ON THE LIGHTSHIP
On the Lightship
BY Herman Knickerbocker Vielé
Author of "The Inn of the Silver Moon," "Myra of
the Pines," "The Last of the Knickerbockers,"
"Heartbreak Hill," etc.
Introduction by
THOMAS A. JANVIER
DUFFIELD & COMPANY
1909
Copyright, 1909, by
DUFFIELD & COMPANY
——
Published September, 1909
THE PREMIER PRESS
NEW YORK
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| Introduction | 9 |
| The Story of Ignatius, the Almoner | 19 |
| The Dead Man's Chest | 41 |
| The Carhart Mystery | 83 |
| The Monstrosity | 107 |
| The Priestess of Amen Ra | 135 |
| The Girl from Mercury | 167 |
| The Unexpected Letter | 213 |
| The Money Meter | 233 |
| The Guest of Honor | 263 |
| The Man without a Pension | 287 |
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
"On Board the Light-Ship" is the title—retained in loving deference tohis intention—that would have been given to this collection of storiesby their author. Had Vielé lived but a little while longer, he wouldhave justified it by placing them in a setting characteristicallyfantastic and characteristically original.
He had planned to frame them in an encircling story describing, and dulyaccounting for, the chance assemblage aboard a vessel of that unusualtype of a heterogeneous company; and—having in his own fanciful wayconvincingly disposed of conditions not precisely in line with thestrictest probability—so to dovetail the several stories into theirencirclement that the telling of them, in turn, would have come[Pg 10] easilyand naturally from those upcasts of the sea.
It was a project wholly after his own heart. I can imagine the pleasurethat he would have found