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The Vast Abyss, by George Manville Fenn
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Vast Abyss, by George Manville Fenn This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Vast Abyss The Story of Tom Blount, his Uncles and his Cousin Sam
Author: George Manville Fenn
Illustrator: W.H. Overend
Release Date: September 27, 2009 [EBook #30106]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VAST ABYSS ***
Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
The Vast Abyss
CHAPTER ONE.
"I wish I wasn't such a fool!"
Tom Blount said this to himself as he balanced that self upon a high stool at a desk in his uncle's office in Gray's Inn. There was a big book lying open, one which he had to study, but it did not interest him; and though he tried very hard to keep his attention fixed upon its learned words, invaluable to one who would some day bloom into a family solicitor, that book would keep on forming pictures that were not illustrations of legal practice in the courts of law. For there one moment was the big black pond on Elleston Common, where the water lay so still and deep under the huge elms, and the fat tench and eels every now and then sent up bubbles of air, dislodged as they disturbed the bottom.
At another time it would be the cricket-field in summer, or the football on the common in winter, or the ringi