Listers Great Adventure

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Lister's Great Adventure

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Lister's Great Adventure, by Harold Bindloss
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Title: Lister's Great Adventure
Author: Harold Bindloss
Release Date: November 13, 2003 [eBook #10076]
Language: English
Chatacter set encoding: iso-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LISTER'S GREAT ADVENTURE***
E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Suzanne Shell, David Kline, and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders

LISTER'S GREAT ADVENTURE
BY HAROLD BINDLOSS
Author of "THE WILDERNESS MINE," "WYNDHAM'S PAL," "PARTNERS OF THE OUT-TRAIL," "THE BUCCANEER FARMER," "THE LURE OF THE NORTH," "THE GIRL FROM KELLER'S," "CARMEN'S MESSENGER," ETC.
1920

CONTENTS

PART I--BARBARA'S REBELLION

CHAPTER
I CARTWRIGHT MEDDLES
II IN THE DARK
III BARBARA VANISHES
IV THE GIRL ON THE PLATFORM
V SHILLITO GETS AWAY
VI WINNIPEG BEACH
VII LISTER'S DISSATISFACTION
VIII THE TEST
IX BARBARA PLAYS A
PART
X VERNON'S CURIOSITY

PART II--THE RECKONING
I VERNON'S PLOT
II BARBARA'S RETURN
III LISTER CLEARS THE GROUND
IV A DISSATISFIED SHAREHOLDER
V CARTWRIGHT'S SCRUPLES
VI A NASTY KNOCK
VII THE SHAREHOLDERS' MEETING
VIII A STOLEN EXCURSION
IX CARTWRIGHT SEES A PLAN
X A BOLD SPECULATION
XI THE START

PART III--THE BREAKING STRAIN
I THE FIRST STRUGGLE
II THE WRECK
III A FUEL PROBLEM
IV MONTGOMERY'S OFFER
V MONTGOMERY USES HIS POWER
VI LISTER MEETS AN OLD ANTAGONIST
VII BARBARA'S REFUSAL
VIII CARTWRIGHT GETS TO WORK
IX LISTER MAKES GOOD
X BARBARA TAKES CONTROL
XI LISTER'S REWARD

PART I--BARBARA'S REBELLION

CHAPTER I
CARTWRIGHT MEDDLES
Dinner was over, and Cartwright occupied a chair on the lawn in front of the Canadian summer hotel. Automatic sprinklers threw sparkling showers across the rough, parched grass, the lake shimmered, smooth as oil, in the sunset, and a sweet, resinous smell drifted from the pines that rolled down to the water's edge. The straight trunks stood out against a background of luminous red and green, and here and there a slanting beam touched a branch with fire.
Natural beauty had not much charm for Cartwright, who was satisfied to loaf and enjoy the cool of the evening. He had, as usual, dined well, his cigar was good, and he meant to give Mrs. Cartwright half an hour. Clara expected this, and, although he was sometimes bored, he indulged her when he could. Besides, it was too soon for cards. The lights had not begun to spring up in the wooden hotel, and for the most part the guests were boating on the lake. When he had finished his cigar it would be time to join the party in the smoking-room. Cartwright was something of a gambler and liked the American games. They gave one scope for bluffing, and although his antagonists declared his luck was good, he knew his nerve was better. In fact, since he lost his money by a reckless plunge, he had to some extent lived by bluff. Yet some people trusted Tom Cartwright.
Mrs. Cartwright did so. She was a large, dull woman, but had kept a touch of the beauty that had marked her when she was young. She was kind, conventional, and generally anxious to take the proper line. Cartwright was twelve years older, and since she was a widow and had three children when she married him, her friends declared her money accounted for much, and a lawyer relation carefully guarded, against Cartwright's using her fortune.
Yet, in a sense, Cartwright was not an adventurer, although his ventures in finance and shipping were numerous. He sprang from an old Liverpool family whose prosperity diminished when steamers replaced sailing ships. His father had waited long before he resigned himself to the change, but was not altogether too late, and Cartwright was now managing owner of the Independent Freighters Line. The company's business had brought him to Montreal, and when it was transacted he had taken Mrs. Cartwright and her family to the hotel by the Ontario lake.
Cartwright's hair and mustache were white; his face was fleshy and red. He was fastidious about his clothes, and his tailor cleverly hid the bulkiness of his figure. As a rule, his look was fierce and commanding, but now and then his small keen eyes twinkled. Although Cartwright was clever, he was, in some respects, primitive. He had long indulged his appetites, and wore the stamp of what is sometimes called good living.
The managing owner of the Independent Freighters needed cleverness, since the company was small and often embarrassed for money. For the most part, it ran its ships in opposition to the regular liners. When the Conference forced up freights Cartwright quietly canvassed the merchants and offered to carry their goods at something under the standard rate, if the shippers would engage to fill up his boat. As a rule, secrecy was important, but sometimes, when cargo was scarce, Cartwright let his plans be known and allowed the Conference to buy him off. Although his skill in the delicate negotiations was marked, the company paid small dividends and he