Dan Merrithew

Dan Merrithew, by Lawrence
Perry

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Title: Dan Merrithew
Author: Lawrence Perry
Illustrator: J. V. McFall
Release Date: September 24, 2005 [EBook #16742]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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MERRITHEW ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: Tongues of flame reached hungrily for them, licking
above Dan's red-gold hair, but never touching the girl.]

Dan Merrithew
By Lawrence Perry

Author of "From the Depths of Things," "Two Tramps," "The
Bounder," "The Sacrifice," etc.

WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLORS
BY J. V. McFALL

A. L. BURT COMPANY
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT
By A. C. McClurg & Co.
A.D. 1910

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England

Published, March 12, 1910
Second edition, March 19, 1910

Thanks are due Mr. Arthur W. Little, president of the Pearson

Publishing Company, for permission to use in this novel several
incidents in the life of Dan Merrithew which originally appeared in
"Pearson's Magazine."

TO
LARRY

CONTENTS
CHAPTER TOC
I. THE GIRL ON THE "VEILED LADYE" II. DAN'S SEARCH FOR
THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT III. A FIGHT IN THE DARK IV. DAN
STAKES HIS LIFE, AND WINS V. THE LOSS OF THE
"FLEDGLING" VI. THE BRAVE AND THE FAIR VII. DAN IS
COMMANDED TO A PARTY VIII. WITS VERSUS MACHINE
GUNS IX. AN ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION X. THE WRAITH
IN THE MOONLIGHT XI. THE BURNING OF THE "TAMPICO"
XII. ALONE IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE XIII. NIGHT ON
THE DERELICT XIV. DAN AND VIRGINIA XV. CONCLUSION

ILLUSTRATIONS
Tongues of flame reached hungrily for them, licking above Dan's
red-gold hair, but never touching the girl . . . . . . . Frontispiece
"Oh, father," broke in the girl, "tell him it was noble!"
In the flash of an eye, Dan was making for the assassin
Opposite, smiling at him as though they had breakfasted together for
years, was the radiant girl

DAN MERRITHEW
CHAPTER I
THE GIRL ON THE "VEILED LADYE"
The big coastwise tug Hydrographer slid stern-ward into a slip
cluttered with driftwood and bituminous dust, stopping within heaving
distance of three coal-laden barges which in their day had reared "royal
s'ls" to the wayward winds of the seven seas.
Near-by lay Horace Howland's ocean-going steam yacht, Veiled Ladye,
which had put into Norfolk from Caribbean ports, to replenish her
bunkers. There were a number of guests aboard, and most of them
arose from their wicker chairs on the after-deck and went to the rail, as
the great tug pounded alongside.
Grateful for any kind of a break in the monotony of the long morning,
they observed with interest the movements of a tall young man, in a
blue shirt open at the throat and green corduroy trousers, who caught
the heaving line hurtling from the bow of the nearest barge, and hauled
the attached towing-cable dripping and wriggling from the heavy
waters.
He did it gracefully. There was a fine play of broad shoulders, a
resilient disposition of the long, straight limbs, an impression of
tiger-like strength and suppleness, not lost upon his observers, upon
Virginia Howland least of all. She was not a girl to suppress a thought
or emotion uppermost in her mind; and now she turned to her father
with an exclamation of pleasure.
"Father," she cried, "look! Isn't he simply stunning! The Greek
ideal--and on a tugboat!" Her dark eyes lightened with mischief. "Do
you suppose he'd mind if I spoke to him?"
"He'd probably swear at you," said young Ralph Oddington, with a grin.

Then, seized by a sudden impulse for which he afterwards kicked
himself, being a decent sort of chap, he drew his cigarette case from his
pocket and, as the tug came to a standstill, tossed a cigarette across the
intervening space. It struck the man in the back, and as he turned,
Oddington called,
"Have a cigarette, Bill?"
The tugman's lips parted, giving a flashing glimpse of big, straight,
white teeth. Then they closed, and for an instant he regarded the
speaker with a hard, curious expression in his quiet gray eyes, and the
proffered cigarette, as though by accident, was shapeless under his heel.
It was distinctly embarrassing for the yachting party; and partly to
relieve Oddington, partly out of curiosity, Virginia Howland leaned
over the rail with a smile. "Please pardon us, Mr. Tugboatman. We
didn't mean to offend you; we--"
The young man again swept the party with his eyes, and then meeting
the girl's gaze