To Norman Kenneth Stephen, late Senior Assistant Master of Harrow School, who was the first to show me that, though few can bend it, the long bow of English is on every man’s back, this book is respec...

When the first of these things happened, that is to say upon the twentieth day of April, 192‒, I was twenty-two years old, a little stronger than most men of my age, and very ready for anything that b...

It was the next morning, when I was walking down St. James’s Street on my way to the Bank, that I stopped to glance at the maps which were spread in a shopwindow. I had done so many times before, for ...

When, ten minutes later, Mansel sat down on a bench and told us that we were forestalled, Hanbury and I stared at each other in dismay. Before we could speak, Mansel proceeded to take the whole of the...

During the night the water rose twenty feet. It went against the grain to post two sentries, when with twelve, or even ten arms we might have had the well empty by four o’clock. But to be surprised at...

By the time I awoke the next morning some order had been restored, and a table, upon which Rowley was serving breakfast, had been set in the harness-room. My head was sore and tender, but did not ache...

We established three bases⁠—one at Salzburg, another at an inn at Villach, and the third at the village at which Mansel and Carson and I had lain on our way to Wagensburg. The name of this village was...

There was, naturally, much to be said: but, till Mansel returned to the dungeon, there was nothing to be done. And, since the commentary he made, so soon as he heard my news, was far more valuable tha...

The next morning we held a short council. The system of reliefs, which had served us so long and so well, was now a thing of the past: and we were all agreed that, once we had closed our bases, except...

Had our doom been set forth upon paper and submitted to Rose Noble himself, for his approval, I cannot believe that he would have altered one particular. We were entombed alive: this, by our own act, ...