Off the Beaten TrackW. & R. Chambers, 1920 - 264 pages |
From inside the book
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Page 54
... Stirland Botly , the private detective . Botly , a round man with the face of a Roman Catholic priest , knowing his name from the magazines , received him with grudging matter - of - factness ; but before he had finished his story Stirland ...
... Stirland Botly , the private detective . Botly , a round man with the face of a Roman Catholic priest , knowing his name from the magazines , received him with grudging matter - of - factness ; but before he had finished his story Stirland ...
Page 55
... Stirland Botly rang his bell , swung himself on to his feet and into his coat and hat - all in one motion , like the movements of a machine . ' Come on , ' he jerked . ' We can discuss the rest as we go along . ' ' Where the devil to ...
... Stirland Botly rang his bell , swung himself on to his feet and into his coat and hat - all in one motion , like the movements of a machine . ' Come on , ' he jerked . ' We can discuss the rest as we go along . ' ' Where the devil to ...
Page 56
... Stirland Botly eyed his companion with considerably more care than he had done before ere he replied . That sharp answer made him begin to realise that Golder Green , for all his thin , worn weakness , might under the surface be a ...
... Stirland Botly eyed his companion with considerably more care than he had done before ere he replied . That sharp answer made him begin to realise that Golder Green , for all his thin , worn weakness , might under the surface be a ...
Page 58
... Stirland Botly had examined the hiding - place of the White Elephant , ' and had held the great flashing jewel in his hand . It had a hypnotic effect , somehow , as if it would force one to steal it and run away , and Stirland Botly put ...
... Stirland Botly had examined the hiding - place of the White Elephant , ' and had held the great flashing jewel in his hand . It had a hypnotic effect , somehow , as if it would force one to steal it and run away , and Stirland Botly put ...
Page 59
... Stirland Botly , wrapped up in rugs on the floor of the loft above the coach - house . The place , as I have said , was old , very old - too old - and there were plenty of holes in the floor of the loft through which to peer and to aim ...
... Stirland Botly , wrapped up in rugs on the floor of the loft above the coach - house . The place , as I have said , was old , very old - too old - and there were plenty of holes in the floor of the loft through which to peer and to aim ...
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Common terms and phrases
Andrew Catherington Angmering anyway asked attaché-case beast boat breath bullet Burberry cartridges caught cave coach-house coastguards cold Compton Conch cormo cottage curlew dark Dobson door Dottrell estuary eyes face Fensham fired flash flies Fowley's galleon gasp glare Golder Green gone grass hand Harvey-Dottrell head heard hurried inside island jewel-cases K'sai Kate knaws knew laughed Lee-Enfield light lion Liss looked marram grass marshmen miles Monty Ravenhurst never night Old Fowley once pawnbroker picked pounds pulled punt quick Racton rifle roar round seemed seen shooting shore shore-loafer shot shouted silence slowly smile sound spoke Squire Quigley Squire's stared Stiletto Stirland Botly stood stopped straight strange suddenly thing tide took Tryalong turned voice waiting walk watched White Elephant wife wild wild-duck wild-fowl wind yards Young Fowley
Popular passages
Page 191 - I never get between the pines But I smell the Sussex air; Nor I never come on a belt of sand But my home is there. And along the sky the line of the Downs So noble and so bare. A lost thing could I never find, Nor a broken thing mend; And I fear I shall be all alone When I get towards the end. Who will there be to comfort me Or who will be my friend? I will gather and carefully make my friends Of the men of the Sussex Weald; They watch the stars from silent folds, They stiffly plough the field.
Page 198 - Of let him take who has the power, And let him keep who can, the Boers now proceeded to possess themselves of as much territory as they wanted.
Page 263 - He made no reply, but stared dumbly at the card, for on it was no name at all, but only, in bold black, the design of a treble-barbed arrow. It was the sign of his chief. ' I will tell you who that man is, my friend,' the Squire continued, after a long pause.
Page 251 - ... there was no sound. It was just the night for smuggling, gun-running, and other questionable and risky occupations that thrive not in the light of day. 'Stiletto' Dobson had made four journeys, carrying the cartridges on his back from the place where they were hidden in the hollow wheat-stack a quarter of a mile or so to the shore, where he placed them in his gunningpunt and rowed them on the falling tide to the little island out in the middle of the estuary.
Page 232 - Squire was what is known as a 'funny' man, good-natured, but quick-tempered and intolerant of interference. 'Anyway,' thought Mr Fox, 'he will be as good a searcher as any, perhaps, being a JP' ' That's done ut,' whispered Dobson's cousin in his ear. 'I knawed ye'd somethin' on ye when I sees ye smile th pass smile.
Page 249 - that chief who none of us knaws, and nobody 'ave ever see'd. Just an order through a tube' (but he pronounced it 'toob'), 'and there ye are. Just a voice, as one might say. 'E ain't no fool, 'ooever 'e m
Page 254 - Dobson spun his light craft about as a whirligig beetle spins in a puddle, and raced up a narrow side-channel, away towards the land. He fled into the arms of the gathering fog, but as he went he heard a sharp hail, inviting him to heave-to at once, and the strokes of the approaching oars quickened furiously. He knew that he was being pursued by the coastguard cutter, and he did not accept the invitation to stop.
Page 260 - Fox put it, too much the other way. He was all for hunting every suspected man down to his cottage and arresting him there and then, and the unfortunate Fox had to waste ten more valuable minutes explaining that, unless they could find Dobson on his punt with arms upon it, they had no evidence that the law would acknowledge at all. Finally, therefore...
Page 237 - em in my back-garden, then?' But he flung on his coat and ordered his men—there were twelve on the station—to turn out, sword-sticks and all. Six he ordered to patrol the shore of Quigley Harbour southwards to its mouth, and six he took with him northwards towards the oyster - beds. Contrary to the usual method, however, he ordered his men to patrol inland on their way out, and along the shore on their return journey. Thus any smugglers flying from the one party might reasonably be expected to...