Post Haste

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Robert Michael Ballantyne. Post Haste

Preface

Chapter One. A Hero and His Worshipper

Chapter Two. Tells of Woman’s Work and some of Woman’s Ways

Chapter Three. Brilliant Prospects

Chapter Four. The Royal Mail Steamer

Chapter Five. Wreck and Rescue

Chapter Six. Treats of Poverty, Pride, and Fidelity

Chapter Seven. Phil Begins Life, and Makes a Friend

Chapter Eight. Downward—Deeper and Deeper

Chapter Nine. Mr Blurt and George Aspel in Peculiar Circumstances

Chapter Ten. A Mystery Cleared Up

Chapter Eleven. The Letter-Carrier Goes His Rounds, Aids a Little Girl, and Overwhelms a Lady Statistically

Chapter Twelve. In Which a Bosom Friend is Introduced, Rural Felicity is Enlarged on, and Deep Plans are Laid

Chapter Thirteen. Miss Lillycrop Gets a Series of Surprises

Chapter Fourteen. Formation of the Pegaway Literary Association and Other Matters

Chapter Fifteen. George Aspel Receives Various Visitors at the Ornithological Shop, and is Called to Vigorous Action

Chapter Sixteen. Begins with Juvenile Flirtation, and Ends with Canine Cremation

Chapter Seventeen. Tottie and Mrs Bones in Difficulty

Chapter Eighteen. Business Interfered with in a Remarkable Manner

Chapter Nineteen. Deep-Laid Plans for Checkmating Mr Bones

Chapter Twenty. The Post of the Olden Time

Chapter Twenty One. Tells of a Series of Terrible Surprises

Chapter Twenty Two. Shows How One Thing Leads to Another, and so on

Chapter Twenty Three. The Turning-Point

Chapter Twenty Four. Plans and Counter Plans

Chapter Twenty Five. Light Shining in Dark Places

Chapter Twenty Six. Tells of a Sham Fight and a Real Battle

Chapter Twenty Seven. The Greatest Battle of All

Chapter Twenty Eight. The Storming of Rocky Cottage and Other Matters

Chapter Twenty Nine. Describes an Interview and a Rencontre

Chapter Thirty. The Last

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Once upon a time—only once, observe, she did not do it twice—a widow of the name of Maylands went, in a fit of moderate insanity, and took up her abode in a lonely, tumble-down cottage in the west of Ireland.

Mrs Maylands was very poor. She was the widow of an English clergyman, who had left her with a small family and the smallest income that was compatible with that family’s maintenance. Hence the migration to Ireland, where she had been born, and where she hoped to live economically.

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Being a boy, he was not pressed to drink, and the party left the house. A short distance farther on the road forked, and here the post-runner turned off to the right, taking the path which led towards the hill whose rugged shoulder he had yet to scale.

Mike Kenny breasted it not only with the energy of youth and strength, but with the additional and artificial energy infused by the spirits, so that, much to his own surprise, his powers began to fail prematurely. Just then a storm of wind and sleet came down from the heights above, and broke with bitter fury in his face. He struggled against it vigorously for a time till he gained a point whence he saw the dark blue sea lashing on the cliffs below. He looked up at the pass which was almost hid by the driving sleet. A feeling of regret and self-condemnation at having so readily given in to Grady was mingled with a strong sense of the duty that he had to discharge as he once more breasted the steep. The bitter cold began to tell on his exhausted frame. In such circumstances a small matter causes a man to stumble. Kenny’s foot caught on something—a root it might be—and he fell headlong into a ditch and was stunned. The cold did its work, and from that ditch he never rose again.

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