Category: Adventure
Terrible, even for the parched, burning steppes of the High Veldt, whose baked and crumbling surface lay gasping in cracks and fissures beneath the blazing fierceness of the African sun. Terrible for the stock, enfeebled and emaciated after months of bare subsistence on such m...
Terrible, even for the parched, burning steppes of the High Veldt, whose baked and crumbling surface lay gasping in cracks and fissures beneath the blazing fierceness of the Afr...
2. CHAPTER TWO.Down, down to the far horizon sinks the westering sun, the malignant fierceness of his blazing countenance abating somewhat, for he is within an hour of his rest. Yet the earth...
3. CHAPTER THREE.The stranger's wants had been attended to by the old Koranna woman already described; which may be taken to mean that he had found time to snatch a hurried meal during one of th...
4. CHAPTER FOUR.A wild, deep, romantic valley, winding between lofty bush-clad hills, their summits broken into many a rugged cliff, which echoes back the muffled roar of a mountain torrent foa...
5. CHAPTER FIVE.They had reached a secluded corner of the garden where the sunshine fell in a network of light through the overshadowing foliage of a group of tall fig-trees, which cast quite a...
6. CHAPTER SIX.His night of watching coming upon the exhaustion and fatigue of his long and arduous journey of the previous day had gradually overpowered him, and towards dawn he had sunk into...
7. CHAPTER SEVEN."Do you know, Fanning, you gave me the very warmest reception hero I ever met with in my life?" said Sellon, one day, when his patient was fairly convalescent and able to talk f...
8. CHAPTER EIGHT.The days went by, and Renshaw steadily gained in health and strength. He was now able to walk about at will, to take short rides in the early morning, and towards sundown, caref...
9. CHAPTER NINE."Not a word," answered his wife, looking up from the last of a batch of letters that had just come in with the weekly post. "Why--you don't think--?" she began, alarmed at the g...
10. CHAPTER TEN.The cool delicious air was wafting in at the open window--the murmur of leaves, and the plash of running water--the half-rasping, half-whistling call of the yellow thrush, and t...
11. CHAPTER ELEVEN."Yes, imprudent," she went on, ignoring the last remark. "Supposing any of those wretched children had been about--and they're just like little savages, always jumping out upon...
12. CHAPTER TWELVE.Three weeks had gone by since the arrival of our two friends at Sunningdale, and yet, although he expected great things--everything-- from the change, Renshaw seemed to find it...
13. CHAPTER THIRTEEN.The town of Port Lamport was picturesquely situated on a wide bend of the Umtirara River. It contained a population of about fifteen hundred--whites, that is--and was the seat o...
14. CHAPTER FOURTEEN.By sundown Renshaw was in the heart of the mountains. And now, as his steed's gait warned him, it was time to off-saddle again. The river lay below, about a hundred yards from t...
15. CHAPTER FIFTEEN."Why, it's Renshaw!" cried Mrs Selwood, who, hearing the sound of hoofs mingling with the barking of the dogs, had come to the door. "We didn't expect you till to-morrow. Well,...
16. CHAPTER SIXTEEN."Now, Marian," whispered Renshaw. "This is going to be a life-and-death business, remember. It's them or ourselves. You are sure you have no womanish qualms in favour of `giving...
17. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.Several days went by before things at Sunningdale settled down into their normal calm. The excitement of the night attack had left its mark upon all concerned; moreover, the pre...
18. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.Thus Violet Avory, in the softest, most plaintive tone, at the same time lifting her eyelashes in just one quick, reproachful glance. The shaft was effective. It brought down th...
19. CHAPTER NINETEEN.Time went by, and weeks slipped into months. Amid congenial surroundings and magnificent air, Renshaw had completely shaken off all lingering remnants of his fever attack. He be...
20. CHAPTER TWENTY.The buggy, running lightly over the hard level ground, looked as dusty and travel-worn as the three horses that drew it, or as its two inmates. The red ball of the sun was alrea...
21. CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.Renshaw, leading the way--and a pack-horse--tucked up his feet over the saddle behind, an example his companion was not slow to follow. An expanse of yellow, turgid water, at le...
22. CHAPTER TWENTY TWO."My name is Amos Greenway," it began. "It was some years ago now--no matter how many--since I first saw what I am going to tell you. That time I'd been up with a hunting and tra...
23. CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.It takes a little time to get used to sleeping out in the open, and on the hard ground. The latter the novice is apt to find hard indeed. There is always that refractory lump or...
24. CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.It was the end of the third day's trek. Making an early start from the snug camping-place where we last saw them they had pushed steadily on until the heat of the day became too...
25. CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.Right up under the cliff--the beetling rock overhead, the slope of the hillside falling away into the basin above described--did our adventurers make their fireless camp. But th...
26. CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.It was conveyed from the nearest Field Cornet's, by a ragged native, bestriding a still more ragged pony, and who was "run" by general contribution on the part of those resident...
27. CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.Renshaw made no reply. He gazed wearily at the great iron-bound hills, whose cliffs were now beginning to reflect the glow of the declining sun--and chipped mechanically at the...
28. CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.It was, as Renshaw had put it, "rough on the horses." But the colonial horse, in contrast to his English brother, is pre-eminently an animal for use, and not for show and the pr...
29. CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.The summit seemed quite flat and level as far as they could judge, for the night had now fully set in. But at the side of it on which they stood the great cock's-comb ridge rose...
30. CHAPTER THIRTY.The two men stood gazing in silence not untinged with awe, upon this wonderful, this beautiful phenomenon. For how many ages--for how many generations of the human race had that...
31. CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.The floor of the crater was nearly level, though somewhat depressed in the centre. Great masses of rock spar protruded here and there from the soil, which latter was gravelly. O...
32. CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.One of those inexplicable problems which now and again crop up to puzzle the student of human nature and to delight the cynic is the readiness wherewith a man, who on the whole...
33. CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.They had several hundred yards of stiff uphill work before they could reach the horses. The savages were still nearly a mile distant, but above, and running on the level. It wou...
34. CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.Renshaw, lying there in the wild rocky defile, felt the poison stealing insidiously through his veins in a kind of slow drowsy stupor. He knew that he was doomed; he realised th...
35. CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.Spoiled and petted ever since she could remember, bowed down to as a very goddess as she grew up in her fascinating girlhood; accustomed to the most unbounded admiration, and un...
36. CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.But that he held the key to it in the shape of Violet's communication, the reserve, not to say coldness, of his reception by the family, would have astonished Sellon not a littl...
37. CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.It was a weird picture. The grey rocks jutting forth into the evening stillness; the spotted, creeping beast, gathering itself together for its deadly spring; the man, weakened,...
38. CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.The homeward-bound mail steamer had hauled out from the Cape Town docks, and lay moored to the jetty. In less than an hour she would cast loose and start upon her voyage to Old...
39. CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.Now three years cover a pretty fair section of time. A good deal can be got into that space. But the hand of Time, with its changes and chances, has passed but lightly over peac...