The Yeoman Adventurer

THE GREAT JACK Our Kate, Joe Braggs, and I all had a hand in the beginning, and as great results grew in the end out of the small events of that December morning, I will set them ...

THE SERGEANT OF DRAGOONS I threw the jack across my shoulder and we started for the Hanyards. Madam offered no explanations, and I made no inquiries. It was obvious to me that the...

MISTRESS MARGARET WAYNFLETE Jane had taken the lady back to the house-place and was hovering around her, with little of the grace of a maid-of-honour to be sure, but with a hearti...

OUR JOURNEY COMMENCES I have already said that the river was the boundary of the Hanyards on the side towards the village. About a hundred yards above the pocket of deep water whe...

THE ANCIENT HIGH HOUSE I had found Mistress Tonks in her little back room, where she manufactured marry-me-quick by day and slept by night. Her cottage contained only one other ro...

MY LORD BROCTON I was as new to a life of action as an hour-old duckling is to water, and this ironical upset of all my plans left me helpless. The very last man whom I wanted to ...

THE RESULTS OF LOSING MY VIRGIL We slipped down the blind alley and came out in the street leading to the East Gate. There was still great plenty of people strolling up and down, ...

THE CONJURER'S CAP I awoke between darkness and daylight. Mistress Waynflete still slept peacefully and there was as yet no need to rouse her. I had slept in my shoes, but now, I ...

MY CAREER AS A HIGHWAYMAN I left the cottage from the rear and struck slantwise across the fields to reach the shelter of the trees and undergrowth that covered the slope down to ...

SULTAN The lie of the land was as follows: To get to the "Ring of Bells," Master Freake would have to ride over the hill to the main road at Weston, thence some six miles north-we...

IN WHICH I SLIP Sultan was a horse for a man, long and regular in his stride, perfect in action, quick to obey, cat-like at need. I might have ridden him from the day on which the...

THE GUEST-ROOM OF THE "RISING SUN" A wisp of cloud, a long trail of shimmering gold, broke loose, swept with the touch of softest silk across my cheek, and half awakened me. I was...

PHARAOH'S KINE "And now to business," said Master Freake. "To pleasure, sir," said the Colonel. "Business is over." He was leisurely filling his pipe, an example which Margaret,...

"WAR HAS ITS RISKS" I slept unsoundly and in snatches. Margaret was in the room beneath me, "dreaming in Italian," thought I, in unhappy imitation of her dainty gibe at her father...

IN THE MOORLANDS I was in bed, there was no doubt about that, and a strange sort of bed too, for it moved lightly and deliciously through the keen, open air like the magic carpet ...

BONNIE PRINCE CHARLIE On our way into the town a thing happened which greatly shook me, being, as I was, nothing in the world but a small farmer who had never seen the wars. At a ...

MY NEW HAT Here was what I had dreamed of. Here was the dearest wish of my heart gratified. I was twenty-three, and I had three-and-twenty's darling equipment--a magnificent horse...

THE DOUBLE SIX The time had not been wasted. I had had a stirring experience and got a hint of dangers and uncertainties ahead. Moreover, and on this I plumed myself most, I had a...

WHAT CAME OF FOPPERY It was eight by the clock next morning before I set about my third commission. To begin with, the bed pulled, and small wonder, since I had not slept in a bed...

THE COUNCIL AT DERBY It was a relief to get into the chock-full streets of the town, where thinking was impossible and good round cursing indispensable. Even with its aid in clear...

MASTER FREAKE KNOWS AT LAST Dinner was a success from the Prince's point of view. The Duke was completely won over to the idea of our going on, and even the Lord Ogilvie at one ti...

A BROTHER OF THE LAMP Two days afterwards, towards six o'clock on a bitter evening, I rode wearily into Leek. I was having a hard apprenticeship in soldiering under a master who h...

DONALD I got my wound in the early forenoon of December the 10th. About eight o'clock on the night of the 17th I sat down in a deserted shepherd's hut to the meal Donald had got r...

MY LORD BROCTON PILES UP HIS ACCOUNT On the tenth day of my captivity, hope glimmered for the first time. When a man has been penned up in a dull room for ten days, with half-a-hu...

I SETTLE MY ACCOUNT WITH MY LORD BROCTON Of how I fared the seas with Jonadab Kilroot, master of the stolid barque, "Merchant of London," I say nothing, or as good as nothing. Mas...

THE WAY OF A MAID WITH A MAN It took me to cure Jack. I administered one dose of medicine and he at once began to fill out and get strong and chesty in a manner almost absurd, whe...