Captain Calamity

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Captain Calamity, by Rolf Bennett
SECOND EDITION
HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO MCMXVI
Printed in Great Britain by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
To MY WIFE
Know all men that we do by these presents issue forth and grant Letters of Marque and reprisals to, and do license and authorise John Brighouse to set forth in a warlike manner the ship called the 'Hawk,' under his own command and therewith by force of arms to apprehend, seize and take the ships, vessels and goods belonging to the German Empire, wherefore it may and shall be lawful for the said John Brighouse to sell and dispose of such ships, vessels and goods adjudged and condemned in such sort and manner as by the course of Admiralty hath been adjudged.
The man who had been reading aloud from the closely written parchment laid it down on the table and glanced inquiringly at his companion. He was a man of between forty and fifty, a little over five feet in height, but so squarely built that, without exaggeration, he was well-nigh as broad as he was long. His head was small and bullet-shaped with a thatch of wiry black hair, and his face, bronzed to a copper-hue, was clean-shaven. A pair of thick, shaggy eyebrows brooded over eyes that usually produced a shock when first seen; for while one was steely-grey and possessed extraordinary mobility, the other was pale green and gazed upon the beholder with the fixed and stony stare of a dead fish. But this alarming optical phenomenon admitted of a simple explanation. At some period in his eventful career, Captain Calamity—for thus he was known throughout the length and breadth of the Pacific—had had the misfortune to lose an eye. After experiencing some difficulty in obtaining a glass substitute, he had at last managed to secure one second-hand from the relative of a gentleman who no longer required it.
The other man, Isaac Solomon by name, might have been any age from forty to sixty. He was lean and angular, with features of a pronounced Hebraic cast and a pair of beady black eyes that conveyed the impression of mingled cunning and humour. His upper lip was shaven, but he wore a beard which, like the few remaining hairs upon his head, was of a dingy grey colour.