000 02963cam a22004093u 4500
001 77438
003 UtSlPG
005 20260610134808.0
006 m
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010 _a24008569
040 _aUtSlPG
041 7 _aen
_2iso639-1
050 4 _aPS
100 1 _aFerguson, W. B. M.
_q(William Blair Morton),
_d1882-1967
245 1 4 _aThe Black Company
264 1 _aSalt Lake City, UT :
_bProject Gutenberg,
_c2025
300 _a1 online resource :
_bmultiple file formats
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
500 _aRelease date is 2025-12-10
508 _aTim Miller, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
520 _a"The Black Company" by W. B. M. Ferguson is a mystery novel written in the early 20th century. Told in a witty first person, it follows ex–Princeton star and reluctant heir Peter Lawton—posing as chauffeur Henry Joyce—as he battles alcoholism, slips into a new life serving the imperious Theodore Varney and his perceptive niece Brenda, and stumbles onto a shadowy cabal whose chess-coded signals hint at a larger conspiracy. The opening of the novel traces a chaotic night that begins with a drunken dare and a wild solo drive from Princeton, during which the narrator clashes with a bronze-faced stranger and a young woman in a luxury car, and is then knocked out and robbed by a mysterious man. Awakening at a farmer’s, he seizes a chance to assume the identity of “Henry Joyce,” is hired as Brenda’s uncle’s chauffeur, and promises her he will stay sober. A newspaper report convinces the world that “Peter Lawton” died in a wreck, prompting him to remain “dead” and fight his addiction while working in secrecy. He meets the caustic, chess-obsessed Varney, senses the old man’s hidden vice, crosses paths with the slippery Arnold Frean, and receives a cryptic note that leads to a roadhouse rendezvous with a lifeless-eyed contact, Corby, who toasts “The Black Company” in buttermilk and reveals Frean as a new recruit under watch; returning home, the narrator earns Brenda’s trust and agrees to let Varney win at chess. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
534 _pOriginally published:
_cNew York: Chelsea House, 1924
653 _aDetective and mystery stories
653 _aLove stories
653 _aCriminals -- Fiction
653 _aMillionaires -- Fiction
653 _aUnited States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction
653 _aTemperance -- Fiction
653 _aGangs -- Fiction
653 _aWagers -- Fiction
856 4 _uhttps://archive.org/details/blackcompanyamys00ferg/page/n5/mode/2up
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77438
999 _c118158
_d118158