'FAREWELL, NIKOLA'
'Farewell, Nikola'
BY
GUY BOOTHBY
AUTHOR OF 'DR. NIKOLA,' 'THE BEAUTIFUL WHITE DEVIL,''PHAROS, THE EGYPTIAN,' ETC.
Illustrated by Harold Piffard
LONDON
WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED
NEW YORK AND MELBOURNE
1901
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
'FAREWELL, NIKOLA'
CHAPTER I
We were in Venice; Venice the silent andmysterious; the one European city of which Inever tire. My wife had not enjoyed goodhealth for some months past, and for this reasonwe had been wintering in Southern Italy. Afterthat we had come slowly north, spending amonth in Florence, and a fortnight in Romeen route, until we found ourselves in Venice,occupying a suite of apartments at Galaghetti'sfamous hotel overlooking the Grand Canal.Our party was a small one; it consisted of mywife, her friend, Gertrude Trevor, and myself,Richard Hatteras, once of the South Sea Islands,but now of the New Forest, Hampshire, England.It may account for our fondness of Venice whenI say that four years previous we had spent thegreater part of our honeymoon there. Whatever[Pg 8]the cause may have been, however, there could beno sort of doubt that the grand old city, withits palaces and churches, its associations stretchingback to long-forgotten centuries, and its silentwaterways, possessed a great fascination for us.We were never tired of exploring it, findingsomething to interest us in even the most out-of-the-waycorners. In Miss Trevor we possesseda charming companion, a vital necessity, as