The Project Gutenberg EBook of With Wolseley to Kumasi, by F.S. Brereton

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Title: With Wolseley to Kumasi
A Tale of the First Ashanti War

Author: F.S. Brereton

Illustrator: Gordon Browne, R.I.

Release Date: June 20, 2010 [EBook #32910]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH WOLSELEY TO KUMASI ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

With Wolseley to Kumasi, by Captain F.S. Brereton.

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WITH WOLSELEY TO KUMASI, BY CAPTAIN F.S. BRERETON.

CHAPTER ONE.

GREAT MISFORTUNE.

Dick Stapleton tossed restlessly on his bamboo bed, till the rickety
legs creaked ominously and the mosquito net waved to and fro,
threatening to descend upon his head. The heat was stifling. Inside
his room the thermometer stood at an unusual height, even for this Gold
Coast country, where high readings are a common occurrence, and where
hot nights are the rule rather than the exception. The windows of the
house in which he slept, or vainly attempted to do so, were thrown wide
open, but despite that fact, they admitted nothing but the deep and
ever-recurring boom of the surf, which beats upon the sandy beach of the
Fanti country without ceasing. Boom! Boom! The thunder of the waves
seemed to shake even the land, while in his mind's eye Dick could see
the spray rise high, and then fall back as white as milk, seething and
foaming, to be swallowed by the next breaker as it curled its green
crest on to the sand. Not a breath stirred on this sultry night. The
leaves on the forest trees within a stone's-throw of the house made no
movement. Nothing, in fact, appeared to have the energy for movement on
this night save the myriad mosquitoes, which seemed to revel in the
heat, and an occasional beast in the forest, whose piercing cry was wont
at one time to startle our hero.

"Oh, for a breeze!" sighed Dick. "If only a cool wind would play into
the room a fellow might fall asleep. This mosquito net stifles me, and
yet I dare not throw it aside or I shall