ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
AND
FANNY VAN DE GRIFT STEVENSON
[Picture: The Silver Library]
_NEW IMPRESSION_
* * * * *
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1903
_All rights reserved_
* * * * *
_BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE_
_First Edition_, _April 1885_; _Reprinted May 1885_, _July 1885_.
_Silver Library Edition_, _January 1895_; _Reprinted March 1897_, _July
1899_, _August 1903_.
TO
MESSRS. COLE AND COX,
POLICE OFFICERS
_Gentlemen,—In the volume now in your hands_, _the authors have touched
upon that ugly devil of crime_, _with which it is your glory to have
contended_. _It were a waste of ink to do so in a serious spirit_. _Let
us dedicate our horror to acts of a more mingled strain_, _where crime
preserves some features of nobility_, _and where reason and humanity can
still relish the temptation_. _Horror_, _in this case_, _is due to Mr.
Parnell_: _he sits before posterity silent_, _Mr. Forster’s appeal
echoing down the ages_. _Horror is due to ourselves_, _in that we have
so long coquetted with political crime_; _not seriously weighing_, _not
acutely following it from cause to consequence_; _but with a generous_,
_unfounded heat of sentiment_, _like the schoolboy with the penny tale_,
_applauding what was specious_. _When it touched ourselves_ (_truly in a
vile shape_), _we proved false to the imaginations_; _discovered_, _in a
clap_, _that crime was no less cruel and no less ugly under sounding
names_; _and recoiled from our false deities_.
_But seriousness comes most in place when we are to speak of our
defenders_. _Whoever be in the right in this great and confused war of
politics_; _whatever elements of greed_, _whatever traits of the bully_,
_dishonour both parties in this inhuman contest_;—_your side_, _your
part_, _is at least pure of doubt_. _Yours is the side of the child_,
_of the breeding woman_, _of individual pity and public trust_. _If our
society were the mere kingdom of the devil_ (_as indeed it wears some of
his colours_) _it yet embraces many precious elements and many innocent
persons whom it is a glory to defend_. _Courage and devotion_, _so
common in the ranks of the police_, _so little recognised_, _so meagrely
rewarded_, _have at length found their commemoration in an historical
act_. _History_, _which will represent Mr. Parnell sitting silent under
the appeal of Mr. Forster_, _and Gordon setting forth upon his tragic
enterprise_, _will not forget Mr. Cole carrying the dynamite in his
defenceless hands_, _nor Mr. Cox coming coolly to his aid_.
_ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON_
_FANNY VAN DE GRIFT STEVENSON_
CONTENTS
_THE DYNAMITER_
PAGE
PROLOGUE OF THE CIGAR DIVAN 1
CHALLONER’S ADVENTURE:
THE SQUIRE OF DAMES 13
STORY OF THE DESTROYING ANGEL 27
THE SQUIRE OF DAMES (_continued_) 76
SUMMERSET’S ADVENTURE:
THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION 100
NARRATIVE OF THE SPIRITED OLD LADY 108
THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION (_continued_) 145
ZERO’S TALE OF THE EXPLOSIVE BOMB 195
DESBOROUGH’S ADVENTURE:
THE BROWN BOX 209
STORY OF THE FAIR CUBAN 219
THE BROWN BOX (_continued_) 269
THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION (_continued_) 286
EPILOGUE OF THE CIGAR DIVAN 299