The Project Gutenberg EBook of In the King's Name, by George Manville Fenn

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Title: In the King's Name
The Cruise of the "Kestrel"

Author: George Manville Fenn

Release Date: November 6, 2007 [EBook #23386]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE KING'S NAME ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

In the King's Name; or, The Cruise of the Kestrel, by George Manville
Fenn.

________________________________________________________________________
This is quite a long book, and one of G.M. Fenn's very best, for his
hero gets into all sorts of tight corners, from which there appears no
possible escape, just in the manner of most of Fenn's books, for he is
the very master of suspense.

It starts off with a coastguard vessel, the "Kestrel", on patrol
looking for smugglers, Jacobites, or anything else that appears
suspicious.

Most of the action, however, takes place on the land, though sometimes
in smugglers' caves near the shore.

It makes a brilliant audiobook for your enjoyment.

________________________________________________________________________

IN THE KING'S NAME; OR, THE CRUISE OF THE KESTREL, BY GEORGE MANVILLE
FENN.

CHAPTER ONE.

ON BOARD THE "KESTREL."

Morning on board the _Kestrel_, his Britannic majesty's cutter, lying on
and off the south coast on the lookout for larks, or what were to her
the dainty little birds that the little falcon, her namesake, would pick
up. For the _Kestrel's_ wings were widespread to the soft
south-easterly breeze that barely rippled the water; and mainsail, gaff
topsail, staysail, and jib were so new and white that they seemed to
shine like silver in the sun.

The larks the hover-winged _Kestrel_ was on the watch to pick up were
smuggling boats of any sort or size, or Jacobite messages, or exiles, or
fugitives--anything, in fact, that was not in accordance with the laws
of his most gracious majesty King George the Second, whose troops had
not long before dealt that fatal blow to the young Pretender's hopes at
the battle of Culloden.

The sea was as bright and blue as the sea can look in the Channel when
the bright