The Four Feathers

The Four Feathers, by A. E. W.
Mason

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Title: The Four Feathers
Author: A. E. W. Mason

Release Date: July 21, 2006 [eBook #18883]
Language: English
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THE FOUR FEATHERS
by
A. E. W. MASON
Author of "Miranda of the Balcony," "The Courtship of Morrice
Buckler," Etc.

New York The MacMillan Company London: MacMillan & Co., Ltd.
1903 All rights reserved Copyright, 1901, By A. E. W. Mason.
Copyright, 1902, By The MacMillan Company. Set up and electrotyped
October, 1902. Reprinted November, December, 1902; January, 1903;
February, March, 1903. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick
& Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A.

To MISS ELSPETH ANGELA CAMPBELL June 19, 1902.

CONTENTS
I. A Crimean Night
II. Captain Trench and a Telegram
III. The Last Ride Together
IV. The Ball at Lennon House
V. The Pariah
VI. Harry Feversham's Plan
VII. The Last Reconnaissance
VIII. Lieutenant Sutch is tempted to lie

IX. At Glenalla
X. The Wells of Obak
XI. Durrance hears News of Feversham
XII. Durrance sharpens his Wits
XIII. Durrance begins to see
XIV. Captain Willoughby reappears
XV. The Story of the First Feather
XVI. Captain Willoughby retires
XVII. The Musoline Overture
XVIII. The Answer to the Overture
XIX. Mrs. Adair interferes
XX. West and East
XXI. Ethne makes Another Slip
XXII. Durrance lets his Cigar go out
XXIII. Mrs. Adair makes her Apology
XXIV. On the Nile
XXV. Lieutenant Sutch comes off the Half-pay List
XXVI. General Feversham's Portraits are appeased
XXVII. The House of Stone
XXVIII. Plans of Escape

XXIX. Colonel Trench assumes a Knowledge of Chemistry
XXX. The Last of the Southern Cross
XXXI. Feversham returns to Ramelton
XXXII. In the Church at Glenalla
XXXIII. Ethne again plays the Musoline Overture
XXXIV. The End

THE FOUR FEATHERS[1]
[Footnote 1: The character of Harry Feversham is developed from a
short story by the author, originally printed in the Illustrated London
News, and since republished.]

CHAPTER I
A CRIMEAN NIGHT
Lieutenant Sutch was the first of General Feversham's guests to reach
Broad Place. He arrived about five o'clock on an afternoon of sunshine
in mid June, and the old red-brick house, lodged on a southern slope of
the Surrey hills, was glowing from a dark forest depth of pines with the
warmth of a rare jewel. Lieutenant Sutch limped across the hall, where
the portraits of the Fevershams rose one above the other to the ceiling,
and went out on to the stone-flagged terrace at the back. There he found
his host sitting erect like a boy, and gazing southward toward the
Sussex Downs.
"How's the leg?" asked General Feversham, as he rose briskly from his
chair. He was a small wiry man, and, in spite of his white hairs, alert.
But the alertness was of the body. A bony face, with a high narrow

forehead and steel-blue inexpressive eyes, suggested a barrenness of
mind.
"It gave me trouble during the winter," replied Sutch. "But that was to
be expected." General Feversham nodded, and for a little while both
men were silent. From the terrace the ground fell steeply to a wide level
plain of brown earth and emerald fields and dark clumps of trees. From
this plain voices rose through the sunshine, small but very clear. Far
away toward Horsham a coil of white smoke from a train snaked
rapidly in and out amongst the trees; and on the horizon rose the
Downs, patched with white chalk.
"I thought that I should find you here," said Sutch.
"It was my wife's favourite corner," answered Feversham in a quite
emotionless voice. "She would sit here by the hour. She had a queer
liking for wide and empty spaces."
"Yes," said Sutch. "She had imagination. Her thoughts could people
them."
General Feversham glanced at his companion as though he hardly
understood. But he asked no questions. What he did not understand he
habitually let slip from his mind as not worth comprehension. He spoke
at once upon a different topic.
"There will be a leaf out of our table to-night."
"Yes. Collins, Barberton, and Vaughan went this winter. Well, we are
all permanently shelved upon the world's half-pay list as it is. The
obituary column is just the last formality which gazettes us out of the
service altogether," and Sutch