Tales of Daring and Danger

At a colonial gathering in India, Colonel Hastings is pressed to tell the long-suppressed story of his youth, and his tale opens in the Deccan, where dacoits lurk in the Ghauts and danger lies behind every ravine. What begins as a bear hunt soon becomes a brutal fight for survival when the young officer is attacked, abandoned by his guide, and left gravely wounded in the wild. Henty's adventure moves from frontier peril to tense captivity, as Hastings awakens in a hidden camp, guarded by people tied to the outlaws yet nursed by the young native women who saved his life. Their kindness, and the uneasy bond that grows between them, lend warmth to a story otherwise driven by fever, escape, and the threat of violence. Alongside this Indian episode, the collection evokes the wider world of Henty's fiction: naval action on the Canton River, pursuit and defiance in the hunt for Sivajee Punt, and a range of spirited tales for younger readers, from school-life and imperial adventure to rustic, wholesome stories like White Lilac. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.