I “Now then, you fellows, step out there! Step out like the men you are! Left–right! Left–right! That’s the way! Holy Jupiter! Call those chaps savages! They’re gentlemen, every jack one of ’em. That’s it, my hearties! Salute the old flag! By Jove, Monty, a British squad couldn’t have done it better!” The speaker pushed […]

CHAPTER I THE ESCAPE A great shout of applause went through the crowded hall as the Dragon-Fly Dance came to an end, and the Dragon-Fly, with quivering, iridescent wings, flashed away. It was the third encore. The dance was a marvellous one, a piece of dazzling intricacy, of swift and unexpected subtleties, of almost superhuman […]

CHAPTER I ON TRIAL “I really don’t know why I accepted him. But somehow it was done before I knew. He waltzes so divinely that it intoxicates me, and then I naturally cease to be responsible for my actions.” Doris Fielding leant back luxuriously, her hands clasped behind her head. “I can’t think what he […]

Was the water blue, or was it purple that day? Randal Courteney stretched his lazy length on the shady side of the great natural breakwater that protected Hurley Bay from the Atlantic rollers, and wondered. It was a day in late September, but the warmth of it was as a dream of summer returned. The […]

I HOPE AND THE MAGICIAN They lived in the rotten white bungalow at the end of the valley–Hope and the Magician. It stood in a neglected compound that had once been a paradise, when a certain young officer belonging to the regiment of Sikhs then stationed in Ghantala had taken it and made of it […]

The Deliverer[1] I A PROMISE OF MARRIAGE The band was playing very softly, very dreamily; it might have been a lullaby. The girl who stood on the balcony of the great London house, with the moonlight pouring full upon her, stooped, and nervously, fumblingly, picked up a spray of syringa that had fallen from among […]

I “Ah! She’s off!” A deafening blast came from the great steamship’s siren, and a long sigh went up from the crowd upon the quay. Someone raised a cheer that was quickly drowned in the noise of escaping steam. Very slowly, almost imperceptibly, the vessel began to move. A black gap appeared, and widened between […]

CHAPTER I “Well, it’s all over now, for better, for worse, as they say. And I hope very much as it won’t be for worse.” A loud sniff expressive of grave misgiving succeeded the remark. The speaker–one of a knot of village women–edged herself a little further forward to look up the long strip of […]

“So you don’t want to marry me?” said Earl Wyverton. He said it by no means bitterly. There was even the suggestion of a smile on his clean-shaven face. He looked down at the girl who stood before him, with eyes that were faintly quizzical. She was bending at the moment to cut a tall […]

“We have been requested to announce that the marriage arranged between Viscount Merrivale and Miss Hilary St. Orme will not take place.” Viscount Merrivale was eating his breakfast when he chanced upon this announcement. He was late that morning, and, contrary to custom, was skimming through the paper at the same time. But the paragraph […]

CHAPTER I A high laugh rang with a note of childlike merriment from the far end of the coffee-room as Bernard Merefleet, who was generally considered a bear on account of his retiring disposition, entered and took his seat near the door. It was a decidedly infectious laugh and perhaps for this reason it was […]

CHAPTER I It had been a hot day at the Law Courts, but a faint breeze had sprung up with the later hours, blowing softly over the river. It caught the tassel of the blind by which Field sat and tapped it against the window-frame, at first gently like a child at play, then with […]

“If he comes my way, I’ll shoot him!” said Dot Burton, her blue eyes gleaming in her boyish, tanned face. “I’m not such a bad shot, am I, Jack?” “Not so bad,” said Jack, kindly. “But don’t shoot at sight, or p’r’aps you’ll shoot a policeman–which might be awkward for us both!” “As if I […]

CHAPTER I SILLY SENTIMENT “It’s time I set about making my own living,” said Dot Burton. She spoke resolutely, and her face was resolute also; its young lines were for the moment almost grim. She stood in the doorway of the stable, watching her brother rub down the animal he had just been riding. Behind […]