Wide Courses Part 34

"But why?"

"Why, why?" He sat up. The pa.s.senger could see the thick, dark eyebrows draw together. "Why? Why anything? What would you do?"

"Forget it."

"Forget it. But can you?--everything? No--you betcher you can't. And it's every man to his own cure. Some I know get drunk and fight. And some I know who get drunk and cry. Some worry their friends to death, and some others beat their wives. Every man to his way. I have no wife"--he laughed softly--"and I want to keep my friends. So I run my heart out in races and beat up bully bosons, and fight bulls--when I can."

"But when you can't?"

"When I can't? Why, when I can't, I lay out on the fo'c's'le head and bay up at a two-horned moon."

The pa.s.senger turned and looked down. "Thank your G.o.d, Kieran," he said, "you can laugh when you say that."

The pump-man's smile died away. "Maybe I'm thanking G.o.d," he said softly, "for more than that."

BOOKS BY JAMES B. CONNOLLY

PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

OPEN WATER

A collection of new stories of the same type--breezy, fresh, vigorous--as those in his earlier books.

Some are of Gloucester fishermen, some of the men of the navy, some of the smugglers--in all such is the smack of the salt-laden wind; the rattle and creak of ships' tackle; the dull boom of pounding surf, or the hissing crash of the breakers. But there are the other stories of sport and adventure ash.o.r.e of which Mr. Connolly has shown his complete mastery.

THE CRESTED SEAS

"Tales of daring and reckless deeds which make the blood run quicker and bring an admiration for the hardy Gloucester men who take their lives in their hands on nearly every trip they make. There are Martin Carr and Wesley Marrs and Tommy Clancy, and others of the brave crew that Connolly loves to write about."--_Chicago Post_.

"The author knows how to make them real and how to carry them through moving and thrilling scenes with unconscious heroism and often with equally unconscious dry drollery."--_The Outlook_.

OUT OF GLOUCESTER

With ill.u.s.trations by M.J. BURNS and FRANK BRANGWYN

"Mr. Connolly has a touch of gay humor in his narratives. He knows his sea and his sailors well. He understands how to bring dramatic power and effect into a story."--_Congregationalist_.

"This new volume of six stories of ocean adventure will strengthen Mr.

Connolly's reputation as the best delineator of the actual life of our New England deep-sea fishermen that has yet appeared."--Boston _Journal_.

"His book gives graphic descriptions of life on board of a fisherman, and has the genuine salt-water flavor. Mr. Connolly knows just what he is writing about, from actual experience, as his book very plainly indicates, and as such it is a valuable addition to sea literature."--Gloucester _Times_.

"That all the romance and adventure has not gone out of New England seafaring is easily demonstrated by Mr. Connolly in this volume of roaring good stories about Gloucester fishermen.... They are capitally told and they put you right into the life they tell about."--Providence _News_.

"Mr. Connolly really knows the sea and the men that sail it, and his love for it is apparent on every page."--_Leslie's Weekly_.

"A collection that for all-round excellence and interest will be hard to duplicate."--Chicago _Record-Herald_.

THE DEEP SEA'S TOLL

With ill.u.s.trations by W.J. AYLWARD and H. REUTERDAHL

"Sea stories of the kind you can't help liking. Stirring, heart-moving yarns of the Gloucester fishermen who brave death daily in pursuit of their calling."--Chicago _Record-Herald_.

"No teller of sea tales can put the pa.s.sion of the sea into his stories more forcibly than Mr. Connolly."--Brooklyn _Eagle_.

"The very breath of the ocean blows in these thrilling stories of deep-sea adventure."--Albany _Journal_.

THE SEINERS

With frontispiece by M.J. BURNS

"It carries the sails easily. In Tommy Clancy he has created a veritable Mulvaney of the sea."--_Collier's Weekly_.

"Full of vigor and song and the breath of the sea."--_St. James Gazette_.

"A real tale of the sea which makes one feel the whiff of the wind and taste the salt of the flying spray--such is Mr. J.B. Connolly's new book, 'The Seiners.' ... Certainly there is not a lover of the sea, man or woman, who will fail to be delighted with this breezy, stirring tale."--London _Daily Telegraph_.

AN OLYMPIC VICTOR

With ill.u.s.trations by A. CASTAIGNE

"His story of the straining, gruelling struggle, the heart-breaking efforts of the runners over those twenty-four miles of country roads, is soul-stirring."--Philadelphia _Press_.

"The reality of the atmosphere created makes this story compare favorably even with the great chariot race of 'Ben Hur.'"--_The Westminster_.

"A fascinating story of the Olympic games. The long grind over the historic course is well portrayed and the excitement at the great finish is intense."--_The Independent_.