The Project Gutenberg EBook of Snake and Sword,
by Percival Christopher Wren

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Title: Snake and Sword
A Novel

Author: Percival Christopher Wren

Release Date: January 10, 2004 [EBook #10667]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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SNAKE AND SWORD

_A NOVEL_

BY

PERCIVAL CHRISTOPHER WREN

DEDICATED TO MY WIFE ALICE LUCILLE WREN

CONTENTS

PART I.

THE WELDING OF A SOUL

I. The Snake and the Soul

PART II.

THE SEARING OF A SOUL

II. The Sword and the Snake

III. The Snake Appears

IV. The Sword and the Soul

V. Lucille

VI. The Snake's "Myrmidon"

VII. Love--and the Snake

VIII. Troopers of the Queen

IX. A Snake avenges a Haddock and Lucille behaves
in an un-Smelliean Manner

X. Much Ado about Almost Nothing--A Mere
Trooper

XI. More Myrmidons

PART III.

THE SAVING OF A SOUL

XII. Vultures and Luck--Good and Bad

XIII. Found

XIV. The Snake and the Sword

Seven Years After

PART I.

THE WELDING OF A SOUL.

CHAPTER I.

THE SNAKE AND THE SOUL.

When Colonel Matthew Devon de Warrenne, V.C., D.S.O., of the Queen's
Own (118th) Bombay Lancers, pinned his Victoria Cross to the bosom of
his dying wife's night-dress, in token of his recognition that she was
the braver of the twain, he was not himself.

He was beside himself with grief.

Afterwards he adjured the sole witness of this impulsive and emotional
act, Major John Decies, never to mention his "damned theatrical folly"
to any living soul, and to excuse him on the score of an ancient
sword-cut on the head and two bad sun-strokes.

For the one thing in heaven above, on the earth beneath, or in the
waters under the earth, that Colonel de Warrenne feared, was breach of
good form and stereotyped convention.

And the one thing he loved was the dying woman.

This last statement applies also to Major John Decies, of the Indian
Medical Service, Civil Surgeon of Bimariabad, and may even be
expanded, for the one thing he e