Yes, you read that right Margaret Mitchell indeed!!!!!!
This precious story was uncovered much after Ms. Mitchell’s demise and it is believed that she wrote the story of unrequited love at the age of 16.
The first 60 odd pages contain Ms. Mitchell’s photographs, personal letters to her love, Henry Love Angel etc., I am not writing any of her biography.
Before I start, I am attaching two “warn-ers”.. I am revealing the entire story
Don’t proceed if you want to savor Ms. Mitchell without any preludes
Secondly, I cannot do justice to the book; the language and narration of the story is the enthraller
The story alone is based on a very easy plot.
I still try :)
Lost Laysen
Billy Duncan is a first mate; he is a huge, rough man who is ever ready for a rowdy fight.
He has not a single living soul to call his own and lives life his merry way.
One day Billy’s ship, “Caliban” anchors at a port called Yindano.
Little did Billy know that his life would change irreversibly there!!
…When Courtney Ross, alights the Caliban, Billy wishes he had taken time to shave his week long beard or washed his face in the morning.
So tiny, so pretty, so full of life and Billy is head over heals.
Courtney Ross armed with an extremely vivacious, willful personality was sailing to Laysen, a little volcanic island cluttered mostly by Japanese, Chinese and few other whites.
Courtney intends to run a school for all the oriental children and to teach them that sticking knives into one another is not an answer.
Courtney has a beau in Douglas Steele who is also deeply enamored by her; He follows her to the Caliban and finally sails with her to Laysen.
Billy is no ladies man and seeing a 23 year old boy – smooth and rich does him no good at all.
He knows that Courtney can never be his, for the likes of a hired- help can never be suitable for a lady of Courtney’s station.
God! How selfish he was. He wanted all of her and I – I’d have died for a kiss – or lived a life of hell for a lock of her gold brown hair.
Besides Billy’s agonizing heart their journey is pretty peaceful with an exception of one tiny skirmish.
Juan Mardo!
A notorious half Japanese half Spaniard, Juan Mardo makes a lurid remark at Courtney!!
And Big Billy being Big Billy lets his fists talk and leaves Juan limp on the floor.
…However the devil that Juan is, he marks Courtney!! And the woman he wants he gets ….anyway he can!!
But she looked straight at me with her steady grey eyes and said –“Thank you, Billy Duncan”
*“What were you going to say?” she jerked out.
I started and then smiled. “Only this, little lady –if ever you want anything or need anything---especially help---you’ll know where to getit.”
Billy and Courtney meet each other sporadically at Laysen. And Billy’s love for Courtney continues strong.
One evening Billy gets into yet another wharf fight and is hurt unconscious.
Billy is brought home to Courtney. She worries for his recovery and tends to him.
Billy, being the strapping young buck ..heals! That very night Courtney comes to Billy calling on the favour promised by him earlier.
Juan had misbehaved with her again during the day… and Steele had gone out to hunt the rat with a pistol.
Not wanting any blood on Steele’s hands she asks Billy to find Steele and bring him back home.
Billy understands that Courtney does not want her suitor to be tainted and decides to handle Juan his way.
Just as he leaves, Billy pulls out his beautiful little dagger “Amigo mio” and gives it to her for her safety.
“Amigo mio”, she said, aloud. ”That’s Spanish?”
“Yes, ’Friend O’Mine, ’ and it has been my friend, my friends are your friends. Keep it, little lady.”
Billy finds Steele and extols a promise from him that they would look for Juan together that night and when they find him, Juan would be Billy’s meat.
If not Billy would leave both the pistol and Juan for Steele..!!
They don’t find Juan that night.
Billy leaves both behind for Steele and sets sail the next day morning.
.....Rough seas follow Caliban, there is a volcanic explosion. Billy and crew manage to sail along with great difficulty in the scorching heat and violent waters.
Finally when the seas calm down, Caliban turns around to visit Laysen again.
..... Laysen doesn’t exist!! The sea had swallowed the island on whole.
Never to hear the ring of her boyish laughter or to see the rollicking devil in her eyes? Never again to feel the sweet womanliness of her presence? Never---Never?
That sunset they sight another boat.
Billy finds a strange crew awaiting him there.
Three men are dead on the deck; one of them is Juan, dead by a horrible death of thirst.
In the cabin Steele is sprawled on the floor, knifed many times.
And against the wall Courtney sitting with Steele’s head on her lap.
.... Amigo mio in her heart!!!
I remember that even in that dark hour, a thrill of pride came over me when I realized that it had been her friend when she needed it.
"*“He carried her thru all that hell of lava and hot ashes—he was a man—that boy! They must have boarded this catboat—and in the smoke and inferno, Mardo and Japs got on too. God in heaven, Bill, but there must have been a fight when the storm died. No doubt the boy threw several overboard! There’s his gun.”
Somewhere in the South Pacific lies a little white boat with a queer crew---an arch-fiend and his two imps, a man who was a man---and a woman who placed her honour far---far higher than her life.
