By Conduct and Courage: A Story of the Days of Nelson

BY CONDUCT AND COURAGE
MR. HENTY’S HISTORICAL TALES.

“AS THEY CLIMBED UP THEY WERE CONFRONTED BY FULLY A HUNDRED ARMED MOORS”
BY G. A. HENTY Author of “With Roberts to Pretoria” “With Buller in Natal” “With Kitchener in the Soudan” &c.
Mr. George A. Henty, who died in November, 1902, had completed three new stories, With the Allies to Pekin, Through Three Campaigns, and By Conduct and Courage. Of these, Through Three Campaigns and With the Allies to Pekin were published in the autumn of 1903; the present story is therefore the last of Mr. Henty’s great series of historical stories for boys.
The proofs have been revised by Mr. G. A. Henty’s son, Captain C. G. Henty.

A wandering musician was a rarity in the village of Scarcombe. In fact, such a thing had not been known in the memory of the oldest inhabitant. What could have brought him here? men and women asked themselves. There was surely nobody who could dance in the village, and the few coppers he would gain by performing on his violin would not repay him for his trouble. Moreover, Scarcombe was a bleak place, and the man looked sorely shaken with the storm of life. He seemed, indeed, almost unable to hold out much longer; his breath was short, and he had a hacking cough.
After the funeral another question arose. What was to be done with the child?
He was a fine-looking, frank boy, who had grown and hardened beyond his years by the life he had led with his father. Fifteen pounds had been found in the dead man’s kit. This, however, would fall to the share of the workhouse authorities if they took charge of him. A sort of informal council was held by the elder fishermen.
“It is hard on the child,” one of them said. “I have no doubt his father intended to tell him where to find his friends, but his death came too suddenly. Here is fifteen pounds. Not much good, you will say; and it isn’t. It might last a year, or maybe eighteen months, but at the end of that time he would be as badly off as he is now.”