1
ATOMS OF EMPIRE
BY C. J. CUTCLIFFE HYNE
Author of
"Adventures of Captain Kettle," " McTodd," "Thompson's Progress," etc., etc.
COPYRIGHT, 1904,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
CONTENTS
I. THE BAIT
II. RUN DOWN
III. THE FINGER OF HANKIN
IV. THE CHOLERA SHIP
V. THE HERMIT
VI. THE LIZARD
VII. HELD UP
VIII. SHOT
IX. THE CONSUMPTIVE
X. THE PLACE OF THE SACRED BO-TREE
XI. THE MUMMY OF THOMPSON-PRATT
XII. THE LYNCHERS
XIII. THE FASCINATING MRS. WHITEHEAD
XIV. THE FIRE
XV. THE KID
XVI. THE RENEGADE
I
THE BAIT
"WHAT on earth does the Chief have an animal like this Padgett to dine in Government House for?" asked Day ton-Philipps, querulously. "I expected to rough it, of course, when I came out here to the Coast, because they promised us active service, but hang me if ever I expected to rough it at the Governor's dinner-table with a missionary-thing like that. Why, the fellow hadn't got an aitch to his name; he stoked with his knife all the time; and when he got a fresh stock of perspiration on his forehead my aunt! he was too awful for anything."
Forbes, the Colonial Secretary, fanned himself in his long-sleeved Madeira chair, and suggested lazily that Dayton-Philipps had been taken out of lavender too soon, and sent out into the warm, wide world too early. " We're a primitive people, we Coasters," said Forbes. "If a man has a white skin and a dress coat, we ask him to dinner. You're too fastidious."
"Rot!" said Dayton-Philipps. " And, besides, the Padgett person hadn't a dress coat."
"Oh, of course, I