| Title | : | Captain Fly-by-Night: A Western Rarity |
|---|---|---|
| Author | : | Johnston McCulley |
| Release | : | 2024-05-28 |
| Kind | : | audiobook |
| Genre | : | Fiction |
| Preview Intro | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Captain Fly-by-Night: A Western Rarity | Johnston McCulley |
| His great body stretched on the dirt floor in a shady corner of the barracks-room of the presidio … a fortified military settlement … his long moustache drooped, his big mouth open, Sergeant Carlos Cassara snored. His face was purple from wine and the heat; for the air was still and stagnant this siesta hour, and empty vessels on the table nearby told of the deep drinking that had been done. Scattered about were a corporal and a dozen soldiers, all sleeping and snoring. Against the wall, half a score of feet from the slumbering sergeant, an Indian neophyte … a new entrant … had dropped his palm-leaf and was glancing around the room from beneath eyelids that seemed about to close. Outside was the red dust, a foot deep on the highway, and the burning sun. The fountain before the mission splashed lazily; down at the beach it seemed that the tide had not its usual energy. Neophytes slept in the shadows cast by the mission walls. Here and there a robed friar went about his business despite the heat and the hour. There was no human being traveling El Camino Real—the king’s highway—as far as a man with good eyes could see. You can hear the whole story. |
