and together with Duckworthy
+himself, the sailing-master (who was a Portuguese), the captain of a
+brig The Bloody Hand (a consort of Keitt's), and a villainous rascal
+named Hunt (who, occupying no precise position among the pirates, was
+at once the instigator of and the partaker in the greatest part of
+Captain Keitt's wickednesses), made his way to the nearest port of
+safety.  These five worthies at last fetched the island of Jamaica,
+bringing with them all of the jewels and some of the gold that had been
+captured from The Sun of the East.
+
+But, upon coming to a division of their booty, it was presently
+discovered that the Rajah's ruby had mysteriously disappeared from the
+collection of jewels to be divided.  The other pirates immediately
+suspected their captain of having secretly purloined it, and, indeed,
+so certain were they of his turpitude that they immediately set about
+taking means to force a confession from him.
+
+In this, however, they were so far unsuccessful that the captain,
+refusing to yield to their importunities, had suffered himself to die
+under their hands, and had so carried the secret of the hiding-place of
+the great ruby--if he possessed such a secret--along with him.
+
+Duckworthy concluded his confession by declaring that in his opinion he
+himself, the Portuguese sailing-master, the captain of The Bloody Hand,
+and Hunt were the only ones of Captain Keitt's crew who were now alive;
+for that The Good Fortune must have broken up in a storm, which
+immediately followed their desertion of her; in which event the entire
+crew must inevitably have perished.
+
+It may be added that Duckworthy himself was shortly hanged, so that, if
+his surmise was true, there was now only three left alive of all that
+wicked crew that had successfully carried to its completion the
+greatest adventure which any pirate in the world had ever, perhaps,
+embarked upon.
+
+
+
+
+I. Jonathan Rugg
+
+
+You may never know what romantic aspirations may lie hidden beneath the
+most sedate and sober demeanor.
+
+To have observed Jonathan Rugg, who was a tall, lean, loose-jointed
+young Quaker of a somewhat forbidding aspect, with straight, dark hair
+and a bony, overhanging forehead set into a frown, a pair of small,
+deep-set eyes, and a square jaw, no one would for a moment have
+suspected that he concealed beneath so serious an exterior any appetite
+for romantic adventure.
+
+Nevertheless, finding himself suddenly transported, as it were, from
+the quiet of so sober a town as that of Philadelphia to the tropical
+enchantment of Kingston, in the island of Jamaica, the night brilliant
+with a full moon that swung in an opal sky, the warm and luminous
+darkness replete with the mysteries of a tropical night, and burdened
+with the odors of a land breeze, he suddenly discovered himself to be
+overtaken with so vehement a desire for some unwonted excitement that,
+had the opportunity presented itself, he felt himself ready to embrace
+any adventure with the utmost eagerness, no matter whither it would
+have conducted him.
+
+At home (where he was a clerk in the counting-house of a leading
+merchant, by name Jeremiah Doolittle), should such idle fancies have
+come to him, he would have looked upon himself as little better than a
+fool, but now that he found himself for the first time in a foreign
+country, surrounded by such strange and unusual sights and sounds, all
+conducive to extravagant imaginations, the wish for some extraordinary
+and altogether unusual experience took possession of him with a
+singular vehemence to which he had heretofore been altogether a
+stranger.
+
+In the street where he stood, which was of a shining whiteness and
+which reflected the effulgence of the moonlight with an incredible
+distinction, he observed, stretching before him, long lines of white
+garden walls, overtopped by a prodigious luxuriance of tropical foliage.
+
+In these gardens, and set close to the street, stood several
+pretentious villas and mansions, the slatted blinds and curtains of the
+windows of which were raised to admit of the freer entrance of the cool
+and balmy air of the night.  From within there issued forth bright
+lights, together with the exhilarating sound of merry voices laughing
+and talking, or perhaps a song accompanied by the tinkling music of a
+spinet or of a guitar.  An occasional group of figures, clad in light
+and summer-like garments, and adorned with gay and startling colors,
+passed him through the moonlight; so that what with the brightness and
+warmth of the night, together with all these unusual sights and sounds,
+it appeared to Jonathan Rugg that he was rather the inhabitant of some
+extraordinary land of enchantment and unreality than a dweller upon
+that sober and solid world in which he had heretofore passed his entire
+existence.
+
+Before continuing this narrative the reader may here be informed that
+our hero had come into this enchanted world as the supercargo of the
+ship SUSANNA HAYES, of Philadelphia; that he had for several years
+proved himself so honest and industrious a servant to the merchant
+house of the worthy Jeremiah Doolittle that that benevolent man had
+given to his well-deserving clerk this opportunity at once of
+gratifying an inclination for foreign travel and of filling a position
+of trust that should redound to his individual profit.  The SUSANNA
+HAYES had entered Kingston Harbor that afternoon, and this was
+Jonathan's first night spent in those tropical latitudes, whither his
+fancy and his imagination had so often carried him while he stood over
+the desk filing the accounts of invoices from foreign parts.
+
+It might be finally added that, had he at all conceived how soon and to
+what a degree his sudden inclination for adventure was to be gratified,
+his romantic aspirations might have been somewhat dashed at the
+prospect that lay before him.
+
+
+
+
+II. The Mysterious Lady with the Silver Veil
+
+
+At that moment our hero suddenly became conscious of the fact that a
+small wicket in a wooden gate near which he stood had been opened, and
+that the eyes of an otherwise concealed countenance were observing him
+with the utmost closeness of scrutiny.
+
+He had hardly time to become aware of this observation of his person
+when the gate itself was opened, and there appeared before him, in the
+moonlight, the bent and crooked figure of an aged negress.  She was
+clad in a calamanco raiment, and was further adorned with a variety of
+gaudily colored trimmings, vastly suggestive of the tropical world of
+which she was an inhabitant. Her woolly head was enveloped, after the
+fashion of her people, in the folds of a gigantic and flaming red
+turban constructed of an entire pocket-handkerchief.  Her face was
+pock-pitted to an incredible degree, so that what with this deformity,
+emphasized by the pouting of her prodigious and shapeless lips, and the
+rolling of a pair of eyes as yellow as saffron, Jonathan Rugg thought
+that he had never beheld a figure at once so extraordinary and so
+repulsive.
+
+It occurred to our hero that here, maybe, was to overtake him such an
+adventure as that which he had just a moment before been desiring so
+ardently.  Nor was he mistaken; for the negress, first looking this way
+and then that, with an extremely wary and cunning expression, and
+apparently having satisfied herself that the street, for the moment,
+was pretty empty of passers, beckoned to him to draw nearer.  When he
+had approached close enough to her she caught him by the sleeve, and,
+instantly drawing him into the garden beyond, shut and bolted the gate
+with a quickness and a silence suggestive of the most extravagant
+secrecy.
+
+At the same moment a huge negro suddenly appeared from the shadow of
+the gatepost, and so placed himself between Jonathan and the gate that
+any attempt to escape would inevitably have entailed a conflict, upon
+our hero's part, with the sable and giant guardian.
+
+Says the negress, looking very intently at our hero: "Be you afeard,
+Buckra?"
+
+"Why, no," quothed Jonathan; "for to tell thee the truth, friend,
+though I am a man of peace, being of that religious order known as the
+Society of Friends, I am not so weak in person nor so timid in
+disposition as to warrant me in being afraid of any one. Indeed, were I
+of a mind to escape, I might, without boasting, declare my belief that
+I should be able to push my way past even a better man than thy large
+friend who stands so threateningly in front of yonder gate."
+
+At these words the negress broke into so prodigious a grin that, in the
+moonlight, it appeared as though the whole lower part of her face had
+been transformed into shining teeth.  "You be a brave Buckra," says
+she, in her gibbering English.  "You come wid Melina, and Melina take
+you to pretty lady, who want you to eat supper wid her."
+
+Thereupon, and allowing our hero no opportunity to decline this
+extraordinary invitation, even had he been of a mind to do so, she took
+him by the hand, and led him toward the large and imposing house which
+commanded the garden.  "Indeed," says Jonathan to himself, as he
+followed his sable guide--himself followed in turn by the gigantic
+negro--"indeed, I am like to have my fill of adventure, if anything is
+to be judged from such a beginning as this."
+
+Nor did the interior sumptuousness of the mansion at all belie the
+imposing character of its exterior, for, entering by way of an
+illuminated veranda, and so coming into a brilliantly lighted hallway
+beyond, Jonathan beheld himself to be surrounded by such a wealth of
+exquisite and well-appointed tastefulness as it had never before been
+his good-fortune to behold.
+
+Candles of clarified wax sparkled like stars in chandeliers of crystal.
+These in turn, catching the illumination, glittered in prismatic
+fragments with all the varied colors of the rainbow, so that a mellow
+yet brilliant radiance filled the entire apartment. Polished mirrors of
+a spotless clearness, framed in golden frames and built into the walls,
+reflected the waxed floors, the rich Oriental carpets, and the
+sumptuous paintings that hung against the ivory-tinted paneling, so
+that in appearance the beauties of the apartment were continued in
+bewildering vistas upon every side toward which the beholder directed
+his gaze.
+
+Bidding our hero to be seated, which he did with no small degree of
+embarrassment and constraint, and upon the extreme edge of the gilt and
+satin-covered chair, the negress who had been his conductor left him
+for the time being to his own contemplation.
+
+Almost before he had an opportunity to compose himself into anything
+more than a part of his ordinary sedateness of demeanor, the silken
+curtains at the doorway at the other end of the apartment were suddenly
+divided, and Jonathan beheld before him a female figure displaying the
+most exquisite contour of mould and of proportion.  She was clad
+entirely in white, and was enveloped from head to foot in the folds of
+a veil of delicate silver gauze, which, though hiding her countenance
+from recognition, nevertheless permitted sufficient of her beauties to
+be discerned to suggest the extreme elegance and loveliness of her
+lineaments. Advancing toward our hero, and extending to him a tapering
+hand as white as alabaster, the fingers encircled with a multitude of
+jewelled rings, she addressed him thus:
+
+"Sir," she said, speaking in accents of the most silvery and musical
+cadence, "you are no doubt vastly surprised to find yourself thus
+unexpectedly, and almost as by violence, introduced into the house of
+one who is such an entire stranger to you as myself.  But though I am
+unknown to you, I must inform you that I am better acquainted with my
+visitor, for my agents have been observing you ever since you landed
+this afternoon at the dock, and they have followed you ever since,
+until a little while ago, when you stopped immediately opposite my
+garden gate.  These agents have observed you with a closeness of
+scrutiny of which you are doubtless entirely unaware.  They have even
+informed me that, owing doubtless to your extreme interest in your new
+surroundings, you have not as yet supped.  Knowing this, and that you
+must now be enjoying a very hearty appetite, I have to ask you if you
+will do me the extreme favor of sitting at table with me at a repast
+which you will doubtless be surprised to learn has been hastily
+prepared entirely in your honor."
+
+So saying, and giving Jonathan no time for reply, she offered him her
+hand, and with the most polite insistence conducted him into an
+exquisitely appointed dining room adjoining.
+
+Here stood a table covered with a snow-white cloth, and embellished
+with silver and crystal ornaments of every description.  Having seated
+herself and having indicated to Jonathan to take the chair opposite to
+her, the two were presently served with a repast such as our hero had
+not thought could have existed out of the pages of certain
+extraordinary Oriental tales which one time had fallen to his lot to
+read.
+
+This supper (which in itself might successfully have tempted the taste
+of a Sybarite) was further enhanced by several wines and cordials
+which, filling the room with the aroma of the sunlit grapes from which
+they had been expressed, stimulated the appetite, which without them
+needed no such spur.  The lady, who ate but sparingly herself,
+possessed herself with patience until Jonathan's hunger had been
+appeased.  When, however, she beheld that he weakened in his attacks
+upon the dessert of sweets with which the banquet was concluded, she
+addressed him upon the business which was evidently entirely occupying
+her mind.
+
+"Sir," said she, "you are doubtless aware that every one, whether man
+or woman, is possessed of an enemy.  In my own case I must inform you
+that I have no less than three who, to compass their ends, would gladly
+sacrifice my life itself to their purposes.  At no time am I safe from
+their machinations, nor have I any one," cried she, exhibiting a great
+emotion, "to whom I may turn in my need.  It was this that led me to
+hope to find in you a friend in my perils, for, having observed through
+my agents that you are not only honest in disposition and strong in
+person, but that you are possessed of a considerable degree of energy
+and determination, I am most desirous of imposing upon your good-nature
+a trust of which you cannot for a moment suspect the magnitude.  Tell
+me, are you willing to assist a poor, defenceless female in her hour of
+trial?"
+
+"Indeed, friend," quoth Jonathan, with more vivacity than he usually
+exhibited, with a lenity to which he had heretofore in his lifetime
+been a stranger--being warmed into such a spirit, doubtless, by the
+generous wines of which he had partaken--"indeed, friend, if I could
+but see thy face it would doubtless make my decision in such a matter
+the more favorable, since I am inclined to think from the little I can
+behold of it, that thy appearance must be extremely comely to the eye."
+
+"Sir," said the lady, exhibiting some amusement at this unexpected
+sally, "I am, you must know, as God made me.  Sometime, perhaps, I may
+be very glad to satisfy your curiosity, and exhibit to you my poor
+countenance such as it is.  But now"--and here she reverted to her more
+serious mood--"I must again put it to you: are you willing to help an
+unprotected woman in a period of very great danger to herself?  Should
+you decline the assistance which I solicit, my slaves shall conduct you
+to the gate through which you entered, and suffer you to depart in
+peace.  Should you, upon the other hand, accept the trust, you are to
+receive no reward therefor, except the gratitude of one who thus
+appeals to you in her helplessness."
+
+For a few moments Jonathan fell silent, for here, indeed, was he
+entering into an adventure which infinitely surpassed any anticipation
+that he could have formed.  He was, besides, of a cautious nature, and
+was entirely disinclined to embark into any affair so obscure and
+tangled as that in which he now found himself becoming involved.
+
+"Friend," said he, at last, "I may tell thee that thy story has so far
+moved me as to give me every inclination to help thee in thy
+difficulties, but I must also inform thee that I am a man of caution,
+having never before entered into any business of this sort.  Therefore,
+before giving any promise that may bind my future actions, I must, in
+common wisdom, demand to know what are the conditions that thou hast in
+mind to impose upon me."
+
+"Indeed, sir," cried the lady, with great vivacity and with more
+cheerful accents--as though her mind had been relieved of a burden of
+fear that her companion might at once have declined even a
+consideration of her request--"indeed, sir, you will find that the
+trust which I would impose upon you is in appearance no such great
+matter as my words may have led you to suppose.
+
+"You must know that I am possessed of a little trinket which, in the
+hands of any one who, like yourself, is a stranger in these parts,
+would possess no significance, but which while in my keeping is fraught
+with infinite menace to me."
+
+Hereupon, and having so spoken, she clapped her hands, and an attendant
+immediately entered, disclosing the person of the same negress who had
+first introduced Jonathan into the strange adventure in which he now
+found himself involved.  This creature, who appeared still more
+deformed and repulsive in the brilliantly lighted room than she had in
+the moonlight, carried in her hands a white napkin, which she handed to
+her mistress.  This being opened, disclosed a small ivory ball of about
+the bigness of a lime.  Nodding to the negress to withdraw, the lady
+handed him the ivory ball, and Jonathan took it with no small degree of
+curiosity and examined it carefully.  It appeared to be of an exceeding
+antiquity, and of so deep a yellow as to be almost brown in color.  It
+was covered over with strange figures and characters of an Oriental
+sort, which appeared to our hero to be of Chinese workmanship.
+
+"I must tell you, sir," said the lady, after she had permitted her
+guest to examine this for a while in silence, "that though this appears
+to you to be of little worth, it is yet of extreme value.  After all,
+however, it is nothing but a curiosity that any one who is interested
+in such matters might possess.  What I have to ask you is this: Will
+you be willing to take this into your charge, to guard it with the
+utmost care and fidelity--yes, even as the apple of your eye--during
+your continuance in these parts, and to return it to me in safety the
+day before your departure. By so doing you will render me a service
+which you may neither understand nor comprehend, but which shall make
+me your debtor for my entire life."
+
+By this time Jonathan had pretty well composed his mind for a reply.
+
+"Friend," said he, "such a matter as this is entirely out of my
+knowledge of business, which is, indeed, that of a clerk in the
+mercantile profession.  Nevertheless, I have every inclination to help
+thee, though I trust thou mayest have magnified the dangers that beset
+thee.  This appears to me to be a little trifle for such an ado;
+nevertheless, I will do as thou dost request.  I will keep it in safety
+and will return it to thee upon this day a week hence, by which time I
+hope to have discharged my cargo and be ready to continue my voyage to
+Demerara."
+
+At these words the lady, who had been watching him all the time with a
+most unaccountable eagerness, burst forth into words of such heart-felt
+gratitude as to entirely overwhelm our hero.  When her transports had
+been somewhat assuaged she permitted him to depart, and the negress
+conducted him back through the garden, whence she presently showed him
+through the gate whither he had entered and out into the street.
+
+
+
+
+III. The Terrific Encounter with the One-eyed Little Gentleman in Black
+
+
+Finding himself once more in the open street, Jonathan Rugg stood for a
+while in the moonlight, endeavoring to compose his mind into somewhat
+of that sobriety that was habitual with him; for, indeed, he was not a
+little excited by the unexpected incidents that had just befallen him.
+From this effort at composure he was aroused by observing that a little
+gentleman clad all in black had stopped at a little distance away and
+was looking very intently at him.  In the brightness of the moonlight
+our hero could see that the little gentleman possessed but a single
+eye, and that he carried a gold-headed cane in his hand.  He had hardly
+time to observe these particulars, when the other approached him with
+every appearance of politeness and cordiality.
+
+"Sir," said he, "surely I am not mistaken in recognizing in you the
+supercargo of the ship SUSANNA HAYES, which arrived this afternoon at
+this port?"
+
+"Indeed," said Jonathan, "thou art right, friend.  That is my
+occupation, and that is whence I came."
+
+"To be sure!"  said the little gentleman.  "To be sure!  To be sure!
+The SUSANNA HAYES, with a cargo of Indian-corn meal, and from dear good
+friend Jeremiah Doolittle, of Philadelphia.  I know your good master
+very well--very well indeed.  And have you never heard him speak of his
+friend Mr. Abner Greenway, of Kingston, Jamaica?"
+
+"Why, no," replied Jonathan, "I have no such recollection of the name
+nor do I know that any such name hath ever appeared upon our books."
+
+"To be sure!  To be sure!"  repeated the little gentleman, briskly, and
+with exceeding good-nature.  "Indeed, my name is not likely to have
+ever appeared upon his books, for I am not a business correspondent,
+but one who, in times past, was his extremely intimate friend.  There
+is much I would like to ask about him, and, indeed, I was in hopes that
+you would have been the bearer of a letter from him.  But I have
+lodgings at a little distance from here, so that if it is not
+requesting too much of you maybe you will accompany me thither, so that
+we may talk at our leisure.  I would gladly accompany you to your ship
+instead of urging you to come to my apartments, but I must tell you I
+am possessed of a devil of a fever, so that my physician hath forbidden
+me to be out of nights."
+
+"Indeed," said Jonathan, whom, you may have observed, was of a very
+easy disposition--"indeed, I shall be very glad to accompany thee to
+thy lodgings.  There is nothing I would like better than to serve any
+friend of good Jeremiah Doolittle's."
+
+And thereupon, and with great amity, the two walked off together, the
+little one-eyed gentleman in black linking his arm confidingly into
+that of Jonathan's, and tapping the pavement continually with his cane
+as he trotted on at a great pace.  He was very well acquainted with the
+town (of which he was a citizen), and so interesting was his discourse
+that they had gone a considerable distance before Jonathan observed
+they were entering into a quarter darker and less frequented than that
+which they had quitted.  Tall brick houses stood upon either side,
+between which stretched a narrow, crooked roadway, with a kennel
+running down the centre.
+
+In front of one of these houses--a tall and gloomy structure--our
+hero's conductor stopped and, opening the door with a key, beckoned for
+him to enter.  Jonathan having complied, his new-found friend led the
+way up a flight of steps, against which Jonathan's feet beat noisily in
+the darkness, and at length, having ascended two stairways and having
+reached a landing, he opened a door at the end of the passage and
+ushered Jonathan into an apartment, unlighted, except for the
+Moonshine, which, coming in through a partly open shutter, lay in a
+brilliant patch of light upon the floor.
+
+His conductor having struck a light with a flint and steel, our hero by
+the illumination of a single candle presently discovered himself to be
+in a bedchamber furnished with no small degree of comfort, and even
+elegance, and having every appearance of a bachelor's chamber.
+
+"You will pardon me," said his new acquaintance, "if I shut these
+shutters and the window, for that devilish fever of which I spoke is of
+such a sort that I must keep the night air even out from my room, or
+else I shall be shaking the bones out of my joints and chattering the
+teeth out of my head by to-morrow morning."
+
+So saying he was as good as his word, and not only drew the shutters
+to, but shot the heavy iron bolt into its place.  Having accomplished
+this he bade our hero to be seated, and placing before him some
+exceedingly superior rum, together with some equally excellent tobacco,
+they presently fell into the friendliest discourse imaginable.  In the
+course of their talk, which after awhile became exceedingly
+confidential, Jonathan confided to his new friend the circumstances of
+the adventure into which he had been led by the beautiful stranger, and
+to all that he said concerning his adventure his interlocutor listened
+with the closest and most scrupulously riveted attention.
+
+"Upon my word," said he, when Jonathan had concluded, "I hope that you
+may not have been made the victim of some foolish hoax. Let me see what
+it is she has confided to you."
+
+"That I will," replied Jonathan.  And thereupon he thrust his hand into
+his breeches-pocket and brought forth the ivory ball.
+
+No sooner did the one eye of the little gentleman in black light upon
+the object than a most singular and extraordinary convulsion appeared
+to seize upon him.  Had a bullet penetrated his heart he could not have
+started more violently, nor have sat more rigidly and breathlessly
+staring.
+
+Mastering his emotion with the utmost difficulty as Jonathan replaced
+the ball in his pocket, he drew a deep and profound breath and wiped
+the palm of his hand across his forehead as though arousing himself
+from a dream.
+
+"And you," he said, of a sudden, "are, I understand it, a Quaker. Do
+you, then, never carry a weapon, even in such a place as this, where at
+any moment in the dark a Spanish knife may be stuck betwixt your ribs?"
+
+"Why, no," said Jonathan, somewhat surprised that so foreign a topic
+should have been so suddenly introduced into the discourse. "I am a man
+of peace and not of blood.  The people of the Society of Friends never
+carry weapons, either of offence or defence."
+
+As Jonathan concluded his reply the little gentleman suddenly arose
+from his chair and moved briskly around to the other side of the room.
+Our hero, watching him with some surprise, beheld him clap to the door
+and with a single movement shoot the bolt and turn the key therein.
+The next instant he turned to Jonathan a visage transformed as suddenly
+as though he had dropped a mask from his face.  The gossiping and
+polite little old bachelor was there no longer, but in his stead a man
+with a countenance convulsed with some furious and nameless passion.
+
+"That ball!" he cried, in a hoarse and raucous voice.  "That ivory
+ball!  Give it to me upon the instant!"
+
+As he spoke he whipped out from his bosom a long, keen Spanish knife
+that in its every appearance spoke without equivocation of the most
+murderous possibilities.
+
+The malignant passions that distorted every lineament of the
+countenance of the little old gentleman in black filled our hero with
+such astonishment that he knew not whether he were asleep or awake; but
+when he beheld the other advancing with the naked and shining knife in
+his hand his reason returned to him like a flash.  Leaping to his feet,
+he lost no time in putting the table between himself and his sudden
+enemy.
+
+"Indeed, friend," he cried, in a voice penetrated with terror--"indeed,
+friend, thou hadst best keep thy distance from me, for though I am a
+man of peace and a shunner of bloodshed, I promise thee that I will not
+stand still to be murdered without outcry or without endeavoring to
+defend my life!"
+
+"Cry as loud as you please!" exclaimed the other.  "No one is near this
+place to hear you!  Cry until you are hoarse; no one in this
+neighborhood will stop to ask what is the matter with you.  I tell you
+I am determined to possess myself of that ivory ball, and have it I
+shall, even though I am obliged to cut out your heart to get it!"  As
+he spoke he grinned with so extraordinary and devilish a distortion of
+his countenance, and with such an appearance of every intention of
+carrying out his threat as to send the goose-flesh creeping like icy
+fingers up and down our hero's spine with the most incredible rapidity
+and acuteness.
+
+Nevertheless, mastering his fears, Jonathan contrived to speak up with
+a pretty good appearance of spirit.  "Indeed, friend," he said, "thou
+appearest to forget that I am a man of twice thy bulk and half thy
+years, and that though thou hast a knife I am determined to defend
+myself to the last extremity.  I am not going to give thee that which
+thou demandest of me, and for thy sake I advise thee to open the door
+and let me go free as I entered, or else harm may befall thee."
+
+"Fool!" cried the other, hardly giving him time to end.  "Do you, then,
+think that I have time to chatter with you while two villains are lying
+in wait for me, perhaps at the very door? Blame your own self for your
+death!"  And, gnashing his teeth with an indescribable menace, and
+resting his hand upon the table, he vaulted with incredible agility
+clean across it and upon our hero, who, entirely unprepared for such an
+extraordinary attack, was flung back against the wall, with an arm as
+strong as steel clutching his throat and a knife flashing in his very
+eyes with dreadful portent of instant death.
+
+With an instinct to preserve his life, he caught his assailant by the
+wrist, and, bending it away from himself, set every fibre of his body
+in a superhuman effort to guard and protect himself.  The other, though
+so much older and smaller, seemed to be composed entirely of fibres of
+steel, and, in his murderous endeavors, put forth a strength so
+extraordinary that for a moment our hero felt his heart melt within him
+with terror for his life.  The spittal appeared to dry up within his
+mouth, and his hair to creep and rise upon his head.  With a vehement
+cry of despair and anguish, he put forth one stupendous effort for
+defence, and, clapping his heel behind the other's leg, and throwing
+his whole weight forward, he fairly tripped his antagonist backward as
+he stood. Together they fell upon the floor, locked in the most
+desperate embrace, and overturning a chair with a prodigious clatter in
+their descent--our hero upon the top and the little gentleman in black
+beneath him.
+
+As they struck the floor the little man in black emitted a most
+piercing and terrible scream, and instantly relaxing his efforts of
+attack, fell to beating the floor with the back of his hands and
+drubbing with his heels upon the rug in which he had become entangled.
+
+Our hero leaped to his feet, and with dilating eyes and expanding brain
+and swimming sight stared down upon the other like one turned to a
+stone.
+
+He beheld instantly what had occurred, and that he had, without so
+intending, killed a fellow-man.  The knife, turned away from his own
+person, had in their fall been plunged into the bosom of the other, and
+he now lay quivering in the last throes of death. As Jonathan gazed he
+beheld a thin red stream trickle out from the parted and grinning lips;
+he beheld the eyes turn inward; he beheld the eyelids contract; he
+beheld the figure stretch itself; he beheld it become still in death.
+
+
+
+
+IV. The Momentous Adventure with the Stranger with the Silver Ear-rings
+
+
+So our hero stood stunned and bedazed, gazing down upon his victim,
+like a man turned into a stone.  His brain appeared to him to expand
+like a bubble, the blood surged and bummed in his ears with every
+gigantic beat of his heart, his vision swam, and his trembling hands
+were bedewed with a cold and repugnant sweat.  The dead figure upon the
+floor at his feet gazed at him with a wide, glassy stare, and in the
+confusion of his mind it appeared to Jonathan that he was, indeed, a
+murderer.
+
+What monstrous thing was this that had befallen him who, but a moment
+before, had been so entirely innocent of the guilt of blood?  What was
+he now to do in such an extremity as this, with his victim lying dead
+at his feet, a poniard in his heart?  Who would believe him to be
+guiltless of crime with such a dreadful evidence as this presented
+against him?  How was he, a stranger in a foreign land, to totally
+defend himself against an accusing of mistaken justice?  At these
+thoughts a developed terror gripped at his vitals and a sweat as cold
+as ice bedewed his entire body. No, he must tarry for no explanation or
+defense!  He must immediately fly from this terrible place, or else,
+should he be discovered, his doom would certainly be sealed!
+
+At that moment, and in the very extremity of his apprehensions, there
+fell of a sudden a knock upon the door, sounding so loud and so
+startling upon the silence of the room that every shattered nerve in
+our hero's frame tingled and thrilled in answer to it.  He stood
+petrified, scarcely so much as daring to breathe; and then, observing
+that his mouth was agape, he moistened his dry and parching lips, and
+drew his jaws together with a snap.
+
+Again there fell the same loud, insistent knock upon the panel,
+followed by the imperative words: "Open within!"
+
+The wretched Jonathan flung about him a glance at once of terror and of
+despair, but there was for him no possible escape.  He was shut tight
+in the room with his dead victim, like a rat in a trap.  Nothing
+remained for him but to obey the summons from without.  Indeed, in the
+very extremity of his distraction, he possessed reason enough to
+perceive that the longer he delayed opening the door the less innocent
+he might hope to appear in the eyes of whoever stood without.
+
+With the uncertain and spasmodic movements of an ill-constructed
+automaton, he crossed the room, and stepping very carefully over the
+prostrate body upon the floor, and with a hesitating reluctance that he
+could in no degree master, he unlocked, unbolted, and opened the door.
+
+The figure that outlined itself in the light of the candle, against the
+blackness of the passageway without was of such a singular and foreign
+aspect as to fit extremely well into the extraordinary tragedy of which
+Jonathan was at once the victim and the cause.
+
+It was that of a lean, tall man with a thin, yellow countenance,
+embellished with a long, black mustache, and having a pair of
+forbidding, deeply set, and extremely restless black eyes.  A crimson
+handkerchief beneath a lace cocked hat was tied tightly around the
+head, and a pair of silver earrings, which caught the light of the
+candle, gleamed and twinkled against the inky darkness of the
+passageway beyond.
+
+This extraordinary being, without favoring our hero with any word of
+apology for his intrusion, immediately thrust himself forward into the
+room, and stretching his long, lean, bird-like neck so as to direct his
+gaze over the intervening table, fixed a gaping and concentrated stare
+upon the figure lying still and motionless in the centre of the room.
+
+"Vat you do dare," said he, with a guttural and foreign accent, and
+thereupon, without waiting for a reply, came forward and knelt down
+beside the dead man.  After thrusting his hand into the silent and
+shrunken bosom, he presently looked up and fixed his penetrating eyes
+upon our hero's countenance, who, benumbed and bedazed with his
+despair, still stood like one enchained in the bonds of a nightmare.
+"He vas dead!" said the stranger, and Jonathan nodded his head in reply.
+
+"Vy you keel ze man?" inquired his interlocutor.
+
+"Indeed," cried Jonathan, finding a voice at last, but one so hoarse
+that he could hardly recognize it for his own, "I know not what to make
+of the affair!  But, indeed, I do assure thee, friend, that I am
+entirely innocent of what thou seest."
+
+The stranger still kept his piercing gaze fixed upon our hero's
+countenance, and Jonathan, feeling that something further was demanded
+of him, continued: "I am, indeed, a victim of a most extravagant and
+extraordinary adventure.  This evening, coming an entire stranger to
+this country, I was introduced into the house of a beautiful female,
+who bestowed upon me a charge that appeared to me to be at once
+insignificant and absurd.  Behold this little ivory ball," said he,
+drawing the globe from his pocket, and displaying it between his thumb
+and finger.  "It is this that appears to have brought all this disaster
+upon me; for, coming from the house of the young woman, the man whom
+thou now beholdest lying dead upon the floor induced me to come to this
+place.  Having inveigled me hither, he demanded of me to give him at
+once this insignificant trifle.  Upon my refusing to do so, he
+assaulted me with every appearance of a mad and furious inclination to
+deprive me of my life!"
+
+At the sight of the ivory ball the stranger quickly arose from his
+kneeling posture and fixed upon our hero a gaze the most extraordinary
+that he had ever encountered.  His eyes dilated like those of a cat,
+the breath expelled itself from his bosom in so deep and profound an
+expiration that it appeared as though it might never return again.  Nor
+was it until Jonathan had replaced the ball in his pocket that he
+appeared to awaken from the trance that the sight of the object had
+sent him into.  But no sooner had the cause of this strange demeanor
+disappeared into our hero's breeches-pocket than he arose as with an
+electric shock.  In an instant he became transformed as by the touch of
+magic.  A sudden and baleful light flamed into his eyes, his face grew
+as red as blood, and he clapped his hand to his pocket with a sudden
+and violent motion.  "Ze ball!" he cried, in a hoarse and strident
+voice.  "Ze ball!  Give me ze ball!"  And upon the next instant our
+hero beheld the round and shining nozzle of a pistol pointed directly
+against his forehead.
+
+For a moment he stood as though transfixed; then in the mortal peril
+that faced him, he uttered a roar that sounded in his own ears like the
+outcry of a wild beast, and thereupon flung himself bodily upon the
+other with the violence and the fury of a madman.
+
+The stranger drew the trigger, and the powder flashed in the pan. He
+dropped the weapon, clattering, and in an instant tried to draw another
+from his other pocket.  Before he could direct his aim, however, our
+hero had caught him by both wrists, and, bending his hand backward,
+prevented the chance of any shot from taking immediate effect upon his
+person.  Then followed a struggle of extraordinary ferocity and
+frenzy--the stranger endeavoring to free his hand, and Jonathan
+striving with all the energy of despair to prevent him from effecting
+his murderous purpose.
+
+In the struggle our hero became thrust against the edge of the table.
+He felt as though his back were breaking, and became conscious that in
+such a situation he could hope to defend himself only a few moments
+longer.  The stranger's face was pressed close to his own.  His hot
+breath, strong with the odor of garlic, fanned our hero's cheek, while
+his lips, distended into a ferocious and ferine grin, displayed his
+sharp teeth shining in the candlelight.
+
+"Give me ze ball!" he said, in a harsh and furious whisper.
+
+At the moment there rang in Jonathan's ears the sudden and astounding
+detonation of a pistol-shot, and for a moment he wondered whether he
+had received a mortal wound without being aware of it.  Then suddenly
+he beheld an extraordinary and dreadful transformation take place in
+the countenance thrust so close to his own; the eyes winked several
+times with incredible rapidity, and then rolled upward and inward; the
+jaws gaped into a dreadful and cavernous yawn; the pistol fell with a
+clatter to the floor, and the next moment the muscles, so rigid but an
+instant before, relaxed into a limp and listless flaccidity.  The
+joints collapsed, and the entire man fell into an indistinguishable
+heap upon and across the dead figure stretched out upon the floor,
+while at the same time a pungent and blinding cloud of gunpowder smoke
+filled the apartment.  For a few moments the hands twitched
+convulsively; the neck stretched itself to an abominable length; the
+long, lean legs slowly and gradually relaxed, and every fibre of the
+body gradually collapsed into the lassitude of death.  A spot of blood
+appeared and grew upon the collar at the throat, and in the same degree
+the color ebbed from the face leaving it of a dull and leaden pallor.
+
+All these terrible and formidable changes of aspect our hero stood
+watching with a motionless and riveted attention, and as though they
+were to him matters of the utmost consequence and importance; and only
+when the last flicker of life had departed from his second victim did
+he lift his gaze from this terrible scene of dissolution to stare about
+him, this way and that, his eyes blinded, and his breath stifled by the
+thick cloud of sulphurous smoke that obscured the objects about him in
+a pungent cloud.
+
+
+
+
+V. The Unexpected Encounter with the Sea-captain with the Broken Nose
+
+
+If our hero had been distracted and bedazed by the first catastrophe
+that had befallen, this second and even more dreadful and violent
+occurrence appeared to take away from him, for the moment, every power
+of thought and of sensation.  All that perturbation of emotion that had
+before convulsed him he discovered to have disappeared, and in its
+stead a benumbed and blinded intelligence alone remained to him.  As he
+stood in the presence of this second death, of which he had been as
+innocent and as unwilling an instrument as he had of the first, he
+could observe no signs either of remorse or of horror within him.  He
+picked up his hat, which had fallen upon the floor in the first
+encounter, and, brushing away the dust with the cuff of his coat sleeve
+with extraordinary care, adjusted the beaver upon his head with the
+utmost nicety.  Then turning, still stupefied as with the fumes of some
+powerful drug, he prepared to quit the scene of tragic terrors that had
+thus unexpectedly accumulated upon him.
+
+But ere he could put his design into execution his ears were startled
+by the sound of loud and hurried footsteps which, coming from below,
+ascended the stairs with a prodigious clatter and bustle of speed.  At
+the landing these footsteps paused for a while, and then approached,
+more cautious and deliberate, toward the room where the double tragedy
+had been enacted, and where our hero yet stood silent and inert.
+
+All this while Jonathan made no endeavor to escape, but stood passive
+and submissive to what might occur.  He felt himself the victim of
+circumstances over which he himself had no control. Gazing at the
+partly opened door, he awaited for whatever adventure might next befall
+him.  Once again the footsteps paused, this time at the very threshold,
+and then the door was slowly pushed open from without.
+
+As our hero gazed at the aperture there presently became disclosed to
+his view the strong and robust figure of one who was evidently of a
+seafaring habit.  From the gold braid upon his hat, the seals dangling
+from the ribbon at his fob, and a certain particularity of custom, he
+was evidently one of no small consideration in his profession.  He was
+of a strong and powerful build, with a head set close to his shoulders,
+and upon a round, short bull neck.  He wore a black cravat, loosely
+tied into a knot, and a red waistcoat elaborately trimmed with gold
+braid; a leather belt with a brass buckle and hanger, and huge
+sea-boots completed a costume singularly suggestive of his occupation
+in life.  His face was round and broad, like that of a cat, and a
+complexion stained, by constant exposure to the sun and wind, to a
+color of newly polished mahogany.  But a countenance which otherwise
+might have been humorous, in this case was rendered singularly
+repulsive by the fact that his nose had been broken so flat to his face
+that all that remained to distinguish that feature were two circular
+orifices where the nostrils should have been.  His eyes were by no
+means so sinister as the rest of his visage, being of a light-gray
+color and exceedingly vivacious--even good-natured in the merry
+restlessness of their glance--albeit they were well-nigh hidden beneath
+a black bush of overhanging eyebrows.  When he spoke, his voice was so
+deep and resonant that it was as though it issued from a barrel rather
+than from the breast of a human being.
+
+"How now, my hearty!" cried he, in stentorian tones, so loud that they
+seemed to stun the tensely drawn drums of our hero's ears. "How now, my
+hearty!  What's to-do here?  Who is shooting pistols at this hour of
+the night?"  Then, catching sight of the figures lying in a huddle upon
+the floor, his great, thick lips parted into a gape of wonder and his
+gray eyes rolled in his head like two balls, so that what with his flat
+face and the round holes of his nostrils he presented an appearance
+which, under other circumstances, would have been at once ludicrous and
+grotesque.
+
+"By the blood!" cried he, "to be sure it is murder that has happened
+here."
+
+"Not murder!" cried Jonathan, in a shrill and panting voice.  "Not
+murder!  It was all an accident, and I am as innocent as a baby."
+
+The new-comer looked at him and then at the two figures upon the floor,
+and then back at him again with eyes at once quizzical and cunning.
+Then his face broke into a grin that might hardly be called of
+drollery.  "Accident!"  quoth he.  "By the blood! d'ye see 'tis a
+strange accident, indeed, that lays two men by the heels and lets the
+third go without a scratch!"  Delivering himself thus, he came forward
+into the room, and, taking the last victim of Jonathan's adventure by
+the arm, with as little compunction as he would have handled a sack of
+grain he dragged the limp and helpless figure from where it lay to the
+floor beside the first victim.  Then, lifting the lighted candle, he
+bent over the two prostrate bodies, holding the illumination close to
+the lineaments first of one and then of the other.  He looked at them
+very carefully for a long while, with the closest and most intent
+scrutiny, and in perfect silence.  "They are both as dead," says he,
+"as Davy Jones, and, whoever you be, I protest that you have done your
+business the most completest that I ever saw in all of my life."
+
+"Indeed," cried Jonathan, in the same shrill and panting voice, "it was
+themselves who did it.  First one of them attacked me and then the
+other, and I did but try to keep them from murdering me. This one fell
+on his knife, and that one shot himself in his efforts to destroy me."
+
+"That," says the seaman, "you may very well tell to a dry-lander, and
+maybe he will believe you; but you cannot so easily pull the wool over
+the eyes of Captain Benny Willitts.  And what, if I may be so bold as
+for to ask you, was the reason for their attacking so harmless a man as
+you proclaim yourself to be?"
+
+"That I know not," cried Jonathan; "but I am entirely willing to tell
+thee all the circumstances.  Thou must know that I am a member of the
+Society of Friends.  This day I landed here in Kingston, and met a
+young woman of very comely appearance, who intrusted me with this
+little ivory ball, which she requested me to keep for her a few days.
+The sight of this ball--in which I can detect nothing that could be
+likely to arouse any feelings of violence--appears to have driven these
+two men entirely mad, so that they instantly made the most ferocious
+and murderous assault upon me.  See! wouldst thou have believed that so
+small a thing as this would have caused so much trouble?"  And as he
+spoke he held up to the gaze of the other the cause of the double
+tragedy that had befallen.  But no sooner had Captain Willitts's eyes
+lighted upon the ball than the most singular change passed over his
+countenance.  The color appeared to grow dull and yellow in his ruddy
+cheeks, his fat lips dropped apart, and his eyes stared with a fixed
+and glassy glare.  He arose to his feet and, still with the expression
+of astonishment and wonder upon his face, gazed first at our hero and
+then at the ivory ball in his hands, as though he were deprived both of
+reason and of speech.  At last, as our hero slipped the trifle back in
+his pocket again, the mariner slowly recovered himself, though with a
+prodigious effort, and drew a deep and profound breath as to the very
+bottom of his lungs.  He wiped, with the corner of his black silk
+cravat, his brow, upon which the sweat appeared to have gathered.
+"Well, messmate," says he, at last, with a sudden change of voice, "you
+have, indeed, had a most wonderful adventure."  Then with another deep
+breath: "Well, by the blood!  I may tell you plainly that I am no poor
+hand at the reading of faces.  Well, I think you to be honest, and I am
+inclined to believe every word you tell me.  By the blood!  I am
+prodigiously sorry for you, and am inclined to help you out of your
+scrape.
+
+"The first thing to do," he continued, "is to get rid of these two dead
+men, and that is an affair I believe we shall have no trouble in
+handling.  One of them we will wrap up in the carpet here, and t'other
+we can roll into yonder bed-curtain.  You shall carry the one and I the
+other, and, the harbor being at no great distance, we can easily bring
+them thither and tumble them overboard, and no one will be the wiser of
+what has happened.  For your own safety, as you may easily see, you can
+hardly go away and leave these objects here to be found by the
+first-comer, and to arise up in evidence against you."
+
+This reasoning, in our hero's present bewildered state, appeared to him
+to be so extremely just that he raised not the least objection to it.
+Accordingly, each of the two silent, voiceless victims of the evening's
+occurrences were wrapped into a bundle that from without appeared to be
+neither portentous nor terrible in appearance.
+
+Thereupon, Jonathan shouldering the rug containing the little gentleman
+in black, and the sea-captain doing the like for the other, they
+presently made their way down the stairs through the darkness, and so
+out into the street.  Here the sea-captain became the conductor of the
+expedition, and leading the way down several alleys and along certain
+by-streets--now and then stopping to rest, for the burdens were both
+heavy and clumsy to carry--they both came out at last to the harbor
+front, without any one having questioned them or having appeared to
+suspect them of anything wrong.  At the water-side was an open wharf
+extending a pretty good distance out into the harbor.  Thither the
+captain led the way and Jonathan followed.  So they made their way out
+along the wharf or pier, stumbling now and then over loose boards,
+until they came at last to where the water was of a sufficient depth
+for their purpose.  Here the captain, bending his shoulders, shot his
+burden out into the dark, mysterious waters, and Jonathan, following
+his example, did the same.  Each body sank with a sullen and leaden
+splash into the element where, the casings which swathed them becoming
+loosened, the rug and the curtain rose to the surface and drifted
+slowly away with the tide.
+
+As Jonathan stood gazing dully at the disappearance of these last
+evidences of his two inadvertent murders, he was suddenly and
+vehemently aroused by feeling a pair of arms of enormous strength flung
+about him from behind.  In their embrace his elbows were instantly
+pinned tight to his side, and he stood for a moment helpless and
+astounded, while the voice of the sea-captain, rumbling in his very
+ear, exclaimed: "Ye bloody, murthering Quaker, I'll have that ivory
+ball, or I'll have your life!"
+
+These words produced the same effect upon Jonathan as though a douche
+of cold water had suddenly been flung over him.  He began instantly to
+struggle to free himself, and that with a frantic and vehement violence
+begotten at once of terror and despair.  So prodigious were his efforts
+that more than once he had nearly torn himself free, but still the
+powerful arms of his captor held him as in a vise of iron.  Meantime,
+our hero's assailant made frequent though ineffectual attempts to
+thrust a hand into the breeches-pocket where the ivory ball was hidden,
+swearing the while under his breath with a terrifying and monstrous
+string of oaths.  At last, finding himself foiled in every such
+attempt, and losing all patience at the struggles of his victim, he
+endeavored to lift Jonathan off of his feet, as though to dash him
+bodily upon the ground.  In this he would doubtless have succeeded had
+he not caught his heel in the crack of a loose board of the wharf.
+Instantly they both fell, violently prostrate, the captain beneath and
+Jonathan above him, though still encircled in his iron embrace.  Our
+hero felt the back of his head strike violently upon the flat face of
+the other, and he heard the captain's skull sound with a terrific crack
+like that of a breaking egg upon some post or billet of wood, against
+which he must have struck.  In their frantic struggles they had
+approached extremely near the edge of the wharf, so that the next
+instant, with an enormous and thunderous splash, Jonathan found himself
+plunged into the waters of the harbor, and the arms of his assailant
+loosened from about his body.
+
+The shock of the water brought him instantly to his senses, and, being
+a fairly good swimmer, he had not the least difficulty in reaching and
+clutching the cross-piece of a wooden ladder that, coated with slimy
+sea-moss, led from the water-level to the wharf above.
+
+After reaching the safety of the dry land once more, Jonathan gazed
+about him as though to discern whence the next attack might be
+delivered upon him.  But he stood entirely alone upon the dock--not
+another living soul was in sight.  The surface of the water exhibited
+some commotion, as though disturbed by something struggling beneath;
+but the sea-captain, who had doubtless been stunned by the tremendous
+crack upon his head, never arose again out of the element that had
+engulfed him.
+
+The moonlight shone with a peaceful and resplendent illumination, and,
+excepting certain remote noises from the distant town not a sound broke
+the silence and the peacefulness of the balmy, tropical night.  The
+limpid water, illuminated by the resplendent moonlight, lapped against
+the wharf.  All the world was calm, serene, and enveloped in a profound
+and entire repose.
+
+Jonathan looked up at the round and brilliant globe of light floating
+in the sky above his head, and wondered whether it were, indeed,
+possible that all that had befallen him was a reality and not some
+tremendous hallucination.  Then suddenly arousing himself to a renewed
+realization of that which had occurred, he turned and ran like one
+possessed, up along the wharf, and so into the moonlit town once more.
+
+
+
+
+VI. The Conclusion of the Adventure with the Lady with the Silver Veil
+
+
+Nor did he check his precipitous flight until suddenly, being led
+perhaps by some strange influence of which he was not at all the
+master, he discovered himself to be standing before the garden-gate
+where not more than an hour before he had first entered upon the series
+of monstrous adventures that had led to such tremendous conclusions.
+
+People were still passing and repassing, and one of these groups--a
+party of young ladies and gentlemen--paused upon the opposite side of
+the street to observe, with no small curiosity and amusement, his
+dripping and bedraggled aspect.  But only one thought and one intention
+possessed our hero--to relieve himself as quickly as possible of that
+trust which he had taken up so thoughtlessly, and with such monstrous
+results to himself and to his victims.  He ran to the gate of the
+garden and began beating and kicking upon it with a vehemence that he
+could neither master nor control.  He was aware that the entire
+neighborhood was becoming aroused, for he beheld lights moving and loud
+voices of inquiry; yet he gave not the least thought to the disturbance
+he was creating, but continued without intermission his uproarious
+pounding upon the gate.
+
+At length, in answer to the sound of his vehement blows, the little
+wicket was opened and a pair of eyes appeared thereat.  The next
+instant the gate was cast ajar very hastily, and the pock-pitted
+negress appeared.  She caught him by the sleeve of his coat and drew
+him quickly into the garden.  "Buckra, Buckra!" she cried.  "What you
+doing?  You wake de whole town!"  Then, observing his dripping
+garments: "You been in de water.  You catch de fever and shake till you
+die."
+
+"Thy mistress!" cried Jonathan, almost sobbing in the excess of his
+emotion; "take me to her upon the instant, or I cannot answer for my
+not going entirely mad!"
+
+When our hero was again introduced to the lady, he found her clad in a
+loose and an elegant negligee, infinitely becoming to her graceful
+figure, and still covered with the veil of silver gauze that had before
+enveloped her.
+
+"Friend," he cried, vehemently, approaching her and holding out toward
+her the little ivory ball, "take again this which thou gavest me!  It
+has brought death to three men, and I know not what terrible fate may
+befall me if I keep it longer in my possession.
+
+"What is it you say?" cried she, in a piercing voice.  "Did you say it
+hath caused the death of three men?  Quick!  Tell me what has happened,
+for I feel somehow a presage that you bring me news of safety and
+release from all my dangers."
+
+"I know not what thou meanest!" cried Jonathan, still panting with
+agitation.  "But this I do know: that when I went away from thee I
+departed an innocent man, and now I come back to thee burdened with the
+weight of three lives, which, though innocent I have been instrumental
+in taking."
+
+"Explain!"  exclaimed the lady, tapping the floor with her foot.
+"Explain! explain! explain!"
+
+"That I will," cried Jonathan, "and as soon as I am able!  When I left
+thee and went out into the street I was accosted by a little gentleman
+clad in black."
+
+"Indeed!" cried the lady; "and had he but one eye, and did he carry a
+gold-headed cane?"
+
+"Exactly," said Jonathan; "and he claimed acquaintance with friend
+Jeremiah Doolittle."
+
+"He never knew him!" cried the lady, vehemently; "and I must tell you
+that he was a villain named Hunt, who at one time was the intimate
+consort of the pirate Keitt.  He it was who plunged a deadly knife into
+his captain's bosom, and so murdered him in this very house.  He
+himself or his agents, must have been watching my gate when you went
+forth."
+
+"I know not how that may be," said Jonathan, "but he took me to his
+apartment, and there, obtaining a knowledge of the trust thou didst
+burden me with, he demanded it of me, and upon my refusing to deliver
+it to him he presently fell to attacking me with a dagger.  In my
+efforts to protect my life I inadvertently caused him to plunge the
+knife into his own bosom and to kill himself."
+
+"And what then?"  cried the lady, who appeared well-nigh distracted
+with her emotions.
+
+"Then," said Jonathan, "there came a strange man--a foreigner--who upon
+his part assaulted me with a pistol, with every intention of murdering
+me and thus obtaining possession of that same little trifle."
+
+"And did he," exclaimed the lady, "have long, black mustachios, and did
+he have silver ear-rings in his ears?"
+
+"Yes," said Jonathan, "he did."
+
+"That," cried the lady, "could have been none other than Captain
+Keitt's Portuguese sailing-master, who must have been spying upon Hunt!
+Tell me what happened next!"
+
+"He would have taken my life," said Jonathan, "but in the struggle that
+followed he shot himself accidentally with his own pistol, and died at
+my very feet.  I do not know what would have happened to me if a
+sea-captain had not come and proffered his assistance."
+
+"A sea-captain!" she exclaimed; "and had he a flat face and a broken
+nose?"
+
+"Indeed he had," replied Jonathan.
+
+"That," said the lady, "must have been Captain Keitt's pirate
+partner--Captain Willitts, of The Bloody Hand.  He was doubtless spying
+upon the Portuguese."
+
+"He induced me," said Jonathan, "to carry the two bodies down to the
+wharf.  Having inveigled me there--where, I suppose, he thought no one
+could interfere--he assaulted me, and endeavored to take the ivory ball
+away from me.  In my efforts to escape we both fell into the water, and
+he, striking his head upon the edge of the wharf, was first stunned and
+then drowned."
+
+"Thank God!" cried the lady, with a transport of fervor, and clasping
+her jewelled hands together.  "At last I am free of those who have
+heretofore persecuted me and threatened my very life itself!  You have
+asked to behold my face; I will now show it to you!  Heretofore I have
+been obliged to keep it concealed lest, recognizing me, my enemies
+should have slain me."  As she spoke she drew aside her veil, and
+disclosed to the vision of our hero a countenance of the most
+extraordinary and striking beauty.  Her luminous eyes were like those
+of a Jawa, and set beneath exquisitely arched and pencilled brows.  Her
+forehead was like lustrous ivory and her lips like rose-leaves.  Her
+hair, which was as soft as the finest silk, was fastened up in masses
+of ravishing abundance.  "I am," said she, "the daughter of that
+unfortunate Captain Keitt, who, though weak and a pirate, was not so
+wicked, I would have you know, as he has been painted.  He would,
+doubtless, have been an honest man had he not been led astray by the
+villain Hunt, who so nearly compassed your own destruction.  He
+returned to this island before his death, and made me the sole heir of
+all that great fortune which he had gathered--perhaps not by the most
+honest means--in the waters of the Indian Ocean.  But the greatest
+treasure of all that fortune bequeathed to me was a single jewel which
+you yourself have just now defended with a courage and a fidelity that
+I cannot sufficiently extol.  It is that priceless gem known as the
+Ruby of Kishmoor.  I will show it to you."  Hereupon she took the
+little ivory ball in her hand, and, with a turn of her beautiful
+wrists, unscrewed a lid so nicely and cunningly adjusted that no eye
+could have detected where it was joined to the parent globe. Within was
+a fleece of raw silk containing an object which she presently displayed
+before the astonished gaze of our hero.  It was a red stone of about
+the bigness of a plover's egg, and which glowed and flamed with such an
+exquisite and ruddy brilliancy as to dazzle even Jonathan's
+inexperienced eyes.  Indeed, he did not need to be informed of the
+priceless value of the treasure, which he beheld in the rosy palm
+extended toward him.  How long he gazed at this extraordinary jewel he
+knew not, but he was aroused from his contemplation by the sound of the
+lady's voice addressing him.  "The three villains," said she, "who have
+this day met their deserts in a violent and bloody death, had by an
+accident obtained knowledge that this jewel was in my possession.
+Since then my life has hung upon a thread, and every step that I have
+taken has been watched by these enemies, the most cruel and relentless
+that it was ever the lot of any unfortunate to possess.  From the
+mortal dangers of their machinations you have saved me, exhibiting a
+courage and a determination that cannot be sufficiently applauded.  In
+this you have earned my deepest admiration and regard.  I would
+rather," she cried, "intrust my life and my happiness to you than into
+the keeping of any man whom I have ever known!  I cannot hope to reward
+you in such a way as to recompense you for the perils into which my
+necessities have thrust you; but yet"--and here she hesitated, as
+though seeking for words in which to express herself--"but yet if you
+are willing to accept of this jewel, and all of the fortune that
+belongs to me, together with the person of poor Evaline Keitt herself,
+not only the stone and the wealth, but the woman also, are yours to
+dispose of as you see fit!"
+
+Our hero was so struck aback at this unexpected turn that he knew not
+upon the instant what reply to make.  "Friend," said he, at last, "I
+thank thee extremely for thy offer, and, though I would not be
+ungracious, it is yet borne in upon me to testify to thee that as to
+the stone itself and the fortune--of which thou speakest, and of which
+I very well know the history--I have no inclination to receive either
+the one or the other, both the fruits of theft, rapine, and murder.
+The jewel I have myself beheld three times stained, as it were, with
+the blood of my fellow-man, so that it now has so little value in my
+sight that I would not give a peppercorn to possess it.  Indeed, there
+is no inducement in the world that could persuade me to accept it, or
+even to take it again into my hand.  As to the rest of thy generous
+offer, I have only to say that I am, four months hence, to be married
+to a very comely young woman of Kensington, in Pennsylvania, by name
+Martha Dobbs, and therefore I am not at all at liberty to consider my
+inclinations in any other direction."
+
+Having so delivered himself, Jonathan bowed with such ease as his stiff
+and awkward joints might command, and thereupon withdrew from the
+presence of the charmer, who, with cheeks suffused with blushes and
+with eyes averted, made no endeavor to detain him.
+
+So ended the only adventure of moment that ever happened to him in all
+his life.  For thereafter he contented himself with such excitement as
+his mercantile profession and his extremely peaceful existence might
+afford.
+
+
+
+
+Epilogue
+
+
+In conclusion it may be said that when the worthy Jonathan Rugg was
+married to Martha Dobbs, upon the following June, some mysterious
+friend presented to the bride a rope of pearls of such considerable
+value that when they were realized into money our hero was enabled to
+enter into partnership with his former patron the worthy Jeremiah
+Doolittle, and that, having made such a beginning, he by-and-by arose
+to become, in his day, one of the leading merchants of his native town
+of Philadelphia.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ruby of Kishmoor, by Howard Pyle
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RUBY OF KISHMOOR ***
+
+***** This file should be named 3687.txt or 3687.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/8/3687/
+
+Produced by Paul J. Hollander.  HTML version by Al Haines.
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.