With Wolseley to Kumasi: A Tale of the First Ashanti War

"In a little while the sun will be down," said Mr Pepson, as he sprawled on the deck of the steam launch that evening. "Then it will be dark in half an hour or less, and we shal...

Dick could not wait to explain, for the situation was one which demanded instant action. When he had recovered from his amazement at the result of the unlucky shot from the fore...

"Yo's no need for to worry, massa," sang out Johnnie, severely, as Dick raised his head from his hands and looked along the deck anxiously. For the fact that it was empty, save...

Dick could have shouted with merriment as the two strangers whom he had rescued after their upset in the surf came up the steep steps of Government House to greet him, and still...

"I don't like the news, Johnnie," said our hero, one day, some weeks later, when he had quite settled down to his duties at the mine. "You say you saw some men encamped five mil...

"Here is the letter, sir, which the Commodore gave me to carry to the Governor," said Dick, as he and Mr Pepson took up the conversation of the previous day. "He offered me a po...

"You have been the round of the men and have told them our plan?" asked Dick, some minutes later, as the chiefs came to his side again. "Is there one who does not understand?"

It was intensely dark in the clearing, as our hero struck into it, but by contrast with the shadows in the depths of the forest it was light, so that he could see a few feet bef...

"'Ello! Awake, me 'earty! Blow me, but you've jest slept the clock right round! What time o' day is it? Nine o'clock, or thereabouts. 'Taint no use a givin' it to yer in bells,...

Dick shivered and fidgeted. He tapped the deck gently with his toe, and then got up and clambered to the roof of the tiny cabin again, for he was ill at ease. It was not the chi...

It was still quite dark, though the partial view which the curling river Prahsu allowed of the east showed that there the sky was already streaked with dull grey clouds, and tha...

Two days passed without event as the steam launch made her way up the river Pra, and each day the stream narrowed. Indeed, the expedition was approaching the bifurcation of the...

"We will look into Elmina on the way over to the Pra," said Dick, as the launch steamed along the coast, keeping just outside the rollers. "I have news of something, and want to...

Bang! Dick's knuckles struck the door of the native hut with a sharp rap, and he repeated the knock immediately. Then he listened eagerly for some sound from the sleeper within....

"Halt!" Dick Stapleton lifted his hand above his head, and crouched low in the jungle, while the sailors who followed him in single file, slashing a path through the dense under...

Moderately tall and broad, with well-tanned skin and pleasant features, Dick Stapleton looked a gentleman and a decent fellow as he lolled on an old box which lay on the beach a...

Kumasi was in an uproar. The long, wide street which cut through the heart of the huge town was alive with Ashanti warriors, and with shrieking women and children. There was con...

"For his life, I should say," chimed in Dick. "Ah, there goes a gun; and see where the bullet splashed. The man who fired must have been hidden in the forest. I don't think the...

Dick Stapleton tossed restlessly on his bamboo bed, till the rickety legs creaked ominously and the mosquito net waved to and fro, threatening to descend upon his head. The heat...

Excitement rose high early that morning as the main body of the British force crossed the bridge over the Prahsu and began their invasion of Ashanti proper, for stern fighting w...