Mr Corbett's Ghost (16 page)

They fetched very little, being of a worthless and puny appearance . . . somewhat sickly and spotted on the nose and cheeks—as if they'd drunk too many healths for the good of their own.

But appearances can be very deceptive. Indeed, their purchaser got quite a bargain in them, and—despite his being a new owner, having purchased his plantation with a cash prize in the preceding year—was ever after looked up to as a remarkably shrewd judge.

He got seven of the hardest years' work out of those three well-born young men that the settlement could ever remember. They became almost proverbial while they were at it, and often were held up as an example of industry and a desire to atone for their sins.

Be that as it may, their ceaseless labours did much to increase their owner's prosperity, so that there might well have been some truth in the rumour that they'd once been acquainted with him in England.

Had that indeed been so and that there had been some arrears of friendship between them, there's no doubt that they paid off their debt in full. If Trojans had worked as they did, in all weathers, then Troy would never have fallen. Certainly, friendship must have been at the root of it all; for there never was a man so blessed in his friends as dear, amiable Nick Kemp . . .

L
EON
G
ARFIELD
was born and educated in Brighton on the south coast of England. His art studies were interrupted by the Second World War, during which he served in the Army Medical Corps. After the war he worked as a hospital laboratory technician until he gave this up to devote himself to writing. He is the author of a number of highly acclaimed novels, some of which have been serialized on television and made into films, includung
Mr Corbett's Ghost
which was filmed in 1987. His books have been widely translated and have won many international and British literary awards including the Guardian Award, the Whitbread Award, and the Carnegie Medal. In 1981 he was nominated for the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award. He was married to the novelist Vivien Alcock and they have a daughter who is a teacher. They lived in North London, where many of his novels are set, until his death in 1996.

The Apprentices

Black Jack

Blewcoat Boy

Bostock and Harris

The Boy and The Monkey

The Confidence Man

The December Rose

Devil-In-The-Fog

The Drummer Boy

The Empty Sleeve

The Ghost Downstairs

The God Beneath The Sea

The Golden Shadow

Guilt and Gingerbread

The House of Cards

John Diamond

Mr Corbett's Ghost

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

The Pleasure Garden

The Prisoners of September

Sabre-Tooth Sandwich

The Saracen Maid

The Sound of Coaches

The Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris

MR CORBETT'S GHOST

AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 17388 4

Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,

an imprint of Random House Children's Publishers UK

A Random House Group Company

This ebook edition published 2013

‘Mr Corbett's Ghost' copyright © Leon Garfield 1968

‘Vaarlem and Tripp' copyright © Leon Garfield 1965

‘The Simpleton' copyright © Leon Garfield 1969

First Published in Great Britain by Longmans, 1969

The right of Leon Garfield to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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