Rodney Stone

Коллекция текстов · adventure

Preface
Amongst the books to which I am indebted for my material in my endeavour to draw various phases of life and character in England at the beg…
Chapter I. Friar’s Oak (1)
On this, the first of January of the year 1851, the nineteenth century has reached its midway term, and many of us who shared its youth hav…
Chapter I. Friar’s Oak (2)
Only once during those village years can I remember Champion Harrison showing me for an instant the sort of man that he had been. It chance…
Chapter II. The Walker of Cliffe Royal
So much for Champion Harrison! Now, I wish to say something more about Boy Jim, not only because he was the comrade of my youth, but becaus…
Chapter III. The Play-Actress of Anstey Cross
I have told you something about Friar’s Oak, and about the life that we led there. Now that my memory goes back to the old place it would g…
Chapter IV. The Peace of Amiens
Many a woman’s knee was on the ground, and many a woman’s soul spent itself in joy and thankfulness when the news came with the fall of the…
Chapter V. Buck Tregellis (1)
Now that I was in my seventeenth year, and had already some need for a razor, I had begun to weary of the narrow life of the village, and t…
Chapter V. Buck Tregellis (2)
“So it is with me to-night. I never formed a close friendship with a man—I say nothing of women—save only the once. That was with Lord Avon…
Chapter VI. On the Threshold
My father sent me to bed early that night, though I was very eager to stay up, for every word which this man said held my attention. His fa…
Chapter VII. The Hope of England (1)
My uncle drove for some time in silence, but I was conscious that his eye was always coming round to me, and I had an uneasy conviction tha…
Chapter VII. The Hope of England (2)
“You will permit me to tell the story in my own way, Sir Philip,” said the Prince, with dignity. “I was about to say that our metal was so…
Chapter VIII. The Brighton Road
My uncle and I were up betimes next morning, but he was much out of temper, for no news had been heard of his valet Ambrose. He had indeed…
Chapter IX. Watier’s (1)
My uncle’s house in Jermyn Street was quite a small one—five rooms and an attic. “A man-cook and a cottage,” he said, “are all that a wise…
Chapter IX. Watier’s (2)
“There is the card-room, Rodney,” said my uncle, as we passed an open door on our way out. Glancing in, I saw a line of little green baize…
Chapter X. The Men of the Ring (1)
It was at the end of my first week in London that my uncle gave a supper to the fancy, as was usual for gentlemen of that time if they wish…
Chapter X. The Men of the Ring (2)
The man who had spoken was the most extraordinary of all the many curious figures in the room. He was very, very old, so old that he was pa…
Chapter XI. The Fight in the Coach-House (1)
The curt announcement was followed by a moment of silent surprise, and then by a general shout of laughter. There might be argument as to w…
Chapter XI. The Fight in the Coach-House (2)
They were both at the mark in an instant, Jim as full of sprightly confidence as ever, and Berks with a fixed grin upon his bull-dog face a…
Chapter XII. The Coffee-Room of Fladong’s (1)
So Boy Jim went down to the George, at Crawley, under the charge of Jim Belcher and Champion Harrison, to train for his great fight with Cr…
Chapter XII. The Coffee-Room of Fladong’s (2)
“You speak as if a cruiser had nothing to do but take prizes. If that is your view, you will permit me to say that you know very little of…
Chapter XIII. Lord Nelson
My father’s appointment with Lord Nelson was an early one, and he was the more anxious to be punctual as he knew how much the Admiral’s mov…
Chapter XIV. On the Road (1)
And now the day of the great fight began to approach. Even the imminent outbreak of war and the renewed threats of Napoleon were secondary…
Chapter XIV. On the Road (2)
“We sit behind the best cattle in England, but I fear lest we find the roads blocked before we get to Crawley. Did you observe, nephew, tha…
Chapter XV. Foul Play
My uncle’s impatience would not suffer him to wait for the slow rotation which would bring us to the door, but he flung the reins and a cro…
Chapter XVI. Crawley Downs
All through that weary night my uncle and I, with Belcher, Berkeley Craven, and a dozen of the Corinthians, searched the country side for s…
Chapter XVII. The Ring-Side (1)
Out of the whole of that vast multitude I was one of the very few who had observed whence it was that this black hat, skimming so opportune…
Chapter XVII. The Ring-Side (2)
The proceedings might have opened by an impromptu bye-battle between the indignant cockney and the gentleman from Bristol, but a prolonged…
Chapter XVIII. The Smith’s Last Battle (1)
“Clear the outer ring!” cried Jackson, standing up beside the ropes with a big silver watch in his hand. “Ss-whack! ss-whack! ss-whack!” we…
Chapter XVIII. The Smith’s Last Battle (2)
But if the ring can breed bright virtues, it is but a partisan who can deny that it can be the mother of black vices also, and we were dest…
Chapter XIX. Cliffe Royal
My uncle was humanely anxious to get Harrison to bed as soon as possible, for the smith, although he laughed at his own injuries, had none…
Chapter XX. Lord Avon
My uncle was an impassive man by nature and had become more so by the tradition of the society in which he lived. He could have turned a ca…
Chapter XXI. The Valet’s Story
The valet had shrunk into the dark corner of the room, and had remained so motionless that we had forgotten his presence until, upon this a…
Chapter XXII. The End
Sir James Ovington’s carriage was waiting without, and in it the Avon family, so tragically separated and so strangely re-united, were born…