DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Roll-Call Of The Reef" by Arthur Quiller-Couch. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.
Now surpassed in fame as a writer by his daughter's best friend, Daphne du Maurier, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch was the pre-eminent Cornish writer of Victorian and Edwardian times and founder of the school of English Literature at Cambridge University. He is of particular interest since his fiction was very often based on factual events which have now passed from memory. This volume, the second in a series, contains QIs best known ghost story based on the wrecking of the HMS Primrose in 1807. It contains a short foreword setting the scene and an afterword describing the true events as well as annotations explaining Cornish terms, identifying locations and identifying the real historical personalities.
"Well, sure enough, the end was coming fast when my father got down to the point. Six men had been cast up alive, or just breathingÑa seaman and five troopers. The seaman was the only one that had breath to speak; and while they were carrying him into the town, the word went round that the ship's name was the 'Despatch,' transport, homeward-bound from Corunna, with a detachment of the Seventh Hussars, that had been fighting out there with Sir John Moore. The seas had rolled her further over by this time, and given her decks a pretty sharp slope; but a dozen men still held on, seven by the ropes near the ship's waist, a couple near the break of the poop, and three on the quarterdeck. Of these three my father made out one to be the skipper; close by him clung an officer in full regimentalsÑhis name, they heard after, was Captain Dun-canfield; and last came the tall trumpeter; and if you'll believe me, the fellow was making shift there, at the very last, to blow 'God Save the King.' What's more, he got to 'Send us victorious,' before an extra big sea came bursting across and washed them off the deckÑevery man but one of the pair beneath the poopÑand he dropped his hold before the next wave; being stunned, I reckon. The others went out of sight at once, but the trumpeterÑbeing, as I said, a powerful man as well as a tough swimmerÑrose like a duck, rode out a couple of breakers, and came in on the crest of the third. The folks looked to see him broke like an egg at their very feet; but when the smother cleared, there he was, lying face downward on a ledge below them; and one of the men that happened to have a rope round himÑI forgot the fellow's name, if I ever heard itÑjumped down and grabbed him by the ankle as he began to slip back. Before the next big sea, the pair were hauled high enough to be out of harm, and another heave brought them up to grass. Quick work, but master trumpeter wasn't quite dead; nothing worse than a cracked head and three staved ribs. In twenty minutes or so they had him in bed, with the doctor to tend him.
The Third Ghost Story Megapack selects 26 more choice hauntings for your reading pleasure. Included this time are: THE DEAD AND THE COUNTESS, by Gertrude Atherton THE CEDAR CLOSET, by Lafcadio Hearn THE WRAITH OF BARNJUM, by F. Anstey THE JOLLY CORNER, by Henry James THE ROLL-CALL OF THE REEF, by A. T. Quiller-Couch THE BOWMEN, by Arthur Machen OMAN, By Leopold Kompert THE MIDDLE TOE OF THE RIGHT FOOT, by Ambrose Bierce THE TOLL-HOUSE, by W.W. Jacobs THE HAUNTED COVE, by Sir George Douglas THE GHOST OF LORD CLARENCEUX, by Arnold Bennett THE HAUNTED AUTOMATON, by W. C. Morrow THE GHOSTS AT GRANTLEY, by Leonard Kip THE SPECTRE COOK OF BANGLETOP, by John Kendrick Bangs THE SUPERSTITIOUS MAN’S STORY, by Thomas Hardy THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM, by William Hunt THE SPECTRE IN THE CART, by Thomas Nelson Page THE TALE OF THE PORCELAIN-GOD, by Lafcadio Hearn THE BELL IN THE FOG, by Gertrude Atherton THE HAUNTING OF WHITE GATES, by G. M. Robins THE SHADOW ON THE BLIND, by Mrs. Alfred (Louisa) Baldwin NO. 5 BRANCH LINE: THE ENGINEER, by Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards THE SHADOW IN THE CORNER, by Mary Elizabeth Braddon THE SECRET CHAMBER, by Margaret Oliphant THE UPPER BERTH, by F. Marion Crawford MR. GRAY'S STRANGE STORY, by Louisa Murray And don't forget to search this ebook store for "Wildside Megapack" for more entries in this and other series, covering everything from science fiction and fantasy to classic literature and pulp fiction, from mysteries and westerns to children's literature -- and much, much more!
