A double barrelled detective story
By Mark Twain
()
About this ebook
Mark Twain
Frederick Anderson, Lin Salamo, and Bernard L. Stein are members of the Mark Twain Project of The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley.
Read more from Mark Twain
20 Classic Children Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/550 Great Love Letters You Have To Read (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Classic Children's Stories (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Vintage Christmas: A Collection of Classic Stories and Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMark Twain's Civil War Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Journeys Through Time & Space: 5 Classic Novels of Science Fiction and Fantasy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Short Stories of Mark Twain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Prince and the Pauper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Big Book of Christmas Tales: 250+ Short Stories, Fairytales and Holiday Myths & Legends Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Christmas Library: 250+ Essential Christmas Novels, Poems, Carols, Short Stories...by 100+ Authors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Innocents Abroad Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/520 Eternal Masterpieces Of Children Stories (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Classic American Short Story MEGAPACK ® (Volume 1): 34 of the Greatest Stories Ever Written Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mark Twain on Common Sense: Timeless Advice and Words of Wisdom from America?s Most-Revered Humorist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Greatest Christmas Stories of All Time: Timeless Classics That Celebrate the Season Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings50 Feminist Masterpieces you have to read before you die (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Roughing It Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRoughing It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: New Revised Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to A double barrelled detective story
Related ebooks
A double barelled detective story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Double Barrelled Detective Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSherlock Holmes: A Double Barreled Detective Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Double Barrelled Detective Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Girl from Montana Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHer Sailor: A Love Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Girl from Montana (Romance Classic) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMargaret Ogilvy (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Four Phases of Love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFinding Love in Wild West: 3 Western Romance Novels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMargaret Ogilvy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMargaret Ogilvy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Dog's Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life in the Grey Nunnery at Montreal: An Authentic Narrative of the Horrors, Mysteries, and Cruelties of Convent Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife's Little Ironies: A set of tales with some colloquial sketches entitled A Few Crusted Characters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMay Brooke Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Unabridged): A Romance Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCHASING LOVE IN WILDERNESS (3 Western Romance Novels): The Girl from Montana, The Man of the Desert & A Voice in the Wilderness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gates Ajar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnne Brontë: The Complete Novels (The Greatest Novelists of All Time – Book 18) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnne Brontë: Complete Novels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClara Vaughan, Volume I (of III) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClever Woman of the Family Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMemoirs of Casanova — Volume 12: Return to Paris Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Short Story Hour - Volume 4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife’s Little Ironies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMadeline Payne, the Detective's Daughter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMargaret Ogilvy: "Life is a long lesson in humility" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOriginal Short Stories — Volume 8 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMothers to Men: 'The unexpressed is always of greater value than the expressed'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Classics For You
The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hell House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sun Also Rises: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Scarlet Letter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Titus Groan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Count of Monte-Cristo English and French Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For Whom the Bell Tolls: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ulysses: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tinkers: 10th Anniversary Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Reviews for A double barrelled detective story
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
A double barrelled detective story - Mark Twain
A DOUBLE BARRELLED DETECTIVE STORY
By Mark Twain
PART I
We ought never to do wrong when people are looking.
I
The first scene is in the country, in Virginia; the time, 1880. There has been a wedding, between a handsome young man of slender means and a rich young girl—a case of love at first sight and a precipitate marriage; a marriage bitterly opposed by the girl's widowed father.
Jacob Fuller, the bridegroom, is twenty-six years old, is of an old but unconsidered family which had by compulsion emigrated from Sedgemoor, and for King James's purse's profit, so everybody said—some maliciously the rest merely because they believed it. The bride is nineteen and beautiful. She is intense, high-strung, romantic, immeasurably proud of her Cavalier blood, and passionate in her love for her young husband. For its sake she braved her father's displeasure, endured his reproaches, listened with loyalty unshaken to his warning predictions, and went from his house without his blessing, proud and happy in the proofs she was thus giving of the quality of the affection which had made its home in her heart.
The morning after the marriage there was a sad surprise for her. Her husband put aside her proffered caresses, and said:
Sit down. I have something to say to you. I loved you. That was before I asked your father to give you to me. His refusal is not my grievance—I could have endured that. But the things he said of me to you—that is a different matter. There—you needn't speak; I know quite well what they were; I got them from authentic sources. Among other things he said that my character was written in my face; that I was treacherous, a dissembler, a coward, and a brute without sense of pity or compassion: the 'Sedgemoor trade-mark,' he called it—and 'white-sleeve badge.' Any other man in my place would have gone to his house and shot him down like a dog. I wanted to do it, and was minded to do it, but a better thought came to me: to put him to shame; to break his heart; to kill him by inches. How to do it? Through my treatment of you, his idol! I would marry you; and then—Have patience. You will see.
From that moment onward, for three months, the young wife suffered all the humiliations, all the insults, all the miseries that the diligent and inventive mind of the husband could contrive, save physical injuries only. Her strong pride stood by her, and she kept the secret of her troubles. Now and then the husband said, Why don't you go to your father and tell him?
Then he invented new tortures, applied them, and asked again. She always answered, He shall never know by my mouth,
and taunted him with his origin; said she was the lawful slave of a scion of slaves, and must obey, and would—up to that point, but no further; he could kill her if he liked, but he could not break her; it was not in the Sedgemoor breed to do it. At the end of the three months he said, with a dark significance in his manner, I have tried all things but one
—and waited for her reply. Try that,
she said, and curled her lip in mockery.
That night he rose at midnight and put on his clothes, then said to her,
Get up and dress!
She obeyed—as always, without a word. He led her half a mile from the house, and proceeded to lash her to a tree by the side of the public road; and succeeded, she screaming and struggling. He gagged her then, struck her across the face with his cowhide, and set his bloodhounds on her. They tore the clothes off her, and she was naked. He called the dogs off, and said:
You will be found—by the passing public. They will be dropping along about three hours from now, and will spread the news—do you hear? Good-by. You have seen the last of me.
He went away then. She moaned to herself:
I shall bear a child—to him! God grant it may be a boy!
The farmers released her by-and-by—and spread the news, which was natural. They raised the country with lynching intentions, but the bird had flown. The young wife shut herself up in her father's house; he shut himself up with her, and thenceforth would see no one. His pride was broken, and his heart; so he wasted away, day by day, and even his daughter rejoiced when death relieved him.
Then she sold the estate and disappeared.
II
In 1886 a young woman was living in a modest house near a secluded New England village, with no company but a little boy about five years old. She did her own work, she discouraged acquaintanceships, and had none. The butcher, the baker, and the others that served her could tell the villagers nothing about her further than that her name was Stillman, and that she called the child Archy. Whence she came they had not been able to find out, but they said she talked like a Southerner. The child had no playmates and no comrade, and no teacher but the mother. She taught him diligently and intelligently, and was satisfied with the results—even a little proud of them. One day Archy said,
Mamma, am I different from other children?
Well, I suppose not. Why?
"There was a child going along out there and asked me if the postman had been by and I said yes, and she said how long since I saw him and