Foe-Farrell   By: Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (1863-1944)

By Arthur Thomas Quiller Couch.

TO ANYONE WHO SUPPOSES THAT HE HAS A WORSE ENEMY THAN HIMSELF.

CONTENTS.

BOOK I INGREDIENTS.

PROLOGUE.

NIGHT THE FIRST John Foe.

NIGHT THE SECOND The Meeting at the Baths.

NIGHT THE THIRD The Grand research.

NIGHT THE FOURTH Adventure of the Police Station.

NIGHT THE FIFTH Adventure of the "Catalafina".

NIGHT THE SIXTH Adventure of the Picturedrome.

NIGHT THE SEVENTH The Outrage.

BOOK II THE CHASE.

NIGHT THE EIGHTH Vendetta.

NIGHT THE NINTH The Hunt is Up.

NIGHT THE TENTH Pilgrimage of Hate.

NIGHT THE ELEVENTH Science of the Chase.

NIGHT THE TWELFTH The Emania .

NIGHT THE THIRTEENTH Escape.

BOOK III THE RETRIEVE.

NIGHT THE FOURTEENTH San Ramon

NIGHT THE FIFTEENTH Redivivus.

NIGHT THE SIXTEENTH Captain Macnaughten.

NIGHT THE SEVENTEENTH No. 2 Boat.

NIGHT THE EIGHTEENTH "And so they came to the Island . . ."

NIGHT THE NINETEENTH The Castaways.

NIGHT THE TWENTIETH One Man Escapes.

BOOK IV THE COUNTERCHASE.

NIGHT THE TWENTY FIRST The Yellow Dog.

NIGHT THE TWENTY SECOND The Second Man escapes.

NIGHT THE TWENTY THIRD Counterchase.

NIGHT THE TWENTY FOURTH Constantia.

NIGHT THE TWENTY FIFTH The Paying of the Score.

EPILOGUE.

BOOK I.

INGREDIENTS.

If the red slayer thinks he slays, Or if the slain think he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways I keep, and pass, and turn again. EMERSON: Brahma .

The best kind of revenge is not to become like him. MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS.

PROLOGUE

Otway told this story in a dug out which served for officers' mess of a field battery somewhere near the Aisne: but it has nothing to do with the War. He told it in snatches, night by night, after the manner of Scheherazade in the Arabian Nights Entertainments , and as a rule to an auditory of two. Here is a full list of:

PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE

NARRATOR.

Major Sir Roderick Otway, Bart., M.C., R.F.A.

AUDIENCE AND INTERLOCUTORS.

Lieut. John Polkinghorne. R.F.A., of the Battery. Sec. Lieut. Samuel Barham, M.C. R.F.A., of the Battery. Sec. Lieut. Percy Yarrell Smith. R.F.A., of the Battery Sec Lieut. Noel Williams, R.F.A., attached for instruction.

But military duties usually restricted the audience to two at a time, though there were three on the night when Barham (Sammy) set his C.O. going with a paragraph from an old newspaper. The captain one McInnes, promoted from the ranks attended one stance only. He dwelt down at the wagon lines along with the Veterinary Officer, and brought up the ammunition most nights, vanishing back in the small hours like a ghost before cock crow.

The battery lay somewhat wide to the right of its fellows in the brigade; in a saucer shaped hollow on the hill side, well screened with scrub. Roughly it curved back from the straight lip overlooking the slope, in a three fifths segment of a circle; and the officers' mess made a short arc in it, some way in rear of the guns. You descended, by steps, cut in the soil and well pounded, into a dwelling rather commodious than large: for Otway who knew about yachts had taken a fancy to construct it nautical wise, with lockers that served for seats at a narrow saloon table, sleeping bunks excavated along the sides, and air holes like cabin top lights, cunningly curtained by night, under the shell proof cover.

"It cost us a week," he wrote home to his sister, "to get the place to my mind. Since then we have been adding fancy touches almost daily, and now the other batteries froth with envy. You see, it had to be contrived, like the poet's chest of drawers."

A double debt to pay: Doss house by night and bag of tricks by day.