INCREDIBLE ADVENTURES
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO
DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO
INCREDIBLE
ADVENTURES
AUTHOR OF‘JIMBO,’ ‘JOHN SILENCE,’
‘THE CENTAUR,’ ‘A PRISONER IN FAIRYLAND,’ ETC.
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON
1914
COPYRIGHT
TO
M. S.-K.
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| The Regeneration of Lord Ernie | 3 |
| The Sacrifice | 95 |
| The Damned | 131 |
| A Descent into Egypt | 241 |
| Wayfarers | 339 |
[3]THE REGENERATION OF LORD ERNIE
I
John Hendricks was bear-leading at the time. He had originally studiedfor Holy Orders, but had abandoned the Church later for private reasonsconnected with his faith, and had taken to teaching and tutoringinstead. He was an honest, upstanding fellow of five-and-thirty,incorruptible, intelligent in a simple, straightforward way. He playedgames with his head, more than most Englishmen do, but he went throughlife without much calculation. He had qualities that made boys likeand respect him; he won their confidence. Poor, proud, ambitious,he realised that fate offered him a chance when the Secretary ofState for Scotland asked him if he would give up his other pupilsfor a year and take his son, Lord Ernie, round the world upon aneducational trip that might make a man of him. For Lord Ernie was theonly son, and the Marquess’s influence was naturally great. To havedeposited a regenerated Lord Ernie at the castle gates might haveguaranteed Hendricks’ future. After leaving Eton prematurely the ladhad come under Hendricks’ charge for a time, and with such excellentresults—‘I’d simply swear by that chap, you know,’ the boy usedto say—that[4] his father, considerably impressed, and rather as alast resort, had made this proposition. And Hendricks, without muchcalculation, had accepted it. He liked ‘Bindy’ for himself. It wasin his heart to ‘make a man of him,’ if possible. They had now b