King o' the Beach - A Tropic Tale
Fenn George Manville
English
We will print you a perfectly bound paperback of your selected title and send it to you at your nominated address
Below is a summary of King o' the Beach - A Tropic Tale
King o' the Beach, a Tropic Tale, by George Manville Fenn.
________________________________________________________________________
This book was written just before the end of the century, when it would
have been expected that travel by steamer was pretty safe. Carey, a
teenage boy making his way by steamer "Chusan" to meet his parents in
Australia, becomes very friendly with the ship's doctor, and also with
one of the seamen, Bob Bostock. But somewhere out in the Indian Ocean he
has an accident, falling from the ship's rigging, and is unconscious and
possibly may not live. His telescope took the brunt of the fall. But
while he is lying unconscious, a great gale springs up, the vessel loses
power, and is driven onto a coral-girt volcanic island.
Some of the passengers and crew get away on the ship's boats, but Carey
is not fit for the journey. The ship lies on the reef, but mostly
undamaged. The Doctor and Bostock remain with him. After they are
settling in, and Carey is recovering well, a "beachcomber", who reckons
he is king of these islands, makes his appearance with a retinue of
aborigines. He is quite a nasty piece of work. However one of the
aborigines becomes friendly with Carey and the others. The beachcomber
shoots the doctor, but then fall down a stairway, breaking both legs.
Since he can't get the doctor, he dies. At this moment Carey's father
appears, as the other passengers had reached Australia, and contact had
been made.
There are the usual tense moments with various saurians, and other
nasties, but perhaps not such a high level of tension as is usual with
this author. A good easy read, nevertheless. NH
________________________________________________________________________
KING O' THE BEACH, A TROPIC TALE, BY GEORGE MANVILE FENN.
CHAPTER ONE.
"Mind what you're doing! Come down directly, you young dog! Ah, I
thought as much. There, doctor: a job for you."
It was on board the great steamer _Chusan_, outward bound from the port
of London for Rockhampton, Moreton Bay, and Sydney, by the north route,
with a heavy cargo of assorted goods such as are wanted in the far south
Colonies, and some fifty passengers, for the most part returning from a
visit to the Old Country.
"Visit" is a very elastic word--it may mean long or short. In Carey
Cranford's case it was expressed by the former, for it had lasted ten
years, during which he had been left by his father with one of his
uncles in London, so that he might have the full advantage of an English
education before joining his parents in their adopted land.
It had been a delightful voyage, with pleasant fellow-passengers and
everything new and exciting, to the strong, well-grown, healthy lad, who
had enjoyed the Mediterranean; revelled in the glowing heat of the Red
Sea, where he had begun to be the regular companion of the young doctor
who had charge of the passengers and crew; stared at that great
cinder-heap Aden, and later on sniffed at the sweet breezes from
Ceylon's Isle.
Here the captain good-humouredly repeated what he had said more than
once during the voyage: "Now look out, young fellow; if you're not back
in time I shall sail without you:" for wherever the great steamer put in
the boy hurried ashore with the doctor to see all he could of the
country, and came back at the last minute growling at the stay being so
short.
It was horrible, he said, when they touched at Colombo not to be able to
go and see what the country was like.
He repeated his words at Singapore; so did the captain, but with this
addition:
"Only one more port to stop at, and then I shall have you off my hands."
"But shan't we stop at Java or any of the beautiful islands?"
"Not if I can help it, my lad," said the captain. "Beautiful islands
indeed! Only wish I could clear some of 'em off the map."
So Carey Cranford, eager to see everything that was to be seen, had to
content himself with telescopic views of the glorious isles scattered
along the vessel's course, closing the glass again and again with an
ejaculation signifying his disgust.
"Islands!" he said. "I believe, doctor, half of them are only clouds.
I say, I wish the captain wouldn't go so fast."
"Why?" said his companion, an eager-looking manly fellow of about twice
the speaker's age.
"I should like to fish, and stop and explore some of the islands, and
shoot, and collect curiosities."
Back