Quicksands

by B. M. Croker

QUICKSANDS

Quicksands

By
B. M. CROKER
Author of “The Cat’s Paw,” etc.

CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD
London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne

CONTENTS

Chapter		Page
1.	The Bridge of Dreams	[1]
2.	Beke	[13]
3.	A Meeting on the Marshes	[24]
4.	A Dance at “The Plough”	[31]
5.	The Great Invasion	[45]
6.	In Aunt Mina’s Shoes	[61]
7.	The Family Skeleton	[79]
8.	“An Open Door”	[85]
9.	Out of the Frying-pan	[100]
10.	The “Asphodel”	[107]
11.	A Hill Station	[119]
12.	The Notorious Mrs. De Lacy	[137]
13.	A Fresh Start	[148]
14.	The Club	[157]
15.	A Renewed Friendship	[170]
16.	An Unwelcome Visitor	[185]
17.	A Compromise	[195]
18.	The Residency Ball	[203]
19.	“Yes—or No?”	[221]
20.	Clouds	[229]
21.	Ronnie’s Confession	[242]
22.	Punishment	[253]
23.	A Haven	[266]
24.	The Flight	[279]
25.	At Bangalore	[288]
26.	Within the Precincts	[296]
27.	Dark Days	[310]
28.	Hyder Ali’s Garden	[326]
29.	The Order of Release	[335]

QUICKSANDS

CHAPTER I
THE BRIDGE OF DREAMS

One sultry September afternoon, some years ago, my brother Ronald and I, being tired and dusty, found a temporary resting-place on the parapet of a little old bridge that spanned a sleepy stream. Through a thin silk blouse a comforting sun beat upon my back, and I was serenely conscious of an unusual sense of happiness and well-being—though I owed little to my surroundings. In all England it would have been difficult to find a more featureless and monotonous outlook than the prospect that lay stretched before us. A series of flat, marshy fields, exhibiting here a space of willowy green, and there a patch of black soil, enclosed by ragged hedges or deep, dark dykes. Occasionally a few lonely and distorted trees, or a humped-up cluster of red roofs, varied the scene, which gradually faded until sky and horizon seemed to melt away into one pale blur.