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The Mucker

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Billy Byrne is a Chicago thug who lives by violence and theft until he's shanghaed aboard a ship bound for crime.

"The Mucker" by Edgar Rice Burroughs is a novel. Billy Byrne is a Chicago thug who lives by violence and theft until he's shanghaed aboard a ship bound for crime.

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Read a passage

BILLY BYRNE was a product of the streets and alleys of Chicago's great West Side. From Halsted to Robey, and from Grand Avenue to Lake Street there was scarce a bartender whom Billy knew not by his first name. And, in proportion to their number which was considerably less, he knew the patrolmen and plain clothes men equally as well, but not so pleasantly.

His kindergarten education had commenced in an alley back of a feed-store. Here a gang of older boys and men were wont to congregate at such times as they had naught else to occupy their time, and as the bridewell was the only place in which they ever held a job for more than a day or two, they had considerable time to devote to congregating.

They were pickpockets and second-story men, made and in the making, and all were muckers, ready to insult the first woman who passed, or pick a quarrel with any stranger who did not appear too burly. By night they plied their real vocations. By day they sat in the alley behind the feedstore and drank beer from a battered tin pail.

The question of labor involved in transporting the pail, empty, to the saloon across the street, and returning it, full, to the alley back of the feed-store was solved by the presence of admiring and envious little boys of the neighborhood who hung, wide-eyed and thrilled, about these heroes of their childish lives.

Contents

  1. 01Part I.
  2. 02Chapter I. Billy Byrne
  3. 03Chapter II. Shanghaied
  4. 04Chapter III. The Conspiracy
  5. 05Chapter IV. Piracy
  6. 06Chapter V. Larry Divine Unmasked
  7. 07Chapter VI. The Mucker at Bay
  8. 08Chapter VII. The Typhoon
  9. 09Chapter VIII. The Wreck of the “Halfmoon”
  10. 10Chapter IX. Oda Yorimoto
  11. 11Chapter X. Barbara Captured by Head-Hunters
  12. 12Chapter XI. The Village of Yoka
  13. 13Chapter XII. The Fight in the Palace
  14. 14Chapter XIII. A Gentleman of France
  15. 15Chapter XIV. The Mucker Sees a New Light
  16. 16Chapter XV. The Rescue
  17. 17Chapter XVI. The Supreme Sacrifice
  18. 18Chapter XVII. Home Again
  19. 19Chapter XVIII. The Gulf Between
  20. 20Part II.
  21. 21Chapter I. The Murder Trial.
  22. 22Chapter II. The Escape
  23. 23Chapter III. “Five Hundred Dollars Reward”
  24. 24Chapter IV. On the Trail.
  25. 25Chapter V. One Turn Deserves Another
  26. 26Chapter VI. “Baby Bandits”
  27. 27Chapter VII. In Pesita's Camp
  28. 28Chapter VIII. Billy's First Command
  29. 29Chapter IX. Barbara in Mexico
  30. 30Chapter X. Billy Cracks a Safe
  31. 31Chapter XI. Barbara Releases a Conspirator
  32. 32Chapter XII. Billy to the Rescue
  33. 33Chapter XIII. Barbara Again
  34. 34Chapter XIV. 'Twixt Love and Duty
  35. 35Chapter XV. An Indian's Treachery
  36. 36Chapter XVI. Eddie Makes Good
  37. 37Chapter XVII. “You Are My Girl!”

About this edition

Author
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Era
Modern (c. 1800–1945)
Reading level
Intermediate: some philosophy helps
Formats
EPUB, PDF
Length
217 pages
This edition
Modern Philosophers