tion>Arthur Quiller-Couch
Corporal Sam and Other Stories
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4064066227432
Table of Contents
CORPORAL SAM.
THE MAYOR'S DOVECOT: A CAUTIONARY TALE.
CORPORAL SAM.
THE COPERNICAN CONVOY.
RED VELVET.
THE JEW ON THE MOOR.
MY CHRISTMAS BURGLARY.
THE MAYOR'S DOVECOT: A CAUTIONARY TALE.
NEWS FROM TROY!
COLONEL BAIGENT'S CHRISTMAS.
DOCTOR UNONIUS.
MUTUAL EXCHANGE, LIMITED.
CORPORAL SAM.
CHAPTER I.
Sergeant David Wilkes, of the First (Royal) Regiment of Foot—third battalion, B Company—came trudging with a small fatigue party down the sandy slopes of Mount Olia, on the summit of which they had been toiling all day, helping the artillerymen to drag an extra 24-pounder into battery. They had brought it into position just half an hour ago, and already it had opened fire along with another 24-pounder and two howitzers mounted on the same rocky platform. The men as they descended heard the projectiles fly over their heads, and paused, distinguishing the scream of the shells from the dull hum of the round-shot, to watch the effect of the marksmanship, which was excellent.
Northwards, to their right, stretched the blue line of the Bay, where a single ship-of-war tacked lazily and kept a two-miles' offing. The smoke of the guns, drifting down on the land-breeze from the summit of Mount Olia, now hid her white sails, now lifted and revealed them in the late afternoon sunshine. But although blue held the upper heavens—cloudless blue of July—the sunshine that reached the ship was murky, almost copper-coloured; for it pierced through a cloud of denser smoke
