Run to Earth

Run to Earth

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Run to Earth, by M. E. Braddon #3 in our series by M. E. Braddon
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Title: Run to Earth A Novel
Author: M. E. Braddon
Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9102] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on September 6, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUN TO EARTH ***

Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Charlie Kirschner and Distributed Proofreaders

[Illustration: "I am in the power of a maniac" Honoria murmured.--Page 100. Henry French, del. E. Evans, sc.]

RUN TO EARTH
A NOVEL
BY THE AUTHOR OF
"LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET," "AURORA FLOYD" "ISHMAEL," "VIXEN," "WYLLARD'S WEIRD" ETC. ETC.

CONTENTS.
* * * * *
CHAPTER I.
WARNED IN A DREAM
CHAPTER II.
DONE IN THE DARKNESS
CHAPTER III.
DISINHERITED
CHAPTER IV.
OUT OF THE DEPTHS
CHAPTER V.
"EVIL, BE THOU MY GOOD!"
CHAPTER VI.
AULD ROBIN GRAY
CHAPTER VII.
"O BEWARE, MY LORD, OF JEALOUSY!"
CHAPTER VIII.
AFTER THE PIC-NIC
CHAPTER IX.
ON YARBOROUGH TOWER
CHAPTER X.
"HOW ART THOU LOST! HOW ON A SUDDEN LOST!"
CHAPTER XI.
"THE WILL! THE TESTAMENT!"
CHAPTER XII.
A FRIEND IN NEED
CHAPTER XIII.
IN YOUR PATIENCE YE ARE STRONG
CHAPTER XIV.
A GHOSTLY VISITANT
CHAPTER XV.
A TERRIBLE RESOLVE
CHAPTER XVI.
WAITING AND WATCHING
CHAPTER XVII.
DOUBTFUL SOCIETY
CHAPTER XVIII.
AT ANCHOR
CHAPTER XIX.
A FAMILIAR TOKEN
CHAPTER XX.
ON GUARD
CHAPTER XXI.
DOWN IN DORSETSHIRE
CHAPTER XXII.
ARCH-TRAITOR WITHIN, ARCH-PLOTTER WITHOUT
CHAPTER XXIII.
"ANSWER ME, IF THIS BE DONE?"
CHAPTER XXIV.
"I AM WEARY OF MY PART"
CHAPTER XXV.
A DANGEROUS ALLIANCE
CHAPTER XXVI.
MOVE THE FIRST
CHAPTER XXVII.
WEAVE THE WARP, AND WEAVE THE WOOF
CHAPTER XXVIII.
PREPARING THE GROUND
CHAPTER XXIX.
AT WATCH
CHAPTER XXX.
FOUND WANTING
CHAPTER XXXI.
"A WORTHLESS WOMAN, MERE COLD CLAY"
CHAPTER XXXII.
A MEETING AND AN EXPLANATION
CHAPTER XXXIII.
"TREASON HAS DONE HIS WORST"
CHAPTER XXXIV.
CAUGHT IN THE TOILS
CHAPTER XXXV.
LARKSPUR TO THE RESCUE!
CHAPTER XXXVI.
ON THE TRACK
CHAPTER XXXVII.
"O, ABOVE MEASURE FALSE!"
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
"THY DAY IS COME"
CHAPTER XXXIX.
"CONFUSION WORSE THAN DEATH"
CHAPTER XL.
"SO SHALL YE REAP"
CHAPTER I.
WARNED IN A DREAM.
Seven-and-twenty years ago, and a bleak evening in March. There are gas-lamps flaring down in Ratcliff Highway, and the sound of squeaking fiddles and trampling feet in many public-houses tell of festivity provided for Jack-along-shore. The emporiums of slop-sellers are illuminated for the better display of tarpaulin coats and hats, so stiff of build that they look like so many sea-faring suicides, pendent from the low ceilings. These emporiums are here and there enlivened by festoons of many-coloured bandana handkerchief's; and on every pane of glass in shop or tavern window is painted the glowing representation of Britannia's pride, the immortal Union Jack.
Two men sat drinking and smoking in a little parlour at the back of an old public-house in Shadwell. The room was about as large as a good-sized cupboard, and was illuminated in the day-time by a window commanding a pleasant prospect of coal-shed and dead wall. The paper on the walls was dark and greasy with age; and every bit of clumsy, bulging deal furniture in the room had been transformed into a kind of ebony by the action of time and dirt, the greasy backs and elbows of idle loungers, the tobacco-smoke and beer-stains of half a century.
It was evident that the two men smoking and drinking in this darksome little den belonged to the seafaring community. In this they resembled each other; but in nothing else. One was tall and stalwart; the other was small, and wizen, and misshapen. One had a dark, bronzed face, with a frank, fearless expression; the other was pale and freckled, and had small, light-gray eyes, that shifted and blinked perpetually, and shifted and blinked most when he was talking with most animation. The first had a sonorous bass voice and a resonant laugh; the second spoke in suppressed tones, and had a trick of dropping his voice to a whisper whenever he was most energetic.
The first was captain and half-owner of the brigantine 'Pizarro', trading between the port of London, and the coast of Mexico. The second was his clerk, factotum, and confidant; half-sailor, half-landsman; able to take the helm in dangerous weather, if need were; and able to afford his employer counsel in the most intricate questions of trading and speculation.
The name of the captain was Valentine Jernam, that of his factotum Joyce Harker. The captain had found