As for the second part of the volume I have called it Veracious Tales advisedly, for all of these stories are founded upon facts in one way or another. Some of them have been suggested to me by incidents with which I am familiar because in them I bore a small part. The substance of one of them came from a young English traveller who told a romantic incident at a delightful dinner at the New York University Club. A real diary suggested another. An historical mystery as to what became of a certain cargo of slaves captured by Decatur in the Mediterranean evoked a third. Neglected chapters in history and biography are responsible for some of the others, as the Martinique tale, for the Diamond Rock was once a ship! Sir Henry Irving's marvellous rendition of Matthias in The Bells so possessed me with its power that after I came home from the theatre I could not sleep until I had written the story. All of these tales represent real incidents, therefore, or are founded upon them in some way.
Writing a short story, with me at least, is very different from writing a novel. I can invent plots of novels without the slightest difficulty, but the making of a short story is different. The making is a case of birth! The single incident, the brief condensed plot, or the vivid character sketch which is necessary to a proper short story has to come to me from outside. The short story is the product of inspiration, the long story the result of labor. Perhaps, therefore, there is more truth in the short story than in the long—from my point of view.
At any rate, in this volume are two kinds, and the readers may decide. If they have half as much pleasure out of the book as I had, they will thank me for having written.
C. T. B.
The Lake Placid Club,
Adirondacks, New York,
June 16, 1902.
CONTENTS
| PART I | ||
| WOVEN WITH THE SHIP | ||
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| I.— | The Building of the Ship | [9] |
| II.— | His Last Command | [16] |
| III.— | The Woman and the Man who Loved Her | [23] |
| IV.— | Cast up by the Sea | [28] |
| V.— | The Rescue | [36] |
| VI.— | The Water-Witch | [40] |
| VII.— | The Home of the Sea-Maiden | [50] |
| VIII.— | "Old Ironsides" | [57] |
| IX.— | The Sword of the Constitution | [65] |
| X.— | Facing World-Old Problems | [74] |
| XI.— | Blows at the Heart | [80] |
| XII.— | Broken Resolutions | [91] |
| XIII.— | Love Holds the Yoke-Lines | [103] |
| XIV.— | In the Shadow of the Ship | [117] |
| XV.— | Forgiveness the First Lesson | [123] |
| XVI.— | A Cloud on the Horizon | [130] |
| XVII.— | Freed! | [136] |
| XVIII.— | "But yet a Woman" | [143] |
| XIX.— | The Usual Course | [147] |
| XX.— | Rivals Meeting | [152] |
| XXI.— | A Happy Consummation | [160] |
| XXII.— | "Samson Agonistes" | [168] |
| L'Envoi | [180] | |
| PART II | ||
| VERACIOUS TALES OF VARIOUS SORTS | ||
| COUPS DE THÉÂTRE | ||
| A Vaudeville Turn | [187] | |
| Comedy | ||
| The Last Tribute to His Genius | [195] | |
| Tragedy | ||
| OUT OF THE WEST | ||
| In Oklahoma | [205] | |
| An Idyl of the Prairie in Three Flights | ||
| Passing the Love of Woman | [231] | |
| The End of a Frontier Tell | ||
| WITH GREAT GUNS AND SMALL | ||
| The Final Propositions | [245] | |
| A Drama of the Civil War | ||
| The Captain of H. B. M. Ship Diamond Rock | [259] | |
| The Tale of a Strange Ship off Martinique | ||
| "When Lovely Woman Stoops to Folly" | [278] | |
| The Fate of a Coquette of 1815 | ||
| Saved by her Slipper | [293] | |
| A Romance of the Border | ||
| "Sonny Boy's" Diary | [315] | |
| An Incident of the War in China | ||
| EXTRAVAGANZAS | ||
| The Amazing Yarn of the Bo's'n's Mate | [331] | |
| An Account of an Unusual Prize | ||
| The Disembodied Spirit | [346] | |
| The Story of a Wandering Sensation | ||
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS