{"product_id":"2940013301320","title":"The Madman And The Pirate","description":"CHAPTER ONE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA beautiful island lying like a gem on the breast of the great Pacific--\u003cbr\u003ea coral reef surrounding, and a calm lagoon within, on the glass-like\u003cbr\u003esurface of which rests a most piratical-looking schooner.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSuch is the scene to which we invite our reader's attention for a little\u003cbr\u003ewhile.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the time of which we write it was an eminently peaceful scene.  So\u003cbr\u003estill was the atmosphere, so unruffled the water, that the island and\u003cbr\u003ethe piratical-looking schooner seemed to float in the centre of a duplex\u003cbr\u003eworld, where every cloudlet in the blue above had its exact counterpart\u003cbr\u003ein the blue below.  No sounds were heard save the dull roar of the\u003cbr\u003ebreaker that fell, at long regular intervals, on the seaward side of the\u003cbr\u003ereef, and no motion was visible except the back-fin of a shark as it cut\u003cbr\u003ea line occasionally on the sea, or the stately sweep of an albatross, as\u003cbr\u003eit passed above the schooner's masts and cast a look of solemn inquiry\u003cbr\u003eupon her deck.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut that schooner was not a pirate.  She was an honest trader--at least\u003cbr\u003eso it was said--though what she traded in we have no more notion than\u003cbr\u003ethe albatross which gazed at her with such inquisitive sagacity.  Her\u003cbr\u003edecks were not particularly clean, her sails by no means snow-white.\u003cbr\u003eShe had, indeed, four goodly-sized carronades, but these were not an\u003cbr\u003eextraordinary part of a peaceful trader's armament in those regions,\u003cbr\u003ewhere man was, and still is, unusually savage.  The familiar Union Jack\u003cbr\u003ehung at her peak, and some of her men were sedate-looking Englishmen,\u003cbr\u003ethough others were Lascars and Malays, of the cut-throat type, of whom\u003cbr\u003eany wickedness might be expected when occasion served.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe crew seemed to have been overcome by the same somnolent influence\u003cbr\u003ethat had subdued Nature, for they all lay about the deck sleeping or\u003cbr\u003edozing in various sprawling attitudes, with the exception of the captain\u003cbr\u003eand the mate.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145623978224,"sku":"2940013301320","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013301320_p0.jpg?v=1763579430","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013301320","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}