The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Castaways, by Harry Collingwood

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Title: The Castaways

Author: Harry Collingwood

Illustrator: T.C. Dugdale

Release Date: November 15, 2007 [EBook #23491]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CASTAWAYS ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

The Castaways, by Harry Collingwood.

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A very nice book by this prolific writer of adventures at sea. Not too
long, and fully recommended.

As usual with this author, this book makes a nice audiobook.

I just wonder what made him use this title, as there are so many books
with the same title, and I would not have said that there were any
castaway situations in this book, but perhaps this is because the book
didn't go in quite the direction that the author intended when he
started to write it!

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THE CASTAWAYS, BY HARRY COLLINGWOOD.

CHAPTER ONE.

MISS ONSLOW.

It was on a wet, dreary, dismal afternoon, toward the end of October
18--, that I found myself _en route_ for Gravesend, to join the clipper
ship _City of Cawnpore_, in the capacity of cuddy passenger, bound for
Calcutta.

The wind was blowing strong from the south-east, and came sweeping
along, charged with frequent heavy rain squalls that dashed fiercely
against the carriage windows, while the atmosphere was a mere dingy,
brownish grey expanse of shapeless vapour, so all-pervading that it shut
out not only the entire firmament but also a very considerable portion
of the landscape.

There had been a time, not so very long ago--while I was hunting slavers
on the West Coast, grilling under a scorching African sun day after day
and month after month, with pitiless monotony--when the mere
recollection of such weather as this had made me long for a taste of it
as a priceless luxury; but now, after some five months' experience of
the execrable British climate, I folded my cloak more closely about me,
as I gazed through the carriage windows at the rain-blurred landscape,
and blessed the physician who