Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England Nic Revel; A White Slave's Adventures in Alligator Land, by George Manville Fenn. ________________________________________________________________________ Nic Revel is brought up on a small landed estate in Devon. The date is somewhere in the middle of the nineteenth century. There is a very good salmon pool on the estate, but it is often used by poachers, which greatly annoys the Revel family. Eventually they have a great fight there, in which they had arranged to be supported by men from a vessel of the Royal Navy. Nic is wounded and is mistaken for a poacher by the naval party, who press-gang the poachers. When they reach America, Nic is still hardly conscious, and not capable of much work. All the less able poachers are then sold by the ship to an American slave dealer, who sells them to a settler who lives a long way up a river. After a journey to the farm they find that they are given very hard work to do, and not fed very well. And of course Nic and one of the poachers, who has become a good friend of his, want to get back to Devon. After many trials and tribulations they eventually escape. George Manville Fenn is a master of suspense, and this book is a very good example of his work. ________________________________________________________________________ NIC REVEL; A WHITE SLAVE'S ADVENTURES IN ALLIGATOR LAND, BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN. CHAPTER ONE. CAPTAIN REVEL IS CROSS. "Late again, Nic," said Captain Revel. "Very sorry, father." "Yes, you always are `very sorry,' sir. I never saw such a fellow to sleep. Why, when I was a lad of your age--let's see, you're just eighteen." "Yes, father, and very hungry," said the young man, with a laugh and a glance at the breakfast-table. "Always are very hungry. Why, when I was a lad of your age I didn't lead such an easy-going life as you do. You're spoiled, Nic, by an indulgent father.--Here, help me to some of that ham.--Had to keep my watch and turn up on deck at all hours; glad to eat weavilly biscuit.-- Give me that brown bit.--Ah, I ought to have sent you to sea. Made a man of you. Heard the thunder, of course?" "No, father. Was there a storm?" "Storm--yes. Lightning as we used to have it in the East Indies, and the rain came down like a waterspout." "I didn't hear anything of it, father." "No; you'd sleep through an earthquake, or a shipwreck, or--Why, I say, Nic, you'll soon have a beard." "Oh, nonsense, father! Shall I cut you some bread?" "But you will," said the Captain, chuckling. "My word, how time goes! Only the other day you were an ugly little pup of a fellow, and I used to wipe your nose; and now you're as big as I am--I mean as tall." "Yes; I'm not so stout, father," said Nic, laughing. "None of your impudence, sir," said the heavy old sea-captain, frowning. "If you had been as much knocked about as I have, you might have been as stout."