One Maid's Mischief

"Here, hang it, Bertie, old man!" cried Chumbley, in mock alarm, "don't monopolise all the nice women. It was Helen Perowne the other day. Now you seem dead on little Stuart!"

Captain Hilton saw no reason for detaining his subaltern, only bade him be ready to return to the island at the slightest sign of danger, which Chumbley promised to do; and he w...

"Why the way in which you smothered up all your old resentment against that poor woman. You know you were breathing out fire and slaughter against her when we got away."

"You forgot that you were a prisoner," said the Princess, quietly, but with a triumphant look in her eyes. "There are fifty more brave men beyond those, and they would kill you...

"Fainted dead away, Arthur; fainted dead away, Miss Rosebury; and until I shouted aloud there was my fair pussy peeping out of paradise over the wall to see if a young Adam was...

Grey, in obedience to the Inche Maida's request, and remained with the Resident close by, where they had an excellent view of what was taking place, and as, rather flattered by...

The place was very still once more as Helen sat thinking, with her two attendants idling by the window. She had heard the sound of oars, and there had been men's voices, but not...

"The Firlawns, Mayleyfield, educational establishment for the daughters of officers and gentlemen in the Indian civil service, conducted by the Misses Twettenham," as it said in...

"Why do you shrink from me?" he said, with a laugh. "You were not so timid when I talked with you after dinner, and you invited me with smiles to stay by your side. Did you thin...

The hum of a mosquito was about the only sound to be heard in the Residency house, as, clad in silken pyjamas, Mr Harley lay sleeping easily upon his light bamboo bedstead, diml...

The secret of the peculiarly-scented water was explained: it was a stain, prepared for the purpose, and face, neck, hands, arms were no longer those of Helen Perowne--whose comp...

That question of the possibility of Helen Perowne coming back interfered a good deal with Doctor Bolter's project--one which he had been longing to put in force for months and m...

"Poor Perowne seems nearly heartbroken," said the Resident, as they went down the path; and then bitterly, the words slipping out, incidental upon one or two remarks of Hilton's...

"They'll find out the value of that woman now," said Dr Bolter to himself; "and if I haven't done wisely in marrying her, I'm a Dutchman! Why, it's the very thing! Here am I, He...

Doctor Bolter visited his patient two or three times, waking up with the greatest of regularity every two hours for the purpose, and administering a few drops of a cordial that...

The disposition on the part of Helen Perowne and her companion seemed to be to trust the beasts of the jungle sooner than the Rajah; and after a few moments' pause to listen, th...

Neil Harley's troubles had of late been great. He had gone on striving to be matter-of-fact and business-like, telling himself that he must be calm and cool; but all the same he...

"Ah, Princess," cried Hilton, flushing with pleasure as he saw help and liberty shining as it were in the face of a friend, whose extended hand he took, "this is kind of you ind...

What seemed to be an endless ride by water, during which the captives felt over and over again as if they would be suffocated by the folds of the cloths in which they were envel...

The news received by Mr Harley had no following. Sultan Murad had undoubtedly gathered his people together, but as events proved, it was not to make a descent upon the station.

In a little Eastern settlement, in spite of feelings of caste, the Europeans are so few that rules of society are to a certain extent set aside, so that people mix to a greater...

The Rev Arthur Rosebury passed many miserable hours when the sun was down, for then he began to think of Helen Perowne, and wondered where she was. It was a terrible thought tha...

Slow work--terribly slow work; but at the end of three days--during which at any moment it had seemed as if the light of life would become extinct--Helen Perowne still lived, an...

It cannot be denied that Mrs Bolter's mature little heart had developed, with an intense love and admiration of her lord, a good deal of acidity, such as made her jealous, exact...

The circumstances were so grave, that directly after the return of the Resident's boat with the prisoners and the captured naga, special communication was sent to the seat of th...

Seeing how earnestly the Princess was talking to Grey Stuart, Chumbley looked around for another companion amongst the busy, chatting throng, and found him in the person of Doct...

There was very little to see; and if Grey Stuart had accidentally seen what passed with unbiased eyes, she would merely have noted that, as Dr Bolter encountered Miss Rosebury a...

"Oh no, you could not, Mr Harley," continued the little lady, "because you see I have come to interrupt your _tete-a-tete_. Helen, my dear, will you come back and join us on the...

"Chaff!" said Chumbley; and he went on, slowly, "Won't do, Mrs Doctor; I'm too slow for her. She had me in silken strings for a week like a pet poodle; but I soon got tired and...

When Helen Perowne came to her senses it was some minutes before she could realise what had taken place, and she lay there motionless, staring up at the bamboo and palm-leaf roo...

"Ah, Grey, my child," said little Mrs Bolter, with a loud burst of sobbing, as soon as they were alone, "if ever you marry, don't marry a medical man! I try so hard--Heaven know...

Doctor Bolter nearly let fall the cigar he was smoking, for his jaw suddenly dropped; but by a clever snatch of the hand he caught it, and replaced it in his lips, as he glanced...

Busy hands were now about them, and a knife was used to cut them free; but their limbs were so cramped by the long confinement, and so tightly bound, that they could hardly move.

As Hilton cried for help his voice sounded stifled and dull, while he vainly tried to cast off a great woollen cloth that had been deftly thrown over his head. It took hardly an...

It was night before Helen again woke, and her first thought was of escape; but as she softly rose to a sitting posture, she felt that one of the girls was by her side, and as sh...

Mr Perowne's house was literally besieged the next morning, for the news of the disappearance ran through the little community like wildfire. British and native communities were...

Mr Perowne's home at Sindang was kept up in almost princely style, and he was regarded as the principal inhabitant of the place. Both English and Chinese merchants consulted him...

More long weary days of stifling heat, without a breath of air to relieve the oppression, and more hot suffocating nights, during which, half wild with terror and despair, Helen...

"Now look here, boy," said Chumbley. "I grant the possibility of the Inche Maida having assisted in carrying off Helen, but we do not know that she did. What we do know is--"

The fact of its being the wish of the appointed guardian of the young ladies was sufficient to make the Misses Twettenham readily acquiesce to an invitation being accepted; and...

It was with a feeling that something dreadful had happened that Helen opened her eyes and stared wildly about her. How long she had been insensible she could not tell, but her i...

For a time no one spoke in the doctor's cottage; but old Stuart took a very large and a very loud pinch of snuff, which seemed as if he had been loading his nose with powder, fo...

"Yes; come in Mr Harley," and the tall, stern-looking Resident entered the room with the free at-home-ness of people living out at a station where circumstances force the Europe...

Helen woke with a start just as the boat disappeared round the curve at the end of the reach, and her first movement was towards where her companion had lain down.

"I was a little alarmed," faltered Grey, who seemed agitated. "It sounded so very dreadful, Mr Chumbley," she added, after a pause. "You have always been so kind and gentlemanly...

If little Mrs Bolter had seen her lord--the quiet, suave medical man, who by his genuine admiration had so late in life won her heart--she would have trembled with the idea that...

All Mrs Bolter's dislike to Helen vanished now that there was trouble on the way; and dressing hastily, she ran across the little bamboo landing to knock at her brother's door,...

"Ah, of course. Here am I, toiling from morn to night with hand and brain, to keep you people in decent health, and yet you propose such a piece of insanity as that! Why, sir, y...

Then, turning sharply round, he dashed the curtain aside, swung open the door, and passing through, they heard the heavy bang as the curtain waved to and fro, when Helen's defen...

Sultan Murad, who, from the aspect of affairs in Mr Perowne's drawing-room, seemed to be the last captive to the bow of Helen's lips and the arrows of her eyes, was one of the r...

The days glided rapidly by, and still Hilton and Chumbley remained prisoners. They were well attended to; their diet, though Eastern in character, was admirably prepared: they h...

Gold! What ideas that one word opens out--what magic it contains! But credit must be given to Doctor Bolter for the fact that it was no sordid love of the yellow metal that prom...

In a tropical climate, where the days are too often one long punishment of heat and weariness, people believe in the dim early mornings and in the comparative coolness of the da...

"Gone at last, my dear!" exclaimed Mrs Bolter. "I'm sure that woman will drive me mad." Then, turning to the Resident--"I feel now, Mr Harley, as if I ought to have opposed it m...

"The Inche Maida need have someone to drill and discipline her men," whispered Chumbley to his companion, as, after walking up and down for a few minutes, they saw the two Malay...

Seven o'clock in the morning, and _chee-op--chee-op--chee-op--chirrup-- pee-yew_--a splendid thrush waking the echoes with his loud notes; the blackbirds down in the copse whist...

Singapore on a sunny day, looking bright, attractive, even wonderful to stranger eyes. Ships of all nations in the harbour, with sailors from Europe, from America, from the port...

"Not I!" said Chumbley. "They don't live amongst people who carry daggers and spears. We go unarmed--I mean Europeans--and pay soldiers to do our fighting for us; but you baffle...

"Why, Helen," he said mockingly, and with a gleam of triumph in his eyes, as he half reclined against the bamboo wall, "how beautiful you look!" He made a movement as if to clas...

Helen caught the sound of the oars at the same moment as the doctor, and he heard her draw a spasmodic breath as she started up in her dread and seized his arm, clinging to it c...

"I don't think I can do any good if I stay here," said Doctor Bolter to himself. "I've done everything I could think of, and I am ready to own that it is very terrible; but a mo...

Helen Perowne's horror upon finding herself borne helplessly away was so great that she swooned, remaining insensible for some very considerable time, and when she did recover h...

The fugitives had not been lying in their shady place of concealment many minutes before the loud buzz of voices and shouting ceased. Then came the whishing and brushing noise o...

Murad was startled for the moment, Helen's act was so unexpected. Then a calm look of satisfaction crossed his face, and he smiled as he stood there, gazing down at the swarthy...

At last Mrs Bolter's troubles were, as she said, at an end, for the great steamer had transferred a portion of her passengers to the station gunboat at the mouth of the Darak ri...

Neil Harley's new suspicion, one which he was cautious not to mention as yet, was that, in accordance with the Malay character, this revengeful blow had come from one who owed t...

It was some few moments after she had been seized again, and this time held by two hands stronger than her own, that Helen Perowne realised the fact that it was the Malay girl t...

Five years had passed away before, after a long stay on the China station, Major Hilton found an opportunity, on the regiment being ordered home, to land at Singapore, and take...

Miss Mary Rosebury left her chair at the breakfast-table and hurried out to the rose-covered porch as a heavy step was heard upon the gravel; and directly after a sturdy-looking...

Helen Perowne's great horror in her situation of captive was the coming night. The day had been more bearable, as in the comparative coolness of the shaded room with its open wi...

"Why, now, my dear boys, that the troubles are about over, my principal patient quite safe, and people seem settling down, with no enemies to fear, it seems to me just the time...

Grey Stuart lost her cavalier Chumbley soon after supper, for the Princess pointed to a chair beside her, Hilton being very quiet and distant, and in spite of several reproachfu...

The report of the brass lelah and the stroke of the iron ball as it shivered the branches of the trees or buried itself in the trunk of some palm-tree growing near the bank, but...

In these busy days of rail and steam, supplemented by their quick young brother electricity, time seems to go so fast that before the parties to this story had thoroughly realis...

Mr Perowne's was acknowledged to be by far the best garden at the station; its favourable position--sloping, as it did, down to the river--prevented any approach to aridity, and...

A week passed, during which all had been very quiet at the Rectory, brother and sister meeting each other hour by hour in a kind of saddened calm. The Reverend Arthur was paler...

The Reverend Arthur had removed the butterflies and wild flowers from his hat by the time Dr Bolter reached him, and was walking slowly up and down the study with his hands clas...

The awakening of the Reverend Arthur Rosebury was not very much unlike that of the other prisoners. He, too, seemed to have been carried a long distance blindfolded, both in boa...

The alarm was not of long duration, for it soon became evident that Murad was still under the influence of the powerful narcotic. He did not see either of the other occupants of...

The Rajah uttered some words in his own tongue that sounded like a passionate wail, as he staggered back, as if struck heavily, reeled, clutched at the nearest person to save hi...

The nearness of the date for the long voyage to the East came like a surprise to the occupants of the Rectory and the Misses Twettenham's establishment. Dr Bolter had come down...

A rapid and pleasant voyage, with a touch here and there at the various ports, giving the two girls, just fresh from their life of seclusion, a glance at the strange mixture of...

The meeting was soon after strengthened by the arrival of Mrs Bolter and the principal ladies of the little community, when before long it became evident that Helen Perowne's be...

Days of anxiety and watching, with no news of the expedition which had started directly after Grey Stuart's father had crossed over to the island. The English community at Sinda...

"Dr Bolter, ma'am," said the elderly manservant, seeking Miss Twettenham the next afternoon, as she was sunning herself in a favourite corner of the garden, where a large heavil...

Perowne's at the bottom of this, and wanting to get rid of you, has had you carried away. Me too, for fear I should make the running in your absence."

The beds were searched for strawberries that were not ready; the wall trees were looked at reproachfully for not bearing ripe fruit months before their time; and the roses, that...

The next day, when the visitors had been driven back by the Reverend Arthur, his sister met him upon the step, and taking his arm, led him down the garden to the vine-house.

It was very beautiful in the gardens, and in spite of the number of people present, the place was so large that Hilton had no difficulty in finding a shady path in whose gloom h...

"Good Heavens!" he ejaculated, "they assassinated poor Rodrick, and here is that girl only home for a few weeks, and a shock like this to come upon me! Surely I've troubles enou...