The King Who Went on Strike

The King leant against the stone balustrade, which runs round the roof of Buckingham Palace, and looked about him. All around him, above him, and below him, the night was ablaze...

In the anteroom to his own newly decorated suite of rooms, the King found two of his valets still on duty. One of them was Smith, the rubicund, grizzled old sailor, who had been...

It was a wonderful summer night. Here, as the car ran out into the quieter, less crowded, and more humbly illuminated area of the inner suburbs, the night reasserted itself. Ris...

In a bush, close up to the house, a nightingale was in full song. Further away, from one of the trees beyond the shadowy garden lawn, another nightingale replied. It was as if t...

It was to the sound of the patter of bare feet, on the polished floor of his bedroom, followed by suppressed gurgles of joyous laughter, that the King awoke, in the morning. Bri...

The little man had run the King's car, out of the garage, into the drive. Already seated himself in the car, he looked up, as the King approached, with a mischievous twinkle in...

In the outer suburbs, milkmen, postmen, and boys delivering newspapers, were moving from door to door, in the quiet streets of villas. The tramcars, and later the buses, which t...

It was in the palace library, a large and lofty room on the ground floor, with a row of tall windows overlooking the garden, that the King spent his office hours. The library wa...

An unusually tall man, and a big man, with a breadth of chest, and a pair of shoulders, which had made him conspicuous, in every assembly, from his youth up, the Duke still held...

A feeling of light-hearted holiday irresponsibility, such as he had not known for months, for years as it seemed to him, was with the King as he darted out of the library. He ra...

Within the sunny, airy house there was absolute silence, and perfect stillness. The King crossed the broad, square hall, a pleasant retreat, with its gaily coloured chintz cover...

"A climax is always a difficult business to handle," Uncle Bond continued, sitting down at the table and beginning his attack on the cold chicken. "It is easy enough to work up...

It was an urgent, blind necessity that was laid upon him, rather than any action of his own will, which had hurried the King out of Uncle Bond's writing room. None the less, now...

"Lazy, lazy, slug-a-bed, Uncle Alfred," Bill chanted. "'Bed by daytime' was over--ever so long ago. We've been making the hay, the whole afternoon. And you've been asleep all th...

A small, panelled room, on the left of the hall, and on the west side of the house, the dining room was bright with the light of the setting sun, as the King entered. Late as he...

For endless ages, as it seemed to him, watched all the time by a thousand flushed, curious faces, by a thousand eyes, he fled, down interminable corridors, across dark and desol...

At the top of the lane, a little group of Army officers in khaki service dress, who were standing on a strip of grass beside the hedge on the right, sprang smartly to attention,...