Rungates Club - Softcover

Buchan, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 075091159X ISBN 13: 9780750911597

Publisher: Sutton Pub Ltd, 1900

Synopsis

CONTENTS


PREFACE

I. THE GREEN WILDEBEEST: SIR RICHARD HANNAY’s STORY

II. THE FRYING-PAN AND THE FIRE: THE DUKE OF BURMINSTER’S STORY

1. THE FRYING-PAN

2. THE FIRE

III. DR. LARTIUS: MR. PALLISER-YEATES’S STORY

IV. THE WIND IN THE PORTICO: MR. HENRY NIGHTINGALE’S STORY

V. ”DIVUS” JOHNSTON: LORD LAMANCHA’S STORY

VI. THE LOATHLY OPPOSITE: MAJOR OLIVER PUGH’S STORY

VII. SING A SONG OF SIXPENCE: SIR EDWARD LEITHEN’S STORY

VIII. SHIP TO TARSHISH: MR. RALPH COLLATT’S STORY

IX. SKULE SKERRY: MR. ANTHONY HURRELL’S STORY

X. ”TENDEBANT MANUS”: SIR ARTHUR WARCLIFF’S STORY

XI. THE LAST CRUSADE: MR. FRANCIS MARTENDALE’S STORY

XII. FULLCIRCLE: MR. MARTIN PECKWETHER’S STORY


Excerpt:

I


THE GREEN WILDEBEEST

SIR RICHARD HANNAY’S STORY


We carry with us the wonders we seek without us; there is all Africa and her prodigies in us.

Sir Thomas Browne: Religio Medici.


We were talking about the persistence of race qualities--how you might bury a strain for generations under fresh graftings but the aboriginal sap would some day stir. The obvious instance was the Jew, and Pugh had also something to say about the surprises of a tincture of hill blood in the Behari. Peckwether, the historian, was inclined to doubt. The old stock, he held, could disappear absolutely as if by a chemical change, and the end be as remote from the beginnings as--to use his phrase--a ripe Gorgonzola from a bucket of new milk.

“I don’t believe you’re ever quite safe,” said Sandy Arbuthnot.

“You mean that an eminent banker may get up one morning with a strong wish to cut himself shaving in honour of Baal?”

“Maybe. But the tradition is more likely to be negative. There are some things that for no particular reason he won’t like, some things that specially frighten him. Take my own case. I haven’t a scrap of real superstition in me, but I hate crossing a river at night. I fancy a lot of my blackguard ancestors got scuppered at moonlight fords. I believe we’re all stuffed full of atavistic fears, and you can’t tell how or when a man will crack till you know his breeding.”

“I think that’s about the truth of it,” said Hannay, and after the discussion had rambled on for a while he told us this tale.

More Reading:
In The Sir Edward Leithen Novels by ADB Publishing
(The Original) John Macnab
(The Original) The Dancing Floor
(The Original) The Gap in the Curtain
(The Original) The Power-House
(The Original) The Runagates Club (This Book)

About this title

About the Author

John Buchan, Baron Tweedsmuir, was a Scottish diplomat, barrister, journalist, historian, poet and novelist. He wrote adventure novels, short-story collections and biographies. His passion for the Scottish countryside is reflected in much of his writing. Buchan's adventure stories are high in romance and are peopled by a large cast of characters. 'Richard Hannay', 'Dickson McCunn' and 'Sir Edward Leithen' are three that reappear several times. Alfred Hitchcock adapted his most famous book 'The Thirty-Nine Steps', featuring Hannay, for the big screen. Born in 1875 in Perth, Buchan was the son of a minister. Childhood holidays were spent in the Borders, for which he had a great love. He was educated at Glasgow University and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he was President of the Union. Called to the Bar in 1901, he became Lord Milner's assistant private secretary in South Africa. By 1907, however, he was working as a publisher with Nelson's. During the First World War Buchan was a correspondent at the Front for 'The Times', as well as being an officer in the Intelligence Corps and advisor to the War Cabinet. Elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament for one of the Scottish Universities' seats in 1927, he was created Baron Tweedsmuir in 1935. From then until his death in 1940 he served as Governor General of Canada, during which time he neverthelss managed to continue writing.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sutton Pub Ltd
• Publication date: 1900
• ISBN 10: 075091159X
• ISBN 13: 9780750911597
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English