Captain in Calico - Hardcover

Fraser, George MacDonald

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802124380 ISBN 13: 9780802124388

Verlag: Grove Pr, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

<div>George MacDonald Fraser was famed for his legendary Flashman series, featuring the incorrigible knave Harry Flashman. In the colorful standalone novel <i>Captain in Calico</i>, which has never been published, Fraser introduces another real-life anti-hero: Captain John Rackham, called &#147;Calico Jack,&#8221; an illustrious eighteenth-century pirate who marauded the Caribbean seas.<br><br>On a tranquil evening in the Bahamas, Calico Jack, long wanted on counts of piracy, makes a surprise appearance at the Governor&#8217;s residence and asks for a pardon. A deal is brokered after Jack reveals the motive for turning himself in: love. When he last set sail from the Bahamas two years ago, Jack left behind a beautiful fianc&#233;e, and he hopes to win her back. But while Jack was off pirating, his beloved has become betrothed to a new man&#151;the governor himself. It doesn&#8217;t take long for this truth to come to light, and after embarking on a new romance with famous Irish pirate Anne Bonney, Jack is quickly transformed back into a thieving captain in calico. <br><br>With his trademark picaresque style, Fraser draws readers into the wild west of the British empire, where black sails prowl the waters and redemption can be found in the most unexpected places.</div>

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

<div><b>George MacDonald Fraser</b> (1925-2008) was the author of the Flashman Papers series. Born in England and educated in Scotland, he served in a Highland regiment in India, Africa, and the Middle East. In addition to his books, he wrote screenplays, including <i>The Three Musketeers</i>, and the James Bond film <i>Octopussy</i>.<br></div>

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Captain in Calico

By George Macdonald Fraser

Grove Atlantic, Inc.

Copyright © 2015 The Estate of George MacDonald Fraser
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-8021-2438-8

Contents

1. The Man from the Sea, 
2. The Stratagem, 
3. Sea Trap, 
4. Major Penner, 
5. Swords behind the Tavern, 
6. Anne Bonney, 
7. The Amorous Invalid, 
8. Captain Harkness Converses, 
9. The Plotters, 
10. The Snare, 
11. The Quarry, 
12. Under the Black, 
13. The Action, 
14. Mosquito Bank, 
15. On the Account, 
16. The King's Colours, 
17. The King's Justice, 
18. Kate Sampson, 
19. The Price of Piracy, 
20. The Passage, 

CHAPTER 1

THE MAN FROM THE SEA

Surveying the distant strand of silver beach washed by the blue Caribbean rollers, Master Tobias Dickey made a mental remark that the view was prodigious fine and life was very good to live. His contentment was born out of a good supper eaten after a hard day's work, and also out of that sense of wellbeing which had possessed him ever since the day on which he had first set foot in this beautiful New Providence of the Bahamas.

He stood at his window in Governor's House, a small, portly man well advanced into middle age, pulling at his pipe of Gibraltar tobacco and comparing its fragrance with that of the bougainvillea with which the garden abounded. Life and the evening were quiet, and Master Dickey never dreamed that he was waiting on the threshold of a high adventure in which he was to be called to play a not unimportant part.

'When I reflect,' he was to write later in his journal, 'on the Peaceful Temper with which I compos'd myself to Rest, suspecting nothing of what was to Befall, I never cease to wonder at the manner in which Providence ever reserv's its most Sudden Strokes for the time when we are least prepar'd, even as the Tempest Breaks when the Tropick Day is most Serene.'

Certainly nothing could have been more placid and contentedly reflective than Master Dickey's mood as he knocked out his pipe, took a last look at the scene on which the sudden Caribbean night would shortly be descending, half closed the broad screen doors and prepared for bed.

It was a far cry, he thought, from a draughty garret in Edinburgh to a Governor's residence, from clerking in an advocate's office to his present post as first secretary, man-of-affairs, and close confidant of the Governor of the Bahamas, Captain Woodes Rogers. Yet it had only been the merest chance that had crossed his path with Woodes Rogers' two years ago when the captain had been renting the Bahama Islands from the Lords Proprietors and obtaining a commission as Governor. Dickey had been a cog in the legal machine which had been engaged on that complex business, but Rogers, the great discoverer and privateer, had noted his diligence and had offered him his present employment. Dickey had accepted with the eagerness of one escaping from slavery, nor, he reflected as he climbed into his comfortable bed and watched the shadows lengthen across his spacious apartment, had he had cause for one moment to regret his step.

Since their landing in New Providence two years ago and the expulsion of those pirates who had used it as a haven there had been much to occupy the new Governor and his assistant. Woodes Rogers saw the Bahamas as an estate of which he was to be steward for twenty-one years, and he set about to make it a model for the Western seas. To a remarkable extent he had succeeded and Master Dickey, at the Governor's right hand in all things, had been made to feel that he too was doing his share towards making history in the Caribbean.

Thus Master Dickey had ample grounds for satisfaction as he lay musing, and as the shadows deepened in the garden outside he began to doze gently.

He came out of his half-sleep with a sudden start, his thoughts racing back to identify the noise that had disturbed him. Something had moved on the verandah. There had been a quick scraping, as though a foot had brushed over the boards. He listened, straining to catch the sound again, and gradually, as he lay in the warm silence, he became aware of an almost imperceptible but regular rustling just beyond the screen doors. Someone was standing there, and Tobias could hear him breathing.

It was almost dark outside, and he could see nothing but the dim oblong of light between the doors. Slowly he reached out a hand towards the table at the side of his bed, in the drawer of which he kept a loaded pistol as a precaution against nocturnal marauders. His hand closed on the knob and at the same moment a board creaked on the verandah, and a vague shape loomed in the narrow space between the doors.

Sweat broke out on Master Dickey's forehead, but the hand which drew open the drawer and descended on the pistol butt was quite steady. Gently he drew the weapon out and rested it across his body, the barrel pointing towards the window.

'Come in wi' your hands up', he ordered, his finger ready on the trigger in case the intruder should make a sudden move.

To his astonishment the screen doors were pushed gently aside and the figure on the verandah stepped into the room. 'If you have a pistol, take care what you're about,' said a deep voice.

'God save us!' exclaimed Master Dickey. He sat bolt upright in bed, the pistol extended in the direction of the stranger. 'Stop you there, my lad. Not a step closer. Guards!' He raised his voice in summons. 'Guards!'

'Why wake the house?' The stranger's voice sounded almost amused to Master Dickey's incredulous ears. 'You've no need for guards. My business is with Governor Rogers.'

'Governor Rogers?' Master Dickey pushed back the bed clothes and stepped out on to the floor, keeping the bed between himself and his mysterious visitor. 'And what the devil d'ye mean by creeping aboot my window, then? Guards!' he shouted again. It seemed that the intruder must be a lunatic.

The heavy tramp of feet and the sound of voices in the passage outside his door heralded the arrival of sentries. Knuckles rapped on the panels.

'Private Nicholas, sir. Is aught the matter?'

'Come in!' called Dickey sharply, and the door opened. 'Light the candle on my side table, sharp, now! There's a mad man in here and I have a pistol pointin' at him.'

'Christ!' exclaimed the startled soldier. Dickey, his eyes still straining against the dark at the dim figure beyond the bed, heard the sentry stumble against the table as he fumbled for the candle.

There was a rasp of flint, and then a yellow spear of flame as the sentry lit the candle. By the candle's faint light the dark shape on which Dickey's pistol was trained came to life as a big man in white shirt and breeches, with a kerchief bound sailor-fashion round his head, who stood calmly surveying the little lawyer and the gaping sentry. In the doorway the light twinkled on the brass buttons of a guard sergeant, and behind him Dickey saw the startled faces of two other soldiers.

The intruder's face, aquiline and brown as a gypsy's, wore an expression of mild amusement. 'You're a game little bantam,' he remarked to Dickey. 'Governor Rogers should sleep easy of nights.'

'Haud your tongue!' snapped Tobias. 'Sergeant, when ye've done gawping d'ye think ye might tak' this thief o' the night under arrest? Bestir yourself, man!'

Hastily the sergeant strode forward and grasped the intruder by the arm. The guards stationed themselves one at each side of the prisoner. With a sigh of relief Master Dickey laid aside his pistol.

'A fine watch ye keep,...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Grove Pr
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0802124380
• ISBN 13: 9780802124388
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 278
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar