Valentine Williams

Name: Island Gold — III. The Message
Author: Valentine Williams

Island Gold — III. The Message (1923)

Summary

“Island Gold — III. The Message”, published in 1923, is a work by Valentine Williams. It explores elements such as Black Pablo, John Bard and German.

Quotes from Island Gold — III. The Message (Valentine Williams)

Valentine Williams, Island Gold — III. The Message (1923)

“ I was laboriously pounding the piano with one finger when I heard Bard's heavy step on the verandah. The next moment he came into the room, a big figure of a man in a tussore silk suit with a Panama hat. Somehow the sight of him made me feel easier in my mind. That sublime sense of superiority, which we British suck in with our mother's milk, is a heartening thing when you find it in your fellow Britisher abroad thousands of miles from home. And John Bard, though, with his small pointed beard and rather pallid face, he looked like a Spaniard, was through and through British. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Valentine Williams, Island Gold — III. The Message (1923)

“ In truth, no writing is harder to read than the German. In his intercourse with the foreigner, the brother Boche, it is true, not infrequently employs the Latin character. But, for communications among themselves, the Germans continue to use their own damnable hieroglyphics. I have often wondered to see how the most unintelligent German will read off with ease a closely written scrawl of German handwriting looking as though a spider, after taking an ink-bath, had jazzed up and down the page. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Valentine Williams, Island Gold — III. The Message (1923)

“ And lest any one should think that I was paying too much heed to a rambling yarn told me at second-hand by a drunken outcast, a yarn, moreover, based on a statement by a Kanaka deck-hand, let me say at once that my whole training in the Intelligence had taught me never to reject any statement, however improbable it sounded, until it had failed to withstand an elaborate series of tests. Indeed, the major fascination of this poorly paid and sometimes dangerous profession of ours is the rare delight of seeing emerge, out of some seemingly impossible tale, a solid basis of fact. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Valentine Williams, Island Gold — III. The Message (1923)

“ If your pal is a friend of Black Pablo, then he's 'no friend o' mine'!”
“Why?”
“Because,” said John Bard slowly, and I noticed that his mocking air had altogether disappeared, “because Black Pablo is the greatest scoundrel on this coast ... and that's going some! During the war, when, after a good deal of pressure, our most illustrious President ultimately kicked out Schwanz, the German Consul, Black Pablo became Germany's unofficial agent. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Valentine Williams, Island Gold — III. The Message (1923)

“ I began to regret that I had not read the message at Adams's hut and cross-examined him on it before I left him. But I realized I should never have been able to decipher the scrawl by the flickering light of the oil-lamp in the shack. I resolved to go down to the negro quarter and see Adams again in the morning.
I suddenly began to feel restless and rather unhappy. I know the symptoms. In me they always presage a burst of activity after a spell of idleness. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Valentine Williams, Island Gold — III. The Message (1923)

“ John Bard smiled indulgently.
“It might be more exciting than amusing,” he said, “if Black Pablo has anything to do with this affair.”
“Do you think there is anything in it?” I asked.
“In the latter stages of the war,” my host replied, “I heard vague rumours about some island off the coast where German commerce raiders used to rendezvous for supplies. But I never heard this island named. It seems to me that the first thing to be done is to see your friend, Adams, again. After all, he's been to the island. He might be able to tell us more about it. Besides...” ”

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Source: Wikisource

Valentine Williams, Island Gold — III. The Message (1923)

“ This was borne out by the remarkable evidence laid before Adams by Dutchy on their visit to Cock Island to prove that some gang of desperadoes from San Salvador had previously been there. The names mentioned by Dutchy were undoubtedly Spanish—Black Pablo and Neque, for instance—but there might have been Germans with them. El Cojo was also Spanish, to judge by the name; but apparently he had put in an appearance later and had not visited the island.
To what did the message refer? What would the solitary German, with the hand of Death at his throat, wish to tell the man whom he was to have met? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Valentine Williams, Island Gold — III. The Message (1923)

“ I demanded.
“If Black Pablo and his friends are after that plan, or whatever it is, Adams is in pretty considerable danger, Okewood.”
“He knows it himself, I believe,” I replied. “I didn't like leaving him to-night, Bard, and that's a fact. He seemed to be frightened about something. There was a man in the lane outside the hut who was singing and...”
“A man singing?” Bard queried sharply.
“Yes, to a guitar,” I answered, surprised by his tone. “He sang very well, too!”
John Bard rose to his feet suddenly. He stepped to the verandah and held up his hand for silence. ”

Valentine Williams

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Quotes from Island Gold — III. The Message (Valentine Williams)

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