The Amateur Cracksmanby E. W. HornungTO A. C. D. THIS FORM OF FLATTERYTHE AMATEUR CRACKSMANTHE IDES OF MARCHIIt was half-past twelve when I returned to the Albany as a last desperate resort. The scene of my disaster was much as I had left it. The baccarat-counters still strewed the table, with the empty glasses and the loaded ash-trays. A window had been opened to let the smoke out, and was letting in the fog instead. Raffles himself had merely discarded his dining jacket for one of his innumerable blazers. Yet he arched his eyebrows as though I had dragged him from his bed."Forgotten something?" said he, when he saw me on his mat."No," said I, pushing past him without ceremony. And I　

　On July 16, in the aching torpid heat of the South Florida summer, Terry Whelper stood at the Avis counter at Miami International Airport and rented a bright red Chrysler LeBaron convertible. He had originally signed up for a Dodge Colt, a sensible low-mileage pact, but his wife had told him go on, be sporty for once in your life. So Terry Whelper got the red LeBaron plus the extra collision coverage, in anticipation of Miami drivers. Into the convertible he inserted the family-his wife Gerri, his son Jason, his daughter Jennifer-and bravely set out for the turnpike.　The children, who liked to play car games, began counting all the other LeBarons on the highway. By the time the Whelpers go　

　　　　 Red Nails　　 Jewels of Gwahlur　　 Beyond the Black River　　　　RED NAILS　　　　　　For some two years, as captain of the Wastrel, Conan continues a highly successful career as a freebooter. However, the other Zingaran pirates, jealous of the outlander in their midst, at last bring him down off the coast of Shem. Escaping inland and hearing that wars are in the offing along the borders of Stygia, Conan joins the Free panions, a band of condottieri under the mand of one Zarallo. Instead of rich plunder, however, he finds himself engaged in uneventful guard duty in the border post of Sukhmet, on the frontier of the black kingdoms. The wine is sour and the pickings poor, and Conan soon gets tired of　

A FAIR PENITENTA FAIR PENITENTby WILKIE COLLINS1- Page 2-A FAIR PENITENTCharles Pineau Duclos was a French writer of biographies and novels,who lived and worked during the first half of the eighteenth century. Heprospered sufficiently well, as a literary man, to be made secretary to theFrench Academy, and to be allowed to succeed Voltaire in the office ofhistoriographer of France. He has left behind him, in his own country,the reputation of a lively writer of the second class, who addressed the...　

Prayers Written At VailimaPrayers Written AtVailimaRobert Louis Stevenson1- Page 2-Prayers Written At VailimaINTRODUCTIONIn every Samoan household the day is closed with prayer and thesinging of hymns. The omission of this sacred duty would indicate, notonly a lack of religious training in the house chief, but a shamelessdisregard of all that is reputable in Samoan social life. No doubt, to many,...　

King Henry VI, Part 2King Henry VI, Part 2William Shakespeare1- Page 2-King Henry VI, Part 2ACT I.2- Page 3-King Henry VI, Part 2SCENE I. London. The palaceFlourish of trumpets; then hautboys.Enter the KING, DUKEHUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER, SALISBURY, WARWICK, andCARDINAL BEAUFORT, on the one side; the QUEEN, SUFFOLK,YORK, SOMERSET, and BUCKINGHAM, on the otherSUFFOLK. As by your high imperial Majesty I had in charge at my...　

Stories To Tell ChildrenStories To Tell Children1- Page 2-Stories To Tell ChildrenConcerning the fundamental points of method in telling a story, I havelittle to add to the principles which I have already stated as necessary, inmy opinion, in the book of which this is, in a way, the continuation. But inthe two years which have passed since that book was written, I have hadthe happiness of working on stories and the telling of them, amongteachers and students all over this country, and in that experience certain...　

　The red sun balances on the highest ramparts of the mountains, and in its waning light, the foothills appear to be ablaze. A cool breeze blows down out of the sun and fans through the tall dry grass, which streams like waves of golden fire along the slopes toward the rich and shadowed valley.　In the knee-high grass, he stands with his hands in the pockets of his denim jacket, studying the vineyards below. The vines were pruned during the winter. The new growing season has just begun. The colorful wild mustard that flourished between the rows during the colder months has been chopped back and the stubble plowed under. The earth is dark and fertile.　The vineyards encircle a barn, outbuilding　

Castle RackrentCastle RackrentBy Maria Edgeworth1- Page 2-Castle RackrentINTRODUCTIONIThe story of the Edgeworth Family, if it were properly told, should beas long as the ARABIAN NIGHTS themselves; the thousand and onecheerful intelligent members of the circle, the amusing friends andrelations, the charming surroundings, the cheerful hospitable home, all goto make up an almost unique history of a county family of great parts and...　

On the Improvement of the UnderstandingOn the Improvement ofthe Understandingby Baruch SpinozaTranslated by R. H. M. Elwes1- Page 2-On the Improvement of the Understanding[1] (1) After experience had taught me that all the usual surroundingsof social life are vain and futile; seeing that none of the objects of my fearscontained in themselves anything either good or bad, except in so far asthe mind is affected by them, I finally resolved to inquire whether theremight be some real good having power to communicate itself, which...　

　　To even the least sensitive and perceptive beholder the Morning Rose, at this stage of her long and highly chequered career, must have seemed ill-named, for if ever a vessel could fairly have been said to be approaching, if not actually arrived at, the sunset of her days it was this one. Officially designated an Arctic Steam Trawler, the Morning Rose, 560 gross tons, 173 feet in length, 30 in beam and with a draught, unladen but fully provisioned with fuel and water, of 14.3 feet, had, in fact, been launched from the Jarrow slipways as far back as 1926, the year of the General Strike.　The Morning Rose, then, was far gone beyond the superannuation watershed; she was slow, creaking, unstabl　

THE ILIADby Homertranslated by Samuel ButlerBOOK ISing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that broughtcountless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it sendhurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogsand vultures, for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from theday on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, firstfell out with one another.And which of the gods was it that set them on to quarrel? It was theson of Jove and Leto; for he was angry with the king and sent apestilence upon the host to plague the people, because the son of...