The Island Queen
R.M. Ballantyne The Island Queen Table of Contents
The Island Queen...... 1 R.M. Ballantyne...... 1 Chapter One. Dethroned by Fire and Water A Tale of the Southern Hemisphere...... 1 Chapter Two. Wrecked on a Reef...... 6 Chapter Three. Explorations and Discoveries...... 14 Chapter Four. Difficulties met and overcome...... 22 Chapter Five. Stirring Events and Changes...... 30 Chapter Six. Shipwrecked Emigrants and Horrified Conspirators...... 38 Chapter Seven. Treats of Big Island A Great Fight and a Royal Family...... 47 Chapter Eight. The Coronation Crown−Making Deliberations, Ceremonials, and Catastrophes...... 55 Chapter Nine. Shows how they were tormented by an Old Familiar Fiend; How they killed him, and what befell the Queen and Otto while in the Pursuit of Legitimate Pleasure...... 63 Chapter Ten. Describes a Rescue, a Conspiracy, and a Trial...... 70 Chapter Eleven. Shows how the Queen Conducted herself in Trying Circumstances, and was Finally Dethroned...... 79 Chapter Twelve. Last Chapter...... 87
i The Island Queen
R.M. Ballantyne
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• Chapter One. Dethroned by Fire and Water A Tale of the Southern Hemisphere. • Chapter Two. Wrecked on a Reef. • Chapter Three. Explorations and Discoveries. • Chapter Four. Difficulties met and overcome. • Chapter Five. Stirring Events and Changes. • Chapter Six. Shipwrecked Emigrants and Horrified Conspirators. • Chapter Seven. Treats of Big Island A Great Fight and a Royal Family. • Chapter Eight. The Coronation Crown−Making Deliberations, Ceremonials, and Catastrophes. • Chapter Nine. Shows how they were tormented by an Old Familiar Fiend; How they killed him, and what befell the Queen and Otto while in the Pursuit of Legitimate Pleasure. • Chapter Ten. Describes a Rescue, a Conspiracy, and a Trial. • Chapter Eleven. Shows how the Queen Conducted herself in Trying Circumstances, and was Finally Dethroned. • Chapter Twelve. Last Chapter.
Etext from Athelstane.co.uk
Chapter One. Dethroned by Fire and Water A Tale of the Southern Hemisphere.
The Open Boat.
Early one morning, in the year 18 hundred and something, the great Southern Ocean was in one of its calmest moods, insomuch that the cloudlets in the blue vault above were reflected with almost perfect fidelity in the blue hemisphere below, and it was barely possible to discern the dividing−line between water and sky.
The only objects within the circle of the horizon that presented the appearance of solidity were an albatross sailing in the air, and a little boat floating on the sea.
The boat rested on its own reflected image, almost motionless, save when a slight undulation of the water caused the lower edge of its reflection to break off in oily patches; but there was no dip of oars at its sides, no rowers on its thwarts, no guiding hand at the helm.
Evidently the albatross regarded the boat with curiosity not unmixed with suspicion, for it sailed in wide circles round it, with outstretched neck, head turned on one side, and an eye bent inquiringly downward. By slow degrees the circles diminished, until the giant bird floated almost directly over the boat. Then, apparently, it saw more than enough to satisfy its curiosity, for, uttering a hoarse cry, it swooped aside, and, with a flap of its mighty wings, made off towards the horizon, where it finally disappeared.
The flap and the cry seemed, however, to have put life into the little boat, for a human head rose slowly above the gunwale. It was that of a youth, of about twenty years of age, apparently in the last stage of exhaustion. He looked
The Island Queen 1 The Island Queen round slowly, with a dazed expression, like one who only half awakes from sleep. Drawing his hand across his brow, and gazing wistfully on the calm sea, he rose on his knees with difficulty, and rested his arms on a thwart, while he turned his gaze with a look of intense anxiety on the countenance of a young girl who lay in the bottom of the boat close beside him, asleep or dead.