The Project Gutenberg EBook of Prester John, by John Buchan

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Title: Prester John

Author: John Buchan

Posting Date: October 10, 2008 [EBook #611]
Release Date: August, 1996

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRESTER JOHN ***

Produced by Jo Churcher. HTML version by Al Haines.

PRESTER JOHN

by

JOHN BUCHAN

TO

LIONEL PHILLIPS

Time, they say, must the best of us capture,
And travel and battle and gems and gold
No more can kindle the ancient rapture,
For even the youngest of hearts grows old.
But in you, I think, the boy is not over;
So take this medley of ways and wars
As the gift of a friend and a fellow-lover
Of the fairest country under the stars.

J. B.

CONTENTS

i. The Man on the Kirkcaple Shore
ii. Furth! Fortune!
iii. Blaauwildebeestefontein
iv. My Journey to the Winter-Veld
v. Mr Wardlaw Has a Premonition
vi. The Drums Beat at Sunset
vii. Captain Arcoll Tells a Tale
viii. I Fall in Again with the Reverend John Laputa
ix. The Store at Umvelos'
x. I Go Treasure-Hunting
xi. The Cave of the Rooirand
xii. Captain Arcoll Sends a Message
xiii. The Drift of the Letaba
xiv. I Carry the Collar of Prester John
xv. Morning in the Berg
xvi. Inanda's Kraal
xvii. A Deal and Its Consequences
xviii. How a Man May Sometimes Put His Trust in a Horse
xix. Arcoll's Shepherding
xx. My Last Sight of the Reverend John Laputa
xxi. I Climb the Crags a Second Time
xxii. A Great Peril and a Great Salvation
xxiii. My Uncle's Gift Is Many Times Multiplied

CHAPTER I

THE MAN ON THE KIRKCAPLE SHORE

I mind as if it were yesterday my first sight of the man. Little I
knew at the time how big the moment was with destiny, or how often that
face seen in the fitful moonlight would haunt my sleep and disturb my
waking hours. But I mind yet the cold grue of terror I got from it, a
terror which was surely more than the due of a few truant lads breaking
the Sabbath with their play.

The town of Kirkcaple, of which and its adjacent parish of Por