The Silent Shore: A RomanceBloundelle-Burton, John
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The Silent Shore: A Romance
Bloundelle-Burton, John
English fiction -- 19th century
"That is not well! And he who loves so much our Spanish luncheons and
dinners, our good friend Dobson (he pronounced the name, Dobesoon)
with the heavy, fat face and the big beard--what of him?"
"He is a pig, a fool!" Diaz said, as he ran an unclean finger up a
column of accounts. "He believes me not when I tell him that of his
accursed _Corot_ I know nothing, and that I believe no such man is in
London."
The Señor laughed gently to himself at this answer, and then he said:
"And he has not yet found him?"
"_Dios!_ found him, no! Of that name I never heard before, no, never!
There is no such name!"
"For what does he say he wishes to see this _Corot?_ Is it that he has
a legacy to give him, or has he committed a crime for which this fat
man, this heavy Alguazil, wants to arrest him?"
"_Quien sabé!_ He says he has a little friendly question to ask him,
that is all. He says if he could see him for one moment, he would tell
him all he wants to know. And then he says he must find him. But I do
not think now he will ever find him."
"Nor do I," the Señor said. Then he looked up at the clock, and,
seeing it was past twelve, went to his room, saying that it was time
he prepared himself for the day.
But when he reached that apartment, which was a small room on the
second floor, that looked out on to the back windows of the street
that ran parallel with the one in which the Hôtel Lepanto was
situated, it did not seem as if those preparations stood in any great
need of hurry. The inevitable cigarette-papers were again produced and
the dusty tobacco, and the Señor, throwing himself into the arm-chair
that stood in the corner of the room, again gave himself up to
meditation.
"_Corot_," he said to himself, "_Corot_. How is it that that man has
ever heard the name--what does he know about it, why should he want to
find him? I thought that, outside Los Torros and Puerto Cortes, that
name had never been heard. Walter knew it, and Juanna knew it, and I
knew it, but of others there was no one alive who knew it. Yet here,
is this big, stupid man, in this big, stupid city (where--_por Dios!_
one may be stabbed to death and none find the slayer), with the name
upon his lips. How has he ever heard it, how has he ever known of it?"
He could find no answer to these questions which he asked himself, and
gradually his thoughts went off into another train.
"So, after all," he continued, "his name was not Cundall but Occleve,
and he it was who was this lord, this Penlyn, though that other bears
the name. And he, who inherited all that wealth from the old man, had
no right to it, no not so much right as Juanna--poor Juanna!--and I
had. And now he is gone, and it is with the living that I have to do.
Well, it shall be done, and by my father's blood the reckoning shall
be a heavy one if this lord does not clear himself!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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