John the Fool An American Romance

58 XVII BREED OF THE BUCCANEERS . . 282 XVIII IN T HE FACE O F FAILURE . . 291 XIX THE K ING O SPAINS URRENDERS . , . 307 JOHN THE FOOL JOHN THE FOOL CHAPTER I THE WOOD SAINT L0 W, San Anton-e It seemed an echo-high and clear-out of the flooded forest aisles. Then laughter, mocking our little captains cackle. Allesjandro turned with his hand on the mast of his red-sailed lugger he grinned at us about the limp canvas and then resumed his trot along the gunwale, wiping the sweat from his grizzled brow. Laughter it was, and mocking us agaln, as we sat in the Good Clzild, which lay in the slowly floating bloom of hyacinths, for across this purple garden the white shell beach of Isle Bonne seemed no nearer than an hour ago. The south coast sun was April-warm, and the gray forest wall invited with its shadows as we drifted in that morning calm. rrBl w Sa , lt A zton-e And again the three of us in Allesjandros lugger I 2 JOHN THE FOOL stared helplessly into the cypress jungle-where was she For of all places-as my young friend, Redfield, put it when he arose astride his suit-case in the stern of the Good Child- of all places that one would expect to find a girl, and laughing at us, its the limit Virgil Williams nodded to me, with patient delicacy, ignoring the other man, as he had done these four days now when their hatred deepened. I told you, Doctor Dick, he put in gently. Thats the girl, and thats the island. Its the last of the sweet lands and beyond it run the salt tides. The sweet land is what Im fightin fo - against the Gulf of Mexico, and a girl And the gaunt Texan, with the eyes of a dreamer, looked wistfully past the white shell beach to the wilderness Only, Doctor Dick, somehow, I caint explain all my problems to the land company. As a director of the Prairie Meadows Land and Development Company I straightway guessed as much. Even though I couldnt see her, because my eyes were now aching with all the colors under that Louisiana sky... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.