The Duel on the Beach

Book excerpt: "The Duel on the Beach" is a seafaring adventure novel by the famed Anglo-Italian author Rafael Sabatini. Like the author's earlier book 'Captain Blood', it focuses on piracy in the seventeenth century Caribbean. When Major Sands left Barbados after the death of the governor, Sir John Harradine, he had every reason to congratulate himself that the fortune which he had gone overseas to seek was at last within his reach. For homing with him on the fine ship Centaur was the late governor's daughter, sole heiress to the considerable wealth which Sir John had amassed during his term of office. The long voyage before them with its constant association must afford him opportunities of contriving that the lady and her fortune should be contracted to him by the time they reached Plymouth. But when a French naval officer Monsieur de Bernis takes an interest in the young lady, a collision between the two men is inevitable...