The Splendid Spur
Set during the English Civil War, this brisk adventure follows young Jack Marvel, an Oxford scholar who tumbles into the royalist cause and finds himself carrying a secret dispatch for King Charles I. His road west fills up with ambushes, disguises, a loyal comrade, and a spirited young woman fleeing troubles of her own. Quiller-Couch wrote in the tradition of Robert Louis Stevenson, and the story moves with the same appetite for a chase across wild country, a night ride, and a fight at close quarters. Beneath the swordplay runs a gentler thread of first love and hard-won honor. Free to read as a PDF or EPUB edition.
About the Author
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863-1944) was a Cornish novelist, critic, and Cambridge professor who wrote under the initial Q. He edited the influential Oxford Book of English Verse and shaped generations of readers through his lectures on writing and reading.
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