Kingdom Lost Read Online Free PDF Page A

round.
    â€œLook here, Barclay!”
    â€œI’m too fat to quarrel,” said Barclay. “And if you assault me, the captain’ll put you in irons for mutiny on the high seas. You take my advice and weigh in. You’ll never get another chance like it—field all to yourself—girl as pretty as the front tow of a revue chorus—and a pot of money waiting for you at home. Go away and think it over! And don’t be more of a damned fool than you can help!”
    He watched Austin fling away, chuckled, and took a pull at his drink. A little breeze was springing up as the sun dropped. He too looked at the island and saw it fade.
    He began to think about old Nick Barclay. If he hadn’t been so fat, he could have explored the cavern. He wasn’t quite sure that he wanted to explore it. His feeling about the island never quite got into words. He had thought about it since he was a boy. He had wanted to prove that old Nick was right. Well, that was done. Nobody could say Nick Barclay hadn’t found the island now. That bit was done.
    The island faded. In his own mind he saw the island as he had always seen it; he had a feeling that he liked it better like that. He didn’t really want to explore the cavern.
    â€œAnyhow I’m too fat!” said Barclay with a chuckle.
    On the other side of the deck Valentine stood by the rail and looked out over the water. She neither leaned on the rail nor touched it. She was quite still, but it was not the stillness of rest. She stood poised and looked, not at the island, but north-east along the course that they were taking. The sunset was behind them, the sun just gone. Out of the east the dark came streaming like an impalpable tide; the horizon was already lost; the arch of the sky was a pale fainting turquoise which melted by imperceptible shades into grey.
    Valentine never turned her head. She looked into the dusk and saw it alive with adventure. People—her own people—Aunt Helena—Eustace, who was her own cousin and quite old. And, behind them, the whole world full of people and things which she hadn’t seen.
    As Austin flung across the deck, she came back, half across the world, quivering.
    â€œCome and talk to me! I want to ask about two thousand questions! Are you too busy to talk?”
    The last of the light showed her his angry look. When Edward looked like that, she always went away. But when Austin Muir frowned and towered over her with his hands stuck deep in his pockets, she didn’t want to run away at all; it gave her a feeling of pleasant superiority of which she was not herself fully conscious. She only knew that she wanted to make him talk to her; she wanted it enough to put a hand on his arm and hold his sleeve.
    â€œPlease talk to me, Austin.”
    â€œGo and talk to Barclay if you want company.”
    â€œBut I don’t want to talk to Barclay—I want to talk to you.”
    Austin looked down at the hand on his sleeve, a little brown hand with slim, strong fingers.
    â€œI thought you didn’t like being touched,” he said in an accusing voice.
    â€œI’m not being touched—I’m touching you. That’s quite different. Why are you angry?”
    â€œI’m not angry.”
    â€œEdward said people shouldn’t tell lies unless they were obliged to—and not then unless they could tell them really well. You tell them very badly.”
    He gave a half angry laugh.
    â€œAll right—have it your own way! I’m in a foul temper—I’m not fit to speak to.”
    â€œYou’re in a temper with Barclay. But you needn’t be in a temper with me. What has he done to make you angry?”
    Austin twisted his arm away.
    â€œHe’s a coarse brute.”
    â€œI like him,” said Valentine. “You don’t like him because he teases you. But I think it’s simply lovely to have someone to tease you.”
    â€œI’ll probably knock