The Black Troopers, and other stories

He had been absent from the huts for nearly half an hour, but we found the three blacks still in a state of the most abject fear. They started with dread even at our approach; a...

As I lay watching their movements, as well as the darkness permitted, I suddenly remembered that there was a canoe, or little punt, a miserable, leaky, flat-bottomed affair, lyi...

At this juncture their lodger appeared, and cut short the conference. He has been partially described. To finish the portrait, the reader must add to his penetrating grey eyes a...

When the troopers passed through the camp, each man gave a sharp look at the miamis, to see that no blacks remained. These were merely sheets of bark, or boughs set up on end, s...

Shady's perplexities were great. How to account to Mrs. Gillies for his long absence, without raising her woman's curiosity, he knew not; and the knives! he thought, 'Yes, I hav...

One evening, about ten days after our ride, I was sitting in the hut with young Harris. I had been engaged in cleaning my own gun, as well as a rifle belonging to the superinten...

In the yard of a third-rate inn, in a large market town of one of the Midland counties, stood a carrier's cart, ready to start for home. In large letters on its side was painted...

'Well, then, put the greys in when the doctor is ready. One of our fellows can take yours back to-morrow--they shan't go away to-night; I'll answer for it they have done enough...

The drays with which I was travelling (it was in the month of March, 1849) had arrived as far as Lake Boga, on the Lower Murray River, within a day's journey of our destination....

Familiar as he was with every crevice of his dearly-loved resort, having closed the door on the inside, Shady without difficulty lowered a large lantern, that hung from the cent...

'Now what dodge has the fellow been up to?' said Walters. 'If he is skulking in this myrtle patch, hoping to double back to the creek, he is mistaken. Unless he has passed my me...

A few words are needful concerning Sir Valary and his daughter. Sir Valary, known to be as proud as any who had ever borne his name, lived a life of extraordinary seclusion and...

'Now, squire,' said Dr. Cruden, laying his hand gently on his knee, 'let us agree, before Mr. De la Mark begins, that there shall be no interruptions, or we shall not finish to-...

'I haven't seen poor Shady for a long time,' said the squire. 'He's a good fellow, but has lived so long alone that strange faces would scare him; and as to horses, I would not...

It is time to introduce the reader to Parker's Dew and its inmates. We cannot do this better than by following Shady Higgs and his companion on their way from the van.

A heart that has tasted life's bitter waters is able to administer suitable solace to an afflicted soul; and hence it was that Grace Lloyd approved herself such an angel of merc...

In these times of macadamized roads and railways, we can scarcely appreciate the difficulties our ancestors had to encounter a century ago in accomplishing a journey. To travel...

The three had up to this point been standing; but Sir Eustace, motioning to Bloodworth to be seated, beckoned Dr. Cruden to stand before them; then, placing a pen in the steward...

'My dear,' said Mr. Brimble, 'our being so late is entirely Mr. Jobson's fault. He has been telling us such astonishing things that all we have heard before from him has vanishe...

A strange-looking craft crossed Bideford Bar and anchored in the Pool about three weeks after this popular outbreak. She looked like a squat Dutchman: her bows were unusually ro...

In the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-four there stood on the old quay at Appledore--a maritime village in the north of Devon--a sombre-looking abode of respectabilit...

It required some effort on the part of Mr. Phillipson to secure the admission of a second visitor on the same day; but, having golden methods at hand when others failed, he was...

The man pointed out a spot on the line of timber, about two miles off, and left us, while we rode off to the place indicated. For some time the superintendent remained in deep t...

Although the 5th of March had been appointed as the day for the execution of James Stauncy, for some reason not explained by the law annals of those times it was deferred to the...

The village of Clovelly, which looks out from the steep cliff's side on Bideford Bay, has surely a character peculiar to itself. Rising abruptly from an antique pier, its lichen...

By order of the authorities, James Stauncy was removed from Exeter to London, and lodged in Newgate. According to the law of those times, it was necessary for him to be tried be...

A storm of angry feeling, of vengeful passion, raged fiercely the next day throughout Appledore, as soon as Jim Ortop's story was noised abroad. Doorways were crowded with men a...

'I married to please myself, and not my father, and he took an effectual way of showing me that he had that view of it, by disinheriting me. It did not happen to be of any conse...

The village of Northam, which lies on the slope of a high tongue of land between Bideford Bay and the Torridge, is neither pretty, nor picturesque, nor romantic, nor anything of...

Swiftly and successfully the little brig retraced her steps, careering like a sea-fowl over the watery mountains that rose in her path, ever and anon plunging into the yawning a...

Calamity and danger are among the many circumstances which help to break down the distinctions of life into reasonable and helpful differences, and serve to bring out the cement...

'Severity,' said Dr. Johnson, 'may be the way to govern men, but it is not the way to mend them,'--a sentiment which the wife of Stauncy mentally endorsed, as she listened to he...

The Sarah Arm was as smart a little brig as ever crossed Bideford Bar. She lay in the Pool that night with her head seaward, dividing the flowing tide as though she were rushing...

'I think Eustace will be a valuable person in that position, doctor,' continued the lady, looking up from her work-frame, on which she was embroidering the arms of De la Mark fo...

By this time the potency of their morning beverage began to betray itself. The merchant, no longer irresolute, put on the air of a determined man, ready to do the utmost bidding...

Within the last few years there was still to be seen in Appledore, as a broken overhanging background to the new quay, the remains of large brick buildings which in the middle o...

he is not concerned in any foul play with those missing men. I strongly suspect him. Robbing a hut now and then for a supply of flour, or killing a sheep, I could wink at, thoug...

'Who's ready for Parker's Dew?' said the squire, entering the drawing-room. 'Now is your time to see it, for I have just heard a grand secret--there is going to be a wedding.'