The Iron Pirate A Plain Tale of Strange Happenings on the Sea   By: Max Pemberton (1863-1950)

UNIFORM WITH THIS WORK.

KRONSTADT. By Max Pemberton.

Other Works by the same Author.

RED MORN. THE GIANT'S GATE. THE GARDEN OF SWORDS. A PURITAN'S WIFE. THE SEA WOLVES. THE IMPREGNABLE CITY. THE LITTLE HUGUENOT.

CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED.

[Illustration: THE IRON PIRATE ( p. 124).]

THE ... IRON PIRATE

A PLAIN TALE OF STRANGE HAPPENINGS ON THE SEA

MAX PEMBERTON

CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK & MELBOURNE MCMV. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

First Edition 1893. Reprinted 1894, March and July 1895, 1896, 1898, 1900, 1902, 1905.

Popular Edition July 1899. Reprinted August, September and October 1899, February and July 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904.

Pocket Edition August , 1905.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Perfect Fool asks a Favour 1 II. I Meet Captain Black 13 III. "Four Eyes" delivers a Message 31 IV. A Strange Sight on the Sea 43 V. The Writing of Martin Hall 59 VI. I Engage a Second Mate 92 VII. The Beginning of the Great Pursuit 101 VIII. I Dream of Paolo 114 IX. I Fall in with the Nameless Ship 123 X. The Spread of the Terror 140 XI. The Ship in the Black Cloak 153 XII. The Drinking Hole in the Bowery 166 XIII. Astern of the "Labrador" 180 XIV. A Cabin in Scarlet 193 XV. The Prison of Steel 198 XVI. Northward Ho! 205 XVII. One Shall Live 218 XVIII. The Den of Death 228 XIX. The Murders in the Cove 239 XX. I Quit Ice Haven 262 XXI. To the Land of Man 274 XXII. The Robbery of the "Bellonic" 285 XXIII. I Go to London 298 XXIV. The Shadow on the Sea 308 XXV. The Dumb Man Speaks 329 XXVI. A Page in Black's Life 345 XXVII. I Fall to Wondering 371

THE IRON PIRATE.

A Plain Tale of Strange Happenings on the Sea.

CHAPTER I.

THE PERFECT FOOL ASKS A FAVOUR.

"En voiture! en voiture!"

If it has not been your privilege to hear a French guard utter these words, you have lost a lesson in the dignity of elocution which nothing can replace. "En voiture, en voiture; five minutes for Paris." At the well delivered warning, the Englishman in the adjoining buffet raises on high the frothing tankard, and vaunts before the world his capacity for deep draughts and long; the fair American spills her coffee and looks an exclamation; the Bishop pays for his daughter's tea, drops the change in the one chink which the buffet boards disclose, and thinks one; the travelled person, disdaining haste, smiles on all with a pitying leer; the foolish man, who has forgotten something, makes public his conviction that he will lose his train. The adamantine official alone is at his ease, and, as the minutes go, the knell of the train loser sounds the deeper, the horrid jargon is yet more irritating.