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قراءة كتاب The Harlequin Opal, Vol. 2 (of 3) A Romance
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THE
HARLEQUIN OPAL
A ROMANCE
BY
FERGUS HUME
Author of "The Island of Fantasy," "Aladdin in London," etc.
Volume II
Once a realm of Indian glory,
Famed in Aztec song and story,
Fabled by Tradition hoary
As an earthly Paradise;
Now a land of love romances,
Serenades, bolero dances,
Looks of scorn, adoring glances,
Under burning tropic skies.
LONDON
W. H. ALLEN & CO., LIMITED
13, WATERLOO PLACE, S.W.
1893
WYMAN AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND REDHILL.
PROEM.
The stone had its birth in the nurturing earth.
Its home in the heart of the main,
From the coraline caves it was tossed by the waves
On the breast of an aureate plain;
And the spirits who dwell in the nethermost hell
Stored fire in its bosom of white;
The sylphs of the air made it gracious and fair
With the blue of the firmament's height.
The dull gnomes I ween, gave it glittering sheen.
Till yellow as gold it became:
The nymphs of the sea made the opal to be
A beacon of emerald flame.
The many tints glow, they come and they go
At bidding of spirits abhorr'd,
When one ray is bright, in the bosom of white,
Its hue tells the fate of its lord.
For yellow hints wealth, and blue meaneth health,
While green forbodes passing of gloom,
But beware of the red, 'tis an omen of dread,
Portending disaster and doom.
INDEX.
| CHAP. | PAGE | |
| I.— | Away to the North | 1 |
| II.— | Acauhtzin | 21 |
| III.— | Don Hypolito Xuarez | 37 |
| IV.— | Rivals | 58 |
| V.— | In Shadowland | 81 |
| VI.— | The Shrine of the Opal | 104 |
| VII.— | An Unexpected Meeting | 130 |
| VIII.— | An Indian Festival | 153 |
| IX.— | The Fugitives | 184 |
| X.— | Fortune turns her Wheel | 210 |
| XI.— | Away to the Front | 233 |
| XII.— | A Naval Engagement—New Style | 257 |
| XIII.— | Without the Walls | 278 |
THE HARLEQUIN OPAL.
CHAPTER I.
AWAY TO THE NORTH.
Oh, leave the south, the languid south,
Its cloudless skies, its weary calms;
The land of heat, and glare, and drouth,
Where aloes bloom, and spring the palms.
There water is the best of alms,
To cool the ever-parched mouth;
Oh, with the breezes bearing balms,
Fly northward from the languid south.
Oh, seek the bitter northern skies,
Where falls the snow, and blows the sleet;
'Mid which the stormy sea-bird cries,
And circles on its pinions fleet.
On rocky shores the surges beat,
And icebergs crystalline arise,
Life thrills our veins with tropic heat,
Beneath the bitter northern skies.
Once more The Bohemian was breasting the warm waves of the Pacific, and seemed to rejoice in her freedom like a sentient thing, as she plunged north-ward to Acauhtzin. The smoke poured black from her wide-mouthed funnel, the blades of her propeller, lashing the waters to foam, left behind her a long trail of white, and her sharp nose dipped and fell in the salt brine with every pulsation of the pistons. Beneath the folds of the Union Jack, streaming in the wind, were gathered the Englishmen and the Cholacacans, all light-hearted and hopeful, despite the undoubted peril of their mission. It was no light task to beard Xuarez in his stronghold, to assert the authority of the Republic in the teeth of his army. The mission was a valiant one, but foolhardy, and Tim, if no one else, looked for anything but a peaceful termination to the voyage.
The distance to Acauhtzin was something over three hundred miles, and as The Bohemian was swirling along at the rate of seventeen knots an hour, it was hoped she would reach her destination in fifteen hours or thereabouts. Owing to one thing and another, the yacht had not left Tlatonac till close on four o'clock in the afternoon; so, making all allowance for possible accidents and stoppages, at the rate she was going, Philip calculated that he would fetch the northern capital about dawn. He did not wish to venture too near the port in the darkness, as the war-ships were protecting the town, and not seeing the English ensign, might open fire on his yacht, under the impression that she was an enemy. With this idea the engines