{"product_id":"2940013745070","title":"Fugitive Anne: A Romance of the Unexplored Bush","description":"IT was between nine and ten in the morning on board the Eastern and\u003cbr\u003eAustralasian passenger boat Leichardt, which was steaming in a\u003cbr\u003esoutherly direction over a calm, tropical sea between the Great\u003cbr\u003eBarrier Reef and the north-eastern shores of Australia. The boat was\u003cbr\u003eexpected to arrive at Cooktown during the night, having last stopped\u003cbr\u003eat the newly-established station on Thursday Island.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis puts time back a little over twenty years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe passengers' cabins on board the Leichardt opened for the most\u003cbr\u003epart off the saloon. Here, several people were assembled, for\u003cbr\u003eexcitement had been aroused by the fact that the door of Mrs Bedo's\u003cbr\u003ecabin was locked, and that she had not been seen since the previous\u003cbr\u003eday.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMrs Bedo was the only first-class lady passenger on the Leichardt.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThree men stood close to her cabin door. These were Captain Cass, the\u003cbr\u003ecaptain of the Leichardt; the ship's doctor, and Mr Elias Bedo, the\u003cbr\u003elady's husband. Just behind these three, leaning on the back of a\u003cbr\u003echair which was fixed to the cabin table, stood another man evidently\u003cbr\u003einterested in the matter, but as evidently, having no official claim\u003cbr\u003eto such interest. This man was a big Dane, tall, muscular, and\u003cbr\u003edetermined-looking, with a short fair beard and moustache, high cheek-\u003cbr\u003ebones, and extremely clear, brilliant, blue eyes. Eric Hansen was his\u003cbr\u003ename, and he was also a first-class passenger. Further, he was a\u003cbr\u003escientist, bound on a mission of exploration in regard to Australian\u003cbr\u003efauna, on which he had been dispatched by a learned society in his own\u003cbr\u003ecountry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the other side of the table, opposite the Dane, and apparently\u003cbr\u003einterested too, in the affair of Mrs Bedo's locked door, stood an\u003cbr\u003eAustralian black boy in European dress--that is, in a steward's dress\u003cbr\u003eof white linen, with a napkin in his hand; for it had happened that\u003cbr\u003eKombo, Mr and Mrs Bedo's aboriginal servant, had, with the permission\u003cbr\u003eof his master and mistress, taken the place of a Chinese boy,\u003cbr\u003etemporarily disabled by a malarial fever. These people were at the\u003cbr\u003eupper end of the saloon, near which was Mrs Bedo's cabin. At the lower\u003cbr\u003eend, the remaining passengers, with the purser and another steward,\u003cbr\u003ehad congregated. The passengers were few; a Javanese shipping agent, a\u003cbr\u003eCatholic priest, a person connected with telegraphs, and two or three\u003cbr\u003ebushmen on their way back from Singapore or Europe, as the case might\u003cbr\u003ebe. These were all waiting, with gaping mouths and open eyes, for the\u003cbr\u003etragedy which they imagined would be disclosed. For it was openly\u003cbr\u003esuspected on board, that Mrs Bedo disliked and feared her husband.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMr Bedo had been knocking violently at the cabin door, but no answer\u003cbr\u003ewas returned. He was a coarse, powerful person, with an ill-featured\u003cbr\u003eface, a sinewy throat, and great, brawny hands. He had started in life\u003cbr\u003eas a bullock--driver and was now a rich man, having struck gold in the\u003cbr\u003eearly days of Charters Towers Diggings--before, indeed, Charters\u003cbr\u003eTowers had become officially established.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Something must have happened,\" said the doctor. \"Hadn't we better--\u003cbr\u003e?\" and he waited, looking at the Captain.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"There's nothing for it but to break open the door,\" said Captain\u003cbr\u003eCass.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Try it, Mr Bedo.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eElias Bedo put his huge shoulders against the wooden panelling, and\u003cbr\u003eas the Captain moved aside, the big Dane stepped forward, and laid his\u003cbr\u003eshoulders--smaller, but even more powerful than Bedo's--also against\u003cbr\u003ethe white door. There was a crash; the door fell inward, and Bedo\u003cbr\u003eentered, the Captain following.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Dane had drawn back again, and the doctor, about to follow,\u003cbr\u003epaused, seeing that Captain Cass pushed back the door, and drew the\u003cbr\u003ecurtain within, across the opening.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEvery word, however, uttered within the cabin could be heard by those\u003cbr\u003eimmediately outside.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA coarse oath broke from Mr Bedo's lips.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"--She's gone.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What do you mean?\" said the Captain, in the sharp tone of alarm\u003cbr\u003ewhich heralds calamity.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47170963308784,"sku":"2940013745070","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013745070_p0.jpg?v=1763589689","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013745070","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}