The Red One

Name: The Red One
Author: Jack London

by Jack London

Pages: about 101
Category: Literature & Fiction
Language: English
Reading time: 1.9 h at 250 wpm

Start readingThe whole book, as cards or one word at a time. 62 min at 450 wpm in Read mode.

From the opening

THERE are some stories that have to be true—the sort that cannot be fabricated by a ready fiction-reckoner. And by the same token there are some men with stories to tell who cannot be doubted. Such a man was Julian Jones. Although I doubt if the average reader of this will believe the story Julian Jones told me. Nevertheless I believe it. So thoroughly am I convinced of its verity that I am willing, nay, eager, to invest capital in the enterprise and embark personally on the adventure to a far land.
It was in the Australian Building at the Panama Pacific Exposition that I met him. I was standing before an exhibit of facsimiles of the record nuggets which had been discovered in the goldfields of the Antipodes. Knobbed, misshapen and massive, it was as difficult to believe that they were not real gold as it was to believe the accompanying statistics of their weights and values.
“That’s what those kangaroo-hunters call a nugget,” boomed over my shoulder directly at the largest of the specimens.
I turned and looked up into the dim blue eyes of Julian Jones. I looked up, for he stood something like six feet four inches in height. His hair, a wispy, sandy yellow, seemed as dimmed and faded as his eyes. It may have been the sun which had washed out his colouring; at least his face bore the evidence of a prodigious and ardent sun-burn which had long since faded to yellow. As his eyes turned from the exhibit and focussed on mine I noted a queer look in them as of one who vainly tries to recall some fact of supreme importance.
The remote, indwelling expression went out of his eyes as he boomed
“It does seem large,” I admitted. “But there’s no doubt it’s authentic. The Australian Government would scarcely dare—”

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The Red One

From the opening

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