Dan Merrithew

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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
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAN 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 full, he waited for her to complete the sentence.
"We," she continued, "of course meant no harm."
He did not reply for a moment, did not reply till her eyes fell.
"All right--thanks," he said simply and then hurried forward.
At sunset the Veiled Ladye was well on her way to New York, and the Hydrographer was plugging past Hog