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G. A. Henty – The Complete Collection

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81 Complete Works of G. A. Henty A Chapter of AdventuresA Final ReckoningA Girl of the CommuneA Jacobite ExileA Knight of the White CrossA March on LondonA Roving CommissionA Search For A Secret (Vol 1 of 3),A Search For A Secret (Vol 2 of 3),At Aboukir and AcreAt AgincourtAt the Point of the BayonetBeric the BritonBonnie Prince CharlieBoth Sides the BorderBy Conduct and CourageBy England's AidBy Pike and DykeBy Right of ConquestBy Sheer PluckCaptain Bayley's HeirColonel Thorndyke's SecretCondemned as a NihilistFacing DeathFor Name and FameFor the TempleForest & FrontiersFriends, though dividedHeld Fast For EnglandIn Freedom's CauseIn the Hands of the MalaysIn The Heart Of The RockiesIn the Irish BrigadeIn the Reign of TerrorIn Times of PerilJack ArcherMaori and SettlerNo SurrenderOn the IrrawaddyOne of the 28thOrange and GreenOut on the PampasRujub, the JugglerSaint Bartholomew's EveSaint George for EnglandSturdy and StrongTales of Daring and DangerThe Boy KnightThe Bravest of the BraveThe Cat of BubastesThe Cornet of HorseThe Dash for KhartoumThe Dragon and the RavenThe Golden CanyonThe Lion of Saint MarkThe Lion of the NorthThe Queen's CupThe Tiger of MysoreThe Treasure of the IncasThe Young BuglersThe Young CarthaginianThe Young ColonistsThe Young Franc TireursThrough Russian SnowsThrough the FrayThrough Three CampaignsTrue to the Old FlagUnder Drake's FlagUnder Wellington's CommandWhen London BurnedWinning His SpursWith Buller in NatalWith Clive in IndiaWith Cochrane the DauntlessWith Frederick the GreatWith Kitchener in the SoudanWith Lee in VirginiaWith Moore At CorunnaWith Wolfe in CanadaWon by the SwordWulf the Saxon 

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G. A. Henty – The Complete Collection A Chapter of Adventures A Final Reckoning A Girl of the Commune A Jacobite Exile A Knight of the White Cross A March on London A Roving Commission A Search For A Secret (Vol 1 of 3), A Search For A Secret (Vol 2 of 3), At Aboukir and Acre At Agincourt At the Point of the Bayonet Beric the Briton Bonnie Prince Charlie Both Sides the Border By Conduct and Courage By England's Aid By Pike and Dyke By Right of Conquest By Sheer Pluck Captain Bayley's Heir Colonel Thorndyke's Secret Condemned as a Nihilist Facing Death For Name and Fame For the Temple Forest & Frontiers Friends, though divided Held Fast For England In Freedom's Cause In the Hands of the Malays In The Heart Of The Rockies In the Irish Brigade In the Reign of Terror In Times of Peril Jack Archer Maori and Settler No Surrender On the Irrawaddy One of the 28th Orange and Green Out on the Pampas Rujub, the Juggler Saint Bartholomew's Eve Saint George for England Sturdy and Strong Tales of Daring and Danger The Boy Knight The Bravest of the Brave The Cat of Bubastes The Cornet of Horse The Dash for Khartoum The Dragon and the Raven The Golden Canyon The Lion of Saint Mark The Lion of the North The Queen's Cup The Tiger of Mysore The Treasure of the Incas The Young Buglers The Young Carthaginian The Young Colonists The Young Franc Tireurs Through Russian Snows Through the Fray Through Three Campaigns True to the Old Flag Under Drake's Flag Under Wellington's Command When London Burned Winning His Spurs With Buller in Natal With Clive in India With Cochrane the Dauntless With Frederick the Great With Kitchener in the Soudan With Lee in Virginia With Moore At Corunna With Wolfe in Canada Won by the Sword Wulf the Saxon A Chapter of Adventures, by G. A. Henty A Chapter of Adventures BY G. A. HENTY [Illustration: Emblem] BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED LONDON GLASGOW AND BOMBAY BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE George Alfred Henty was born near Cambridge in 1832, and educated at Westminster School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He volunteered for service in the Crimean War, and after some varied experiences adopted a journalistic career. He served as war correspondent of the Standard during the Austro-Italian campaign of 1866, and was afterwards a correspondent in the Abyssinian War, the Franco-German War, the Ashanti War, &c. His first book for boys was published in 1868, and was followed by a long and very successful series, including The Young Franc-Tireurs (1872), In Times of Peril (1881), Under Drake's Flag (1883), With Clive in India (1884), The Lion of the North (1886), Orange and Green (1888), The Lion of St. Mark (1889), By Pike and Dyke (1890), By Right of Conquest (1891), With Moore at Corunna (1898), With Kitchener in the Soudan (1903), and With the Allies to Pekin (1904). He died in 1902. CONTENTS. CHAP. Page I. A FISHING VILLAGE 5 II. CAUGHT BY THE TIDE 15 III. A RUN FROM HARWICH 27 IV. THE WRECK 37 V. THE RESCUE 46 VI. ALTERED PROSPECTS 57 VII. ON BOARD THE WILD WAVE 69 VIII. ALEXANDRIA 78 IX. THE RIOT IN ALEXANDRIA 89 X. PRISONERS 99 XI. THE BOMBARDMENT 110 XII. FREE 120 XIII. AMONG FRIENDS 131 XIV. A SET OF RASCALS 143 XV. A THREATENING SKY 153 XVI. OLD JOE'S YARN 163 XVII. IN DANGEROUS SEAS 180 XVIII. A CYCLONE 191 XIX. CAST ASHORE 201 A CHAPTER OF ADVENTURES CHAPTER I A FISHING VILLAGE OF the tens of thousands of excursionists who every summer travel down by rail to Southend, there are few indeed who stop at Leigh, or who, once at Southend, take the trouble to walk three miles along the shore to the fishing village. It may be doubted, indeed, whether along the whole stretch of coastline from Plymouth to Yarmouth there is a village that has been so completely overlooked by the world. Other places, without a tithe of its beauty of position, or the attraction afforded by its unrivalled view over the Thames, from Gravesend to Warden Point, ever alive with ships passing up and down, have grown from fishing hamlets to fashionable watering-places; while Leigh remains, or at any rate remained at the time this story opens, ten years ago, as unchanged and unaltered as if, instead of being but an hour's run from London, it lay far north in Scotland. Its hill rises steeply behind it; there is room only for the street between the railway and the wharves, and for a single row of houses between the line and the foot of the hill. To get into Leigh from the country round it is necessary to descend by a steep road that winds down from the church at the top of the hill; to get out again you must go by the same way. The population is composed solely of fishermen, their families, and the shopkeepers who supply their necessities. The men who stand in groups in the street and on the wharf are all clad in blue guernseys or duck smocks and trousers of pilot cloth or canvas. Broad-built sturdy men are they, for in point of physique there are few fishermen round the coast who can compare with those of Leigh. A stranger in the place would think that the male population had nothing to do but to stand in the street and talk, but night is for the most part their time for work; although many of the bawleys go out on the day-tide also, for at Leigh the tide is all-important. For five hours in the day it washes the foot of the wharves, for seven a wide expanse of mud stretches away to Canvey Island in front, and Southend Pier to the east. At the wells--for Leigh still depends for water on its wells--are, during the hours at which water is permitted to be drawn, lines of twenty women and girls with pails, each patiently waiting her turn. There are not many boys about, for boys require more sleep than men, and a considerable portion of their time on shore is spent in bed. It is ten o'clock in the day; the bawleys have returned from the fishing grounds, and scores of them have anchored in the Ray--a deep stretch of water lying between the spit of sand that extends from the end of Canvey Island close up to Southend Pier, and the mud-flats of Leigh. The flats are still uncovered, but the tide is rising fast in the winding channel leading up to the village. In a few minutes there will be water enough for the boats, and already these can be seen leaving the bawleys and making for the mouth of the channel. The wind is fair, and each boat hoists its sail, white or yellow or brown, and with the crew sitting up to windward comes flying along the shallow channel, making, as they always do, a race of it home. The boats are large and roomy, and are, as they need to be, good sea-boats; for they have at times to live in rough water that would swamp lighter craft like cockle-shells. Each boat carries two men and a boy, that being the regular crew of a bawley; although, perhaps, for rough winter work, they may sometimes take an extra hand. In the bow of the first boat that comes tearing along up to the wharf sits a good-looking lad, about fourteen years old. His face is bronzed with the sun and wind, his clothes are as rough and patched as those of the other fisher lads; but although as strong and sinewy as any of his companions of the same age, he is somewhat slighter in his build, more active in his movements, and has a more springy and elastic walk in spite of the heavy boots that he wears. He helps the others to land several baskets of shrimps, and carry them to the railway-station hard by. They are already boiled, for the bawleys carry coppers, into which the shrimps are baled straight from the nets, so that they are in readiness to send off to town as soon as they are landed. When the baskets are all piled on the platform he crosses the line, follows it along for some fifty yards, and then enters a neat cottage facing it. "Back again all safe, Jack?" "All right, mother! It's been a fine night, with just enough wind, and not too much. I ought to have been in half an hour ago, but tide is late this morning." "Lily brought word, just as she was starting for school, that the boats were coming up the creek, so your breakfast is all ready." "And so am I, mother; though I had a piece of bread and cheese when we dropped anchor. I will just wash my hands, and be ready in a jiffey." Mrs. Robson was a native of Leigh. Her father had been a fisherman, who had owned his own bawley; indeed, most of the boats at Leigh are the property of one of the men who work them. Bessy Tripper--not that her real name was Tripper, but Snow; but her father for some unknown reason got the nickname of Tripper, and his sons and daughters were also called by it, and would hardly have answered if addressed as Snow--was one of the prettiest girls in Leigh; so thought William Robson, a young artist, who came down to Leigh to spend the summer there, sketching the picturesque boats as they came in and out, or lay, with their heads pointing all round the compass, on the soft mud. He had taken lodgings at Tripper's house, and when not at work with his brush spent much of his time on board the Enterprise . Bessy Tripper was a conspicuous figure in the foreground of many of his sketches, and occupied as prominent a place in his thoughts. She was as sweet-tempered as she was pretty, and at last Will Robson made up his mind to marry her if she would take him. He was himself an orphan, and had no friends who had any right to object to his marrying according to his fancy, and he could therefore do as he pleased without question or comment. Bessy Tripper was quite ready to take him when he asked her, and they were married at the church at the top of the hill, and went to live at a little cottage near Dulwich. William Robson was no genius; he had the knack of painting pretty marine sketches in water-colours. These sold readily, but at low prices; and although he was always talking of doing a great picture in oils that was to make his fortune, the picture never was painted. He was always too busy at what he called pot-boilers, which had to be sold to dealers for a trifle, in order to enable him to meet the butcher's and baker's bills. He never repented his marriage; Bessy was an admirable housewife, and made a shilling go as far as many women would a half-crown. In the summer they generally went down for a couple of months to Leigh, for her to see her friends, for him to gather a fresh stock of new subjects. He died suddenly from the effects of a chill, and when his affairs were wound up Bessy found herself mistress of the five hundred pounds for which he had insured his life, and the furniture of the cottage. It was natural that she should return to Leigh. She had no friends elsewhere; and she knew that money went much further there than in most other places. Two hundred pounds were spent in purchasing the cottage in which she now lived, and another two hundred in buying a bawley. At Leigh, as at most other fishing places, the men work on shares--the boat takes a share, and each of the men a share--the owner of a boat supplying nets as well as the boat itself. The bawley, therefore, brought Mrs. Robson in a sum equal to that earned by a fisherman, with deductions, however, for damages to nets and spars. In good seasons the receipts sufficed to keep her and her boy and girl comfortably; in bad seasons they had to live very closely, and she was obliged in specially bad times to dip a little into her reserve of a hundred pounds. Upon the other hand, there was occasionally a windfall when the smack rendered assistance to a vessel on the sands, or helped to get up anchors or discharge cargoes. At the time of her husband's death Jack was ten years old and Lily eight. For two years the former attended the school on the hill, and then went as a boy on board a bawley belonging to one of his uncles.

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