The Inn at the Red Oak
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Inn at the Red Oak, by Latta
Griswold Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to
check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or
redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: The Inn at the Red Oak
Author: Latta Griswold
Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9856] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on October 24,
2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INN
AT THE RED OAK ***
Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, David Garcia and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
THE INN AT THE RED OAK
BY LATTA GRISWOLD
1917
[Illustration: "It's a treasure right enough!" cried Dan.]
CONTENTS
PART I THE OLD MARQUIS
I THE MARQUIS ARRIVES AT THE INN
II THE LION'S EYE
III THE MARQUIS AT NIGHT
IV THE OAK PARLOUR
V THE WALK THROUGH THE WOODS
PART II THE TORN SCRAP OF PAPER
VI THE HALF OF AN OLD SCRAP OF PAPER
VII A DISAPPEARANCE
VIII GREEN LIGHTS
IX RECOLLECTIONS OF A FRENCH EXILE
X MIDNIGHT VIGILS
PART III THE SCHOONER IN THE
COVE
XI THE SOUTHERN CROSS
XII TOM TURNS THE TABLES
XIII MADAME DE LA FONTAINE
XIV IN THE FOG
XV NANCY
XVI MADAME AT THE INN
XVII THE MARQUIS LEAVES THE INN
PART IV THE ATTACK ON THE INN
XVIII THE AVENUE OF MAPLES
XIX THE ATTACK
XX THE OAK PARLOUR
XXI THE TREASURE
The Inn at the Red Oak
PART I
THE OLD MARQUIS
CHAPTER I
THE MARQUIS ARRIVES AT THE INN
By the end of the second decade of the last century Monday Port had
passed the height of prosperity as one of the principal depots for the
West Indian trade. The shipping was rapidly being transferred to New
York and Boston, and the old families of the Port, having made their
fortunes, in rum and tobacco as often as not, were either moving away
to follow the trade or had acquiesced in the changed conditions and
were settling down to enjoy the fruit of their labours. The harbour now
was frequently deserted, except for an occasional coastwise trader; the
streets began to wear that melancholy aspect of a town whose good
days are more a memory than a present reality; and the old stage roads
to Coventry and Perth Anhault were no longer the arteries of travel they
once had been.
To the east of Monday Port, across Deal Great Water, an estuary of the
sea that expanded almost to the dignity of a lake, lay a pleasant rolling
wooded country known in Caesarea as Deal. It boasted no village,
scarcely a hamlet. Dr. Jeremiah Watson, a famous pedagogue and a
graduate of Kingsbridge, had started his modest establishment for "the
education of the sons of gentlemen" on Deal Hill; there were
half-a-dozen prospering farms, Squire Pembroke's Red Farm and Judge
Meath's curiously lonely but beautiful House on the Dunes among them;
a little Episcopalian chapel on the shores of the Strathsey river, a group
of houses at the cross roads north of Level's Woods, and the Inn at the
Red Oak,--and that was all.
In its day this inn had been a famous hostelry, much more popular with
travellers than the ill-kept provincial hotels in Monday Port; but now
for a long time it had scarcely provided a livelihood for old Mrs. Frost,
widow of the famous Peter who for so many years had been its popular
host. No one knew when the house had been built; though there was an
old corner stone on which local antiquarians professed to decipher the
figures "1693," and that year was assigned by tradition as the date of its
foundation.
It was a long crazy building, with a great sloping roof, a wide porch
running its entire length, and attached to its sides and rear in all sorts of
unexpected ways and places were numerous out houses and offices.
Behind
![](qr/6493/1.png)
Continue reading on your phone by scaning this QR Code
Tip: The current page has been bookmarked automatically. If you wish to continue reading later, just open the
Dertz Homepage, and click on the 'continue reading' link at the bottom of the page.