Masterpieces of
Adventure
In Four Volumes
Edited by
Nella Braddy
Garden City New York
Doubleday, Page & Company
1922
COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
AT
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
GRATEFULLY DEDICATED
TO
BLANCHE COLTON WILLIAMS, Ph.D.
EDITOR'S NOTE
In these volumes the word adventure has beenused in its broadest sense to cover not only strangehappenings in strange places but also love and lifeand death—all things that have to do with the greatadventure of living. Questions as to the fitness of astory were settled by examining the qualities of thenarrative as such rather than by reference to atechnical classification of short stories.
It is the inalienable right of the editor of a workof this kind to plead copyright difficulties inextenuation for whatever faults it may possess. We beg thereader to believe that this is why his favorite storywas omitted while one vastly inferior was included.
CONTENTS
I. THE BARON'S QUARRY
Edgerton Castle
II. A MAN AND SOME OTHERS
Stephen Crane
III. THE OUTLAWS
Selma Lagerlöf
IV. PRINCESS BOB AND HER FRIENDS
Bret Harte
V. THE THREE STRANGERS
Thomas Hardy
VI. THE PASSING OF BLACK EAGLE
O. Henry
VII. NIÑO DIABLO
W. H. Hudson
Masterpieces of Adventure
STORIES OF DESERT PLACES
EGERTON CASTLE
*Reprinted by permission of D. Appleton & Co.
"Oh no, I assure you, you are not boringMr. Marshfield," said this personage himself inhis gentle voice—that curious voice thatcould flow on for hours, promulgating profoundand startling theories on every department ofhuman knowledge or conducting paradoxicalarguments without a single inflection or pause ofhesitation. "I am, on the contrary, much interested inyour hunting talk. To paraphrase a well-wornquotation somewhat widely, nihil humanum a mealienum est. Even hunting stories may have theirpoint of biological interest: the philologist sometimespricks his ear to the jargon of the chase; moreover,I am not incapable of appreciating the subject-matteritself. This seems to excite some derision.I admit I am not much of a sportsman to look at,nor, indeed, by instinct, yet I have had someout-of-the-way experiences in that line—generally whenintent on other pursuits. I doubt, for instance, ifeven you, Major Travers, notwithstanding yourwell-known exploits against man and beas