Farewell Nikola is the fifth and last novel of the Dr Nikola series. We are reacquainted with Richard "Dick" Hatteras, former South Seas adventurer and Roustabout who clashed with Dr Nicola in “A Bid for Fortune". He is now Sir Richard Hatteras and firmly married. He is taking a long sojourn with his wife and companions in Venice, where quite by chance (or is it ?) he bumps into Dr Nikola, who despite their stormy past, is the height of affability. He is still suave, cosmopolitan, cultivated and just as unscrupulous as he ever was. We discover that Nikola lives alone in Venice in a dilapidated palace with a macabre history. Hatteras is drawn once more into a tangled web spun by Dr Nikola who reveals something of his own past and presents a side of himself that we have never seen. He still regards himself above all laws, and follows his own strange code of conduct. If you thought that words like empathy, compassion, contrition would never have featured in the lexicon of Dr Nicola then be prepared for a surprise.
By : Guy Boothby (1867 - 1905)
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We were in Venice; Venice the silent and mysterious; the one European city of which I never tire. My wife had not enjoyed good health for some months past, and for this reason we had been wintering in Southern Italy. After that we had come slowly north, spending a month in Florence, and a fortnight in Rome en route, until we found ourselves in Venice, occupying a suite of apartments at Galaghetti's famous hotel overlooking the Grand Canal. Our party was a small one; it consisted of my wife, her friend, Gertrude Trevor, and myself, Richard Hatteras, once of the South Sea Islands, but now of the New Forest, Hampshire, England. It may account for our fondness of Venice when I say that four years previous we had spent the greater part of our honeymoon there. Whatever the cause may have been, however, there could be no sort of doubt that the grand old city, with its palaces and churches, its associations stretching back to long-forgotten centuries, and its silent waterways, possessed a great fascination for us. We were never tired of exploring it, finding something to interest us in even the most out-of-the-way corners. In Miss Trevor we possessed a charming companion, a vital necessity, as you will admit, when people travel together. She was an uncommon girl in more ways than one; a girl, so it seems to me, England alone is able to produce. She could not be described as a pretty girl, but then the word "pretty" is one that sometimes comes perilously near carrying contempt with it; one does not speak of Venus de Medici as pretty, nor would one describe the Apollo Belvedere as very nice-looking. That Miss Trevor was exceedingly handsome would, I fancy, be generally admitted. At any rate she would command attention wherever she might go, and that is an advantage which few of us possess. Should a more detailed description of her be necessary, I might add that she was tall and dark, with black hair and large luminous eyes that haunted one, and were suggestive of a southern ancestor. She was the daughter, and indeed the only child, of the well-known Dean of Bedminster, and this was the first time she had visited Italy, or that she had been abroad. The wonders of the Art Country were all new to her, and in consequence our wanderings were one long succession of delight. Every day added some new pleasure to her experiences, while each night saw a life desire gratified...
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