Under Tropic Skies Author:Louis Becke General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1905 Original Publisher: Lippincott Subjects: Fiction / General Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary Fiction / Short Stories History / Oceania Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Literary Criticism / Medieval Notes: This is a black ... more »and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: "DULCE E8T DESIPERE IN LOCO" TjOK four nights I had not slept, and the approach of -- another sunset filled me with a childish, unreasoning dread -- that dread that besets those in whose veins the mad blood of malarial fever is racing and burning, and adding to an already disordered imagination wild, weird phantasies and visions terrifying. I crawled from my bed and staggered to the open window, gasping for air; for although the fierce Australian sun was low, not a breath moved the pale green, dusty leaves of the gum-trees which stood about the house. Oh, how I loathed the bush, and the heat, and the curse of myriad flies, and the jarring notes of the horse and cattle bells which tortured my aching brain as if hot needles were being thrust into it again and again. Oh, for the sea, the cool, cool sea, and the tumbling, creamy surf as it laved the long stretches of white, curving beaches thirty miles away! Only thirty miles away! And night, the hated, dreaded night, was near to me again, with its black terrors and that awful, awful sinking of the heart and the ever-burning thirst and the throbbing, whirling brain! With half-closed eyes I moved painfully to the open door of my bedroom and listened to the murmur of voices from the dining-room. Thornton, my genial, kindly host, and his family were at tea, and I knew that in half an hour he, big-bearded, broad-chested, an...« less