: The vanishers by Burks Arthur J - Science fiction; Marines Fiction

@FreeBooksThu 08 Jun, 2023

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PART FIRST The Quarry and the Beach

PART SECOND The Girl with the Lizard

PART THIRD Casa Riego

PART FOURTH Blade and Guitar

PART FIFTH The Lot of Man

PART FIRST -- THE QUARRY AND THE BEACH

ROMANCE

To yesterday and to to-day I say my polite "vaya usted con Dios." What are these days to me? But that far-off day of my romance, when from between the blue and white bales in Don Ramon's darkened storeroom, at Kingston, I saw the door open before the figure of an old man with the tired, long, white face, that day I am not likely to forget. I remember the chilly smell of the typical West Indian store, the indescribable smell of damp gloom, of locos, of pimento, of olive oil, of new sugar, of new rum; the glassy double sheen of Ramon's great spectacles, the piercing eyes in the mahogany face, while the tap, tap, tap of a cane on the flags went on behind the inner door; the click of the latch; the stream of light. The door, petulantly thrust inwards, struck against some barrels. I remember the rattling of the bolts on that door, and the tall figure that appeared there, snuffbox in hand. In that land of white clothes, that precise, ancient, Castilian in black was something to remember. The black cane that had made the tap, tap, tap dangled by a silken cord from the hand whose delicate blue-veined, wrinkled wrist ran back into a foam of lawn ruffles. The other hand paused in the act of conveying a pinch of snuff to the nostrils of the hooked nose that had, on the skin stretched tight over the bridge, the polish of old ivory; the elbow pressing the black cocked-hat against the side; the legs, one bent, the other bowing a little back--this was the attitude of Seraphina's father.

Having imperiously thrust the door of the inner room open, he remained immovable, with no intention of entering, and called in a harsh, aged voice: "Se?or Ramon! Se?or Ramon!" and then twice: "Sera-phina--Seraphina!" turning his head back.

Then for the first time I saw Seraphina, looking over her father's shoulder. I remember her face on that day; her eyes were gray--the gray of black, not of blue. For a moment they looked me straight in the face, reflectively, unconcerned, and then travelled to the spectacles of old Ramon.

This glance--remember I was young on that day--had been enough to set me wondering what they were thinking of me; what they could have seen of me.

"But there he is--your Se?or Ramon," she said to her father, as if she were chiding him for a petulance in calling; "your sight is not very good, my poor little father--there he is, your Ramon."

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