title: Silversword (John Caine Mysteries)
author:  Charles Knief 
description: PI John Caine's fourth adventure opens promisingly with a wild street shootout at a Triad funeral in San Francisco, but the brakes are stomped when the Vietnam-era Navy SEAL catches a round in his back and the medics take over. Many chapters of rest and rumination follow. All Caine wants to do is get back to his sailboat, berthed in Pearl Harbor, and heal his wounds, but a female cop charges him with murder for the death of an innocent bystander at the melee. The body counts racked up in his previous exploits, plus the new incident, may have given Caine a reservation at the gray bar hotel. Against this fairly realistic handling of legal maneuvering and recovery (including the realization that he experienced life-altering post-traumatic stress disorder after Nam) hovers the shadowy question of who ordered the sniper to open fire. Knief (Diamond Head; Sand Dollars; Emerald Flash) also offers his weakened hero a superbly romantic case back in Hawaii: the discovery of the underwater tomb of the legendary King Kamehameha, filled with treasure from a wrecked Spanish galleon (which proves the islands were visited before Cook) all threatened by a newly erupting volcano. These plot lines never quite mesh but Knief keeps everything moving so that many readers may never notice though fans of the sensitive warrior sub-genre might experience a vague wish for a little less sensitive and a lot more warrior before reaching the last page. </P><P>Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.</P>
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  ![cover](resources/_cover_.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  # A Maid of the Silver Sea
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### John Oxenham
  
  
  This page formatted 2004 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  CHAPTER I. HOW TWO LAY IN A CLEFT
  
  
  CHAPTER II. HOW NANCE CAME TO BE HERSELF
  
  
  CHAPTER III. HOW THE NEW MINE CAPTAIN CAME
  
  
  CHAPTER IV. HOW GARD MADE NEW ACQUAINTANCES
  
  
  CHAPTER V. HOW NANCE SHONE THROUGH HER MODEST
  
  
  VEILING
  
  
  CHAPTER VI. HOW GRANNIE SCHEMED SCHEMES
  
  
  CHAPTER VII. HOW GARD FOUGHT GALES AND TOM
  
  
  CHAPTER VIII. HOW TOM WANTED TO BUT DIDN'T DARE
  
  
  CHAPTER IX. HOW OLD TOM FOUND THE SILVER HEART
  
  
  CHAPTER X. HOW YOUNG TOM FOUND HIS MATCH
  
  
  CHAPTER XI. HOW GARD DREW NEARER TO HIS HEART'S
  
  
  DESIRE
  
  
  CHAPTER XII. HOW NANCE CAME UP THE MAIN SHAFT
  
  
  WITHOUT GOING DOWN IT
  
  
  CHAPTER XIII. HOW GARD REFUSED AN OFFER AND MADE
  
  
  AN ENEMY
  
  
  CHAPTER XIV. HOW THEY WENT THROUGH THE DARKNESS OF
  
  
  THE NARROW WAY
  
  
  CHAPTER XV. HOW TWO FELL OUT
  
  
  CHAPTER XVI. HOW ONE FELL OVER
  
  
  CHAPTER XVII. HOW TOM WENT TO SCHOOL FOR THE 