Evelyn Gordon

What did I want?

I wanted a Roc's egg. I wanted a harem loaded with lovely odalisques less than the dust beneath my chariot wheels, the rust that never stained my sowrd. I wanted raw red gold in nuggets the size of your fist and feed that lousy claim jumper to the huskies! I wanted to wake up feeling brisk and go out and break some lances, then pick a likely wench for my droit du seigneur - I wanted to stand up to the Baron and dare him to touch my wench! I wanted to hear the purple water chuckling against the skin of the Nancy Lee in the cool of the morning watch and not another sound, nor any movement save the slow tilting ot the wings of the albatross that had been pacing us the last 1000 miles.
I wanted the hurtling moons of Barsoom. I wanted Storisende and Poictesme, and Holmes shaking me awake to tell me, "the game's afoot!" I wanted to float down the Mississippi on a raft and elude a mob in company with the Duke of Bigewater and the Lost Dauphin...

I had one chance.