Talbot Mundy

“ He was now on the way to Trebizond; she took care that a mate should tell him as much in broken English, and she gathered—observing closely over the bridge rail—that the information delighted him and put him off his guard.
Savagery is akin to love in certain natures. Dick was sitting on a coil of rope, with his head between his hands—sore from a dozen knife-cuts, dizzy with headache. Andry stood beside him, swearing to himself and watching preparations being made for the Princess Olga's comfort. ”

“ It was Andry who drew a cord unwittingly and loosed the dogs of war. Andry dug his bagpipes from a box beneath the bunk and struggled forward. A few stray notes blew back along the deck to where the Princess Olga nestled in a steamer chair. She writhed each time the bagpipe music reached her.
One can be Scots, and have pity on the weaker sex. With his tawny hair blown into jungle by the wet, salt wind, Dick Anthony leaned forward and asked a question. ”

“ One of the Russians took Dick and helped him to the stern. Then the Russian boat was full; there was no room for Andry, and he laid hold of the Russian's gunwale, that they might tow him along.
He yelled with rage when a Russian struck his wrist with an oar end. He reached for an oar to strike back. It was then he discovered that the oars were gone.
But the big man could swim. Dick laughed as he watched him swim for the Jacob's ladder, with the sword between his teeth. ”

“ I should have asked you first. But who would dream of a man like you, a confessed malcontent, poor, proud and at a loose end, refusing the offer of a kingdom! Admit you were unreasonable, Mr. Anthony! ”

“ So he and Andry went to Baku, and something told Dick Anthony that this was the pushing-off place into worlds worth of strong man's while, where age-old chivalry was not yet dead and a man might strike for what seemed good to him. ”

“ Dick stepped across the poop and stared hard at the man who waited, then drew out of sight again.
"Is there no such thing as a lost scent—ever?" he asked. "So that's why they were laughing, eh? Pan-Islam movement, eh? Headquarters, I suppose, in Trebizond. Think they can drag me in here as easily as there! Tell the man I haven't a word to say to him, Andry!"
Andry obeyed.
"If you're going ashore, the bumboat's going now, Mr. Anthony!" the captain called. ”

“ Andry hove the princess off her feet and swung her in beside her maid, and as he dropped her he snatched an oar.
More than a dozen times, ten feet each time, they drove the mob backward, blanched and wilting. They could not hold their gain, and Dick was running blood, although Andry did not know it. Suddenly, just as they had charged, Dick yelled to Andry to jump in and lower the boat. ”

“ Even as he struggled forward, leaning into the wind with dirty scupper-slush aslide between his feet and his arms outspread to grasp things, he looked different from other men—more dignified and less self-conscious. ”

“ The picture was not uninviting.
"Will you lend your sword to the Shah of Persia?"
"No," said Dick, and he stepped back from the wall. He was thinking hard. The man who had argued with him went on speaking. There was a crack in the wall beside where Dick had stood, and the voice that whispered through it was a woman's.
"Are you thinking of going to Persia?" asked Dick, walking straight up to Usbeg Ali Khan.
"To Afghanistan, sahib, through Persia. First across the Caspian, by boat."
"Is the boat ready?"
"All is ready but the weather. No boat can start in this storm." ”

“ Andry turned on a scornful heel without troubling to salute and followed up the deck.
As her violet eyes watched Dick, they lit strangely.
"Eh bien, Monsieur Anthony of Arran!" she nodded after him. Then she climbed to the bridge and talked more than a little with the captain.
•⁠•⁠•⁠•⁠•
England is not the only land that produces gentlemen adventurers. Just such a man was Usbeg Ali Khan, the Afghan. If his features were the least bit Semitic, and his skin light olive, he was none the less strikingly handsome on that account. ”

“ She left her seat and clung to a rail to watch him, knowing well that he would have laughed at her had he known it.
"Give them here, Andry!" he ordered; and the giant gave up his pipes with an expression of obedient resentment.
"There's a lady aft who doesn't like pipe music. I'll put these in the bag with mine."
Dick packed away the bagpipes and avoided the princess all afternoon. He avoided her again at dinner time by going without food, depending on Andry, who did not believe in missing meals, to watch the points for him without further definite instructions. ”