Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/yarnofoldharbour00russ THE YARN OF OLD HARBOUR TOWN * * * * * * By the Same Author. _Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s._ +The Romance of a Midshipman.+ New Six Shilling Novels _Crown 8vo, cloth._ +Stars of Destiny.+ By L. PARRY TRUSCOTT. +Captain Sheen.+ By CHARLES OWEN. +The House by the River.+ By FLORENCE WARDEN. +A Royal Rascal.+ By Major ARTHUR GRIFFITHS. +The Romance of the Fountain.+ By EUGENE LEE-HAMILTON. LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN * * * * * * THE YARN OF OLD HARBOUR TOWN by W. CLARK RUSSELL Author of "The Romance of a Midshipman," etc., etc. Second Impression "Have you ne'er heard the yarn of Old Harbour Town? She was sweeter than Hinda or Haidèe; When the hatches were flush with goods, victuals and lush, The Captain made sail with the lady." --_Old Rhymes, 1835._ London T. Fisher Unwin Paternoster Square 1905 [All rights reserved]. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. LUCY ACTON 1 II. WALTER LAWRENCE 25 III. THE OFFER 48 IV. THE AURORA 75 V. PAUL 101 VI. THE LETTER 131 VII. WHERE IS THE MINORCA? 156 VIII. WHERE IS LUCY? 181 IX. MR GREYQUILL'S VISIT 206 X. MR LAWRENCE AND MR EAGLE 233 XI. PRINCESS TATTERS 259 XII. MR LAWRENCE REFLECTS 287 XIII. LUCY'S MADNESS 311 XIV. THE LOUISA ANN 339 XV. NELSON 367 XVI. THE CAPTURE 404 THE YARN OF OLD HARBOUR TOWN CHAPTER I LUCY ACTON Old Harbour House stood about a mile from the Harbour. It confronted the town which lay about one mile and a half off, right across a wide, romantic, heavily-wooded ravine. The banks of this gap sloped softly and pleasantly into a plain of meadows and two or three farms whose dyes of roof and cattle enriched the verdure; and down there ran a river singing in measures of music as it flowed into the Harbour and mingled its bright water with the brine of the deep beyond. Above, on the placid slope of down close against Old Harbour Town, hung a straggler building or two, lonely in importance, or consequential in some trifling pomp of land; at the point of cliff on Old Harbour House side, a low, pursy lighthouse wheezed at night a yellow gleam that was a home-greeting or God-speed to some five score fishermen who dredged in these and further waters; and on the brow confronting the lighthouse a venerable windmill revolved its vans against the sky.