QUICK ACTION
[Illustration: "'Are you preaching?' asked Athalie, raising her eyes from the Green God."]
QUICK ACTION
_By_
ROBERT W. CHAMBERS
ILLUSTRATED BY
EDMUND FREDERICK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK AND LONDON: MCMXIV
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY
ROBERT W. CHAMBERS
Copyright, 1913, by Harper's Bazaar, Inc. Copyright, 1914, by The Star Co.
Printed in the United States of America
TO PENELOPE SEARS DEBUTANTE
_To rhyme your name With something lovely, fresh and young, And sing the same In measures heretofore unsung, Is far beyond me, I'm afraid; I'll not attempt it, dearest maid._
_No, not in verse, Synthetic, stately, classic, chaste, Shall I rehearse-- Although in perfectly good taste-- A catalogue of every grace That you inherit from your race._
_Gracious and kind, The gods your beauty gave to you, And with a mind These same kind gods endowed you, too; That charming union is, I fear, Somewhat uncommon on this sphere._
_I have no doubt That scores of poets chant your fame; No doubt, about A million suitors press their claim; And fashion, elegance and wit Are at your feet inclined to sit._
_Penelope, The fire-light flickers to and fro: In you I see The winsome child I used to know-- My little Maiden of Romance Still whirling in your Shadow Dance._
_Though woman-grown, To my unreconciled surprise I gladly own The same light lies within your eyes-- The same sweet candour which beguiled Your rhymster when you were a child._
_And so I come, With limping verse to you again, Amid the hum Of that young world wherein you reign-- Only a moment to appear And say: "Your rhymster loves you, dear."_
_R. W. C._
PREFACE
Always animated by a desire to contribute in a small way toward scientific investigation, the author offers this humble volume to a more serious audience than he has so far ventured to address.
For all those who have outgrown the superficial amusement of mere fiction this volume, replete with purpose, is written in hopes that it may stimulate students to original research in certain obscure realms of science, the borderlands of which, hitherto, have been scarcely crossed.
There is perhaps no division of science as important, none so little understood, as the science of Crystal Gazing.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: Quick Action by Robert W. Chambers
- 2: All this the Countess Athalie could see if she chose
- 3: We all turned and looked at Duane
- 4: But Love is the swiftest thing in Life
- 5: Si nous n'avons pas pu le garder nous meme
- 6: How do you like young Willowmere
- 7: Mentally and spiritually still unsatisfied
- 8: So he merely blinked at the distant Chihuahua
- 9: Protested Willowmere languidly
- 10: The Chihuahua dropped her anchors
- 11: Widening as she paddled forward
- 12: Apparently bereft of the power of speech
- 13: What an odd name for a boat the Orange Puppy
- 14: Why you are studying these caterpillars
- 15: Erecting her silk tent with practiced hands
- 16: And how we looked for ichneumon flies together
- 17: For dinner they had broiled mallard
- 18: Inclination rules in the forest
- 19: When will you be able to afford it
- 20: I would go to Ceylon if I could
- 21: You are above marrying for mere sentiment
- 22: Les hommes peuvent le detruire
- 23: The impersonally judicial inspection of an F
- 24: Was dragged most reluctantly from function to function
- 25: That seemed rather odd to the Lady Alene
- 26: And athletic American who went to Europe
- 27: A cold wave seemed to have settled over Verbena Inlet
- 28: Headed straight for the distant silvery inlet
- 29: There was a little dock built of coquina
- 30: A civilian wearing a bowler hat
- 31: Trained the guns on the bowler hatted swimmer
- 32: Your almost austere absorption in truth and realism
- 33: Could it be possible that such candour masked irony
- 34: With very regular features and a fasci a smile
- 35: Had you been that Balkan Princess
- 36: Everywhere it is stranger than fiction
- 37: And that is stranger than any fiction
- 38: They will know him by his bowler hat
- 39: Looked at bowler hat and at the Princess
- 40: The fat gentleman was fast to a tarpon
- 41: He began by foregathering with authors
- 42: After inhaling literary atmosphere
- 43: Several rusty cabbage palmettos waved above the whitish
- 44: Perhaps because the girl by the coquina wall was young
- 45: The starlight was meddling with her eyes again
- 46: You don't mean to be impertinent
- 47: A literary student is fettered
- 48: The starlight glimmered in her eyes
- 49: But it was his boyish enthusiasm
- 50: Literature is something loftier
- 51: Was busily endowing the girl beside him in the starlight
- 52: Scribbling away busily in his note book
- 53: Murmuring Thalomene Thalomene embodiment of Truth
- 54: Athalie looked at me as the sweetmeat melted on her tongue
- 55: Shoulder deep in a tangle of beach grapes
- 56: I took firm hold of the crate
- 57: Seated on either side of the slumbering puppy
- 58: Particularly English setter puppies
- 59: The coquina quarry was as hot as the infernal pit
- 60: Because the coquina quarry happens to belong to me
- 61: Hostile eyes met his The quarry
- 62: Wagging and wriggling with happiness
- 63: And gazed longingly at the puppy
- 64: The coquina in sight alone was very
- 65: The reunion was elaborate and mutually satisfying
- 66: But it's a good place for rattlers
- 67: With undisputed title to the quarry
- 68: He thought we both stood in loco parentis
- 69: Said the little Countess Athalie
- 70: I never displayed any ability at all
- 71: I'm always looking for romance
- 72: That is where the creative mind comes in
- 73: Brownstone stoop came hurrying an exceedingly pretty girl
- 74: Green demolished bun after bun
- 75: Then Is there another stateroom left on the Verbena Special
- 76: And on his way to his stateroom
- 77: Ain't de gemman abohd de Speshul
- 78: Inquired the astonished darkey
- 79: He puffed his cigarette and groaned
- 80: She 'low she gotta git to Ormond
- 81: But he managed to answer calmly that he was going to Ormond
- 82: Leaving Marie Wiltz and George Z
- 83: And you will send that overcoat back
- 84: I thought I'd go to Ormond and hide there for a while
- 85: Married to a man who was wearing an overcoat
- 86: Her hands tightening within his
- 87: You would not be sorry if you knew why I am suffering
- 88: With the warmth of total inexperience with villains
- 89: Presently the baggage master came in
- 90: In a low voice Duane replied to me
- 91: Priceless order books of revolutionary generals
- 92: Duller and duller grew the light
- 93: And this is what he read concerning it Valdez
- 94: The light grew dimmer and dimmer
- 95: And the shabby vestments of monomania
- 96: Volunteered the suave gentleman
- 97: Munsell made a last but hopeless effort
- 98: Aboard the luxurious Verbena Special
- 99: Suh 'scusin she all has right smart o' red ha'r
- 100: Based on calculations from the Valdez map
- 101: I worked it out from the Valdez map
- 102: My lots include the Maltese cross of Valdez
- 103: Strange as 'The Journal of Valdez
- 104: And together they sat down on the edge of the Causeway
- 105: The briers and poison grass festering their flesh
- 106: I didn't know about a coffer dam
- 107: Because what you offered was unworldly
- 108: When they turned to walk toward the tents
- 109: Shook a scorpion out of her slippers
- 110: You'll be careful with that dynamite
- 111: So he attached the wires very carefully
- 112: You wouldn't consider me utterly mad
- 113: Then together they walked slowly out along the Causeway