Book: Fast as the Wind
A Novel pdf download free
Author: Nat Gould
Release Date: March 20, 2011
(✍️ This article is collected from this book 📚
(All Credit To Go Real Hero The Author of this book 📖)
🙏 Please buy this book hardcopy from anyway.)
CONTENTS________________________
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE BOOM OF A GUN 1
II. STORY OF AN ESCAPE 10
III. THE MAN ON THE ROAD 20
IV. THE WOMAN AT THE TABLE 30
V. PICTON’S WINNING MOUNT 40
VI. IN BRACK’S COTTAGE 50
VII. A CRITICAL MOMENT 59
VIII. ON BOARD THE “SEA-MEW” 69
IX. LENISE ELROY 79
X. HAVERTON 88
XI. TEARAWAY AND OTHERS 97
XII. “I THINK HE’S DEAD” 106
XIII. A WOMAN’S FEAR 115
XIV. NOT RECOGNISED 124
XV. “THE ST. LEGER’S IN YOUR POCKET” 132
XVI.
HOW HECTOR FOUGHT THE
BLOODHOUND
140
XVII. AN INTRODUCTION AT HURST PARK 149
XVIII. CONSCIENCE TROUBLES 158
XIX. “WHAT WOULD YOU DO?” 165
XX. RITA SEES A RESEMBLANCE 174
XXI. BRACK TURNS TRAVELER 182
XXII. DONCASTER 191
XXIII. THE CROWD IN THE RING 200
XXIV. “BY JOVE, SHE’S WONDERFUL” 208
XXV. FAST AS THE WIND 216
XXVI. THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CUP 224
XXVII. THE RESERVED COMPARTMENT 233
XXVIII. HOW HECTOR HAD HIS REVENGE 241
XXIX. AN ASTONISHING COMMUNICATION 250
XXX. TEARAWAY’S PROGENY 258.
🧾In This Book_______________________
🔍THE BOOM OF A GUN_______
A small but splendidly built yacht steamed slowly into Torbay, passed
Brixham and Paignton, and came to anchor in the outer harbor at Torquay. It was
a glorious spring morning, early, and the sun shone on the water with a myriad
of dancing reflections; it bathed in light the beautiful town, the scores of villas
nestling on the heights surrounding it, the palms on the terrace walk, on the mass
of greenery clothing foot to summit, on the inner harbor, and on the rocky coast
stretching out towards Anstey’s Cove and Babbacombe Beach. It was a
magnificent sight, the arts of man and nature mingled together, for once
harmonizing, for Torquay has not been spoilt by builders, at least as seen from
the bay. Behind, Brixham way, the red sails of the fishing boats flapped lazily in
an idle breeze. Four men-of-war lay still in the bay, guardians of the peace,
comforting, reassuring, a hint of what lay behind. How peaceful these monsters
of the deep looked. Slumbering surely were they. What was that? A puff of white
smoke, then a solemn sound, which sped across the bay, and echoed over the
hills. One of the monsters had spoken, just to show it was wide awake.
It had a curious effect on the man leaning over the side of the Sea-mew, the
yacht that had just come to anchor. It startled him from his reverie, from his
contemplation of all that was so beautiful around him.
For a moment he looked across at the warships, and saw the smoke drifting
away, then he turned and looked over the town and its heights, and his thoughts
went far and landed on Dartmoor.
Another gun boomed out. This time it seemed more natural. Again the echo
ran over the hills, and again he turned and looked towards that vast moor which
lay behind.
“Supposing it were true,” he muttered. “Would to God it were, and that he
were safe on board my yacht. All for a woman, and such a woman!”
He clenched his fist and struck the rail.
Picton Woodridge, owner of the Sea-mew, was a man of about thirty, tall,
good looking, genial, popular, but lonely, if a popular man can be described as
lonely, and there are such men. He was rich, a sportsman. His stable at Haverton
contained good horses: a Derby winner in prospect, one of the best stayers in
England, and above all Tearaway, a black filly, three years old, described by her
trainer, Brant Blackett, as “a beauty, a real gem, and fast as the wind.”
He ought to have been a happy man. To all outward appearances he was, but
behind a smiling face there is sometimes a heavy heart. It was not exactly so in
his case, yet there was something of it. There was one black shadow cast over
his gilded path, and the echo of the gun from the man-of-war had deepened it.
“Why the deuce did I come here?” he muttered. “Why did I promise Dick I’d
ride for him at Torquay races?”
He sighed; he knew why he had promised Dick Langford to ride for him; he
would do a good deal more than this for Dick, for the sake of his sister Rita. He
had no other companion on the yacht than Ben Bruce, captain of the Sea-mew,
who stood towards him in the light of his best friend.
Ben Bruce was a character in his way. He had been in the Navy, on the same
ship with Picton’s father, and Admiral Woodridge and the young officer had
esteem and affection for each other. Lieutenant Bruce often came to Haverton in
the Admiral’s time and was always a
welcome guest. He had known Picton from
a boy, and shared the Admiral’s fondness for the somewhat lonely child, whose
mother died at his birth, and whose elder brother was generally away from
home, training for the Army. Bruce remembered the elder boy, Hector, but had
not seen so much of him, or become so attached to him as to Picton. Hector was
of a different disposition, hasty, headstrong, willful, and yet the brothers were
much attached, and when at home together, were seldom apart. There were ten
years between them; consequently Hector regarded himself in the light of a
protector to Picton.
The Admiral loved them and endeavored to treat them equally in his affection,
but it was not difficult to see the younger had the stronger hold over him. Hector
saw it and smiled. He was not at all jealous; he felt if it came to choosing, and
one of them had to be relied upon, his father would select him. And such would
probably have been the case had occasion occurred, but it did not, and
everything went on the even tenor of its way until the fatal day when a terrible
thing happened and Hector became, so Picton was positively certain, the victim
of a woman’s wiles. What this happening was we shall learn. Sufficient to say, it
caused the Admiral to retire. He never got over the shock, and died soon after he
left the Navy. The bulk of his fortune was left to Picton, who was determined,
when the time came, to surrender to Hector his proper share. Captain Ben Bruce
left the service soon after the Admiral he had loved and served. He was, so to
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