["They came closer than ever, to within an arm's length of me"]
["I had reached the conclusion of my journey. The Big Fish was there"]
["'Hands up!' he cried. 'Hands up, you brown barbarian, or else I shoot you dead!'"]
["'Lie there and rot!' he shouted. And they below heard his footsteps as he danced upon the stone"]
["And so we came to the seashore, and saw the sun go down upon the wide and golden Pacific Ocean"]
INSCRIBED TO
BROMLEY DAVID SMITH-DORRIEN
TREASURE OF KINGS
[CHAPTER I--JOHN BANNISTER]
I shall never forget the day on which I first set eyes upon John Bannister. I was then a boy--sixteen years of age, if I remember rightly--and I stood before him, tongue-tied by the questions that he asked me, wondering how he had come by the great ugly, horrid scar upon his face, awed--indeed, I think, a little frightened--by the great muscles in his forearms, naked to the elbows, his rough weather-beaten face with skin like leather, and above all else by the stature of the man.