ODESSA, RUSSIA, 1918 THE DENSE FOG rolled into the harbor late in the afternoon, nudged by a sudden change in wind direction. The damp gray billows washed over the stone quays, swirled up the Odessa Steps and brought an early nightfall to the busy Black Sea port. Passenger ferries and freighters canceled their runs, idling dozens of sailors. As Captain Anatoly Tovrov groped his way through the bone-chilling mists that enveloped the waterfront, he could hear bursts of drunken laughter from the crowded dives and brothels. He walked past the main concentration of bars, turned down an alley an
THE GUILLOTINE; brutal instantaneous bloody death, a hellish instrument of execution. It dominated the white-tiled room, a. metallic structure that gleamed evilly in the stark fluorescent light. Louis Nevillon was calm as his guards allowed him a few seconds to savour his fate. They were gloating, he could read it in their smug, supposedly impassive, expressions. Even the priest. Tete-de-chien! The executioner was masked, a custom that went back centuries, but there was a gleam in the pale blue eyes that stared out of the cloth slits that was unmistakable. It was Gallon, of course. Who e
The means of destruction are approaching perfection with frightful rapidity. BARON ANTOINE HENRI JOMINI. 1838 1 Terry Franklin was a spy. This afternoon in February, in a small cubbyhole in the basement of the Pentagon, he was practicing his trade. It was tedious work. He adjusted the screen brightness on his puter monitor and tapped the secret access code of the user he was pretending to be tonight. Now the file name, also special access, a classification higher than top secret. He had to be careful, since the letters and numerals he was typing did not appear on the screen. A mistake here
This is what happened. On the night that the worst heat wave in northern New England history finally broke-the night of July 19-the entire western Maine region was lashed with the most vicious thunderstorms I have ever seen. We lived on Long Lake, and we saw the first of the storms beating its way across the water toward us just before dark. For an hour before, the air had been utterly still. The American flag that my father put up on our boathouse in 1936 lay limp against its pole. Not even its hem fluttered. The heat was like a solid thing, and it seemed as deep as sullen quarry-water. Tha
The Canadian Dominiona Chronicle of our Northern Neighborby Oscar D. SkeltonPREFACEThe history of Canada since the close of the French regime falls into three clearly marked half centuries. The first fifty years after the Peace of Paris determined that Canada was to maintain a separate existence under the British flag and was not to become a fourteenth colony or be merged with the United States. The second fifty years brought the winning of self-government and the achievement of Confederation. The third fifty years witnessed the expansion of the Dominion from sea to sea and the endeavor to ma
The Nature Fakerby Richard Harding DavisRichard Herrick was a young man with a gentle disposition, muchmoney, and no sense of humor. His object in life was to marry MissCatherweight. For three years she had tried to persuade him thiscould not be, and finally, in order to convince him, married someone else. When the woman he loves marries another man, the rejectedone is popularly supposed to take to drink or to foreign travel.Statistics show that, instead, he instantly falls in love with thebest friend of the girl who refused him. But, as Herrick trulyloved Miss Catherweight, he could not wors
The Stokesley Secretby Charlotte M. YongeCHAPTER I."How can a pig pay the rent?"The question seemed to have been long under consideration, to judge by the manner in which it came out of the pouting lips of that sturdy young five-year-old gentleman, David Merrifield, as he sat on a volume of the great Latin Dictionary to raise him to a level with the tea-table.Long, however, as it had been considered, it was unheeded on account of one more interesting to the general public assembled round the table."I say!" hallooed out a tall lad of twelve holding aloft a slice taken from the dish in the cent
Ernest HemingwayChapter OneTHEY WERE LIVING at le Grau du Roi then and the hotel was on a canal that ran from the walled city of Aigues Mortes straight down to the sea. They could see the towers of Aigues Mortes across the low plain of the Camargue and they rode there on their bicycles at some time of nearly every day along the white road that bordered the canal. In the evenings and the mornings when there was a rising tide sea bass would come into it and they would see the mullet jumping wildly to escape from the bass and watch the swelling bulge of the water as the bass attacked....
FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE LAST DREAM OF THE OLD OAKby Hans Christian AndersenIN the forest, high up on the steep shore, and not far from theopen seacoast, stood a very old oak-tree. It was just three hundredand sixty-five years old, but that long time was to the tree as thesame number of days might be to us; we wake by day and sleep by night,and then we have our dreams. It is different with the tree; it isobliged to keep awake through three seasons of the year, and doesnot get any sleep till winter comes. Winter is its time for rest;...
THE PATCHWORK GIRL OF OZby L. FRANK BAUMAffectionately dedicated to my young friendSumner Hamilton Britton of ChicagoPrologueThrough the kindness of Dorothy Gale of Kansas,afterward Princess Dorothy of Oz, an humble writerin the United States of America was once appointedRoyal Historian of Oz, with the privilege ofwriting the chronicle of that wonderful fairyland.But after making six books about the adventures ofthose interesting but queer people who live in the...
Ragged Lady, v2by William Dean HowellsPart 2XV.Mrs. Lander went to a hotel in New York where she had been in the habitof staying with her husband, on their way South or North. The clerk knewher, and shook hands with her across the register, and said she couldhave her old rooms if she wanted them; the bell-boy who took up theirhand-baggage recalled himself to her; the elevator-boy welcomed her witha smile of remembrance.Since she was already up, from coming off the sleeping-car, she had noexcuse for not going to breakfast like other people; and she went with...
The Augsburg ConfessionThe Confession of Faith:Which Was Submitted to His Imperial Majesty Charles VAt the Diet of Augsburg in the Year 1530by Philip Melanchthon, 1497-1560Preface to the Emperor Charles V.Most Invincible Emperor, Caesar Augustus, Most Clement Lord:Inasmuch as Your Imperial Majesty has summoned a Diet of theEmpire here at Augsburg to deliberate concerning measures againstthe Turk, that most atrocious, hereditary, and ancient enemy ofthe Christian name and religion, in what way, namely, effectuallyto withstand his furor and assaults by strong and lasting...
Coral and Coral Reefsby Thomas H. HuxleyTHE subject upon which I wish to address you to-night is the structureand origin of Coral and Coral Reefs. Under the head of "coral" thereare included two very different things; one of them is that substancewhich I imagine a great number of us have champed when we were verymuch younger than we are now,the common red coral, which is used somuch, as you know, for the edification and the delectation of childrenof tender years, and is also employed for the purposes of ornament forthose who are much older, and as some think might know better. The...
Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, V8by Louis Antoine Fauvelet de BourrienneHis Private SecretaryEdited by R. W. PhippsColonel, Late Royal Artillery1891CONTENTS:CHAPTER XXVII. to CHAPTER XXXIV. 1804-1805CHAPTER XXVII.1804.Clavier and HemartSingular Proposal of Corvisart-M. DesmaisonsProject of influencing the judgesVisit to the TuileriesRapp inattendanceLong conversation with the EmperorHis opinion on thetrial of MoreauEnglish assassins and Mr. FoxComplaints againstthe English GovernmentBonaparte and LacueeAffectionate...
The Financierby Theodore DreiserChapter IThe Philadelphia into which Frank Algernon Cowperwood was born was a city of two hundred and fifty thousand and more. It was set with handsome parks, notable buildings, and crowded with historic memories. Many of the things that we and he knew later were not then in existencethe telegraph, telephone, express company, ocean steamer, city delivery of mails. There were no postage-stamps or registered letters. The street car had not arrived. In its place were hosts of omnibuses, and for longer travel the slowly developing railroad system still largely