The Spitfire
Summary
A sun-bleached American, still carrying desert dust from the Nile in his cuffs, steps into a fog-choked London where gaslight drips like molten gold and the Savoy’s carpets swallow footsteps whole; within minutes, a velvet-lined valise—its clasps heavy with pharaonic fire—vanishes, spirited away by fingers as nimble as card-sharps. The scent of Turkish tobacco still clings to the scene when our hero, Bruce Morson, sprints through cobblestone arteries, past pearly doormen frozen in mid-bow, until the Channel’s briny breath slaps him awake at Calais. There, the yacht Spitfire—white hull striped with vermilion, brass railings catching the last coal-pink dusk—trembles at the pier like a thoroughbred denied the whip. Forged papers, a forged smile, and a forged destiny: the thieves glide aboard, silk gloves over iron knuckles, convincing the crew that the absent owner Marcus Girard has willed his floating palace into their custody. Morson, shut out by velvet rope and etiquette, slips into the bilge as stowaway, re-emerging just in time to lock eyes with Valda Girard—her father’s daughter in name only, hair the color of a struck match, temperament to match. She believes the interloper a customs bloodhound, collar turned up against smugglers; he believes her a complicit siren until midnight confessions unravel the lie. The Atlantic becomes a claret-dark stage: a jewel casket hidden in a crate of blood oranges, a typhoon that snaps masts like breadsticks, mutinous laughter echoing below decks while the compass spins its drunken waltz. Accusations ricochet: Morson is thief, then martyr, then fugitive; Valda is jailer, then witness, then hostage. Finally, oil lamps shatter, flames lick teak like a jealous lover, and the yacht hemorrhages sparks into black water. Morson, soot-streaked, carries Valda across a collapsing gangway, the jewels now molten memory, the truth forged not in metal but in salt and scar tissue.
Synopsis
Bruce Morson, a young American, returning from travels in Egypt, is robbed of some valuable jewels in a London hotel, and chases the thieves to the yacht, "Spitfire," at Calais, which the crooks have boarded and taken command of under forged orders from its owner, Marcus Girard, who is in London. The yacht is just about to sail out of port, but by a ruse, Morson manages to get aboard, and promptly falls in love with Girard's pretty daughter Valda, who is also a "spitfire." The crooks tell Valda her father is a smuggler, show her the jewels they have stolen, and convince her they are guarding them for her father, and that Morson is a custom officer, spying upon her in order to trap Girard. Valda indignantly turns upon the helpless Morson, orders him into seaman's costume, and compels him to work his passage to New York, On the homeward voyage, Morson undergoes many ordeals, both humorous and dramatic, and is even finally accused of the theft of his own property, before the final denouement, which shows the burning of the yacht and the heroic rescue of Valda by Morson, who is at last able to right himself, baffle the thieves, and win the woman he loves.
