The American Prisoner Author:Eden Phillpotts Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: feet were naked; her huge hands protruded from tattered sleeves; and the round ulnar condyles at her wrists were as big as pigeon's eggs. Lean, wiry, and as hard... more » as adamant, the miser lived in this fastness with her cattle and her daughter's son. Mystery shrouded her doings in the past. She seldom spoke, and sddom appeared among the moorland haunts of men. Therefore humble folks feared her for a witch, and avoided her by day or night. In reality the passion of her life and the mainspring of every action was greed ; and she exceeded the vulgar miser in this — that intrinsic worth, not alone the rude glitter of money, commanded her worship. Value was the criterion; she rose superior to the chink of gold; she loved a diamond as well as the coins that represented it ; or a piece of land ; or a milch cow. Her education in the house of the Malherbs lifted her to some breadth of mind ; and when the head of the family had passed away, ten years before the beginning of these events, a black cloud hung over this woman's behaviour and turned her old master's children against her. Now the man of all others most involved by this dame's doubtful conduct, stood before her eyes and asked an abrupt question : — " What did you do with the Malherb amphora, Lovey Lee ? " CHAPTER II THE MALHERB AMPHORA UPON the death of Sir Nicholas Malherb, his second son, Maurice, found himself in possession of fifteen thousand pounds and the famous Malherb amphora, an heirloom of the family. By arrangement with his elder brother, Maurice took the amphora instead of its equivalent in cash, and thus the succeeding baronet was richer by twenty thousand pounds, which more fully answered his purposes than the ancient treasure. Concerning this gem a word must be spoken. While slightly inferior to the Po...« less