Fox Is A Lion

Osran Morson

Description

The Fox Is A Lion is an action adventure story bridging 2 continents, Australia and Africa, and a ship.

Based on a true incident, this story follows an abused eleven year old migrant boy who escapes from an orphanage in Australia circa 1956.

After being severely punished by a School Headmaster, Miles Taylor's mind snaps inside, having had enough of being continually punished unjustly. He sets his mind to find his Father who is somewhere in Africa doing humanitarian work for the African people. With the authorities in hot pursuit, he manages to avoid capture in the Australian city suburbs and then stows away on a ship. In Africa the Zulu nation take the boy's plight seriously and help him cross the wilds of the African jungle to find his Father.

In the background Miles Taylor is being pursued by the Police, Government Authorities, World Newspapers and wild animals.

"I thought it was fantastic and would make a good series. Miles' escapades are a thrilling action adventure." — Lorraine K. Western Australia.

Sujets

• Historical
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 01 février 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456623135
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

The Fox Is A Lion
 
by
 
O.H. Morson
 
 
 
 
 
The Fox Is A Lion by O.H. Morson
(Genre: Fiction, Young-Adult, Action & Adventure)
 
© Copyright 2013 O.H. Morson
All Rights Reserved
 
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher
Copyright © O.H. Morson 2013
The Fox Is A Lion characters, names and related indicia are trademarks of and © O.H. Morson.
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
 
Publisher: eBookIt.com
ISBN 9781456623135 Ebook Edition
 
First printing September 2014
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Contents
CHAPTER 1 – THE FIERY HEADMASTER
CHAPTER 2 – TIME TO DISAPPEAR
CHAPTER 3 – AVOID CAPTURE
CHAPTER 4 – THE RESCUE
CHAPTER 5 – AN OCEAN VOYAGE
CHAPTER 6 – CONFESSION TIME
CHAPTER 7 – THE CAPTAIN'S DECISION
CHAPTER 8 – ESCAPE INTO AFRICA
CHAPTER 9 – ZULU CHIEFS
CHAPTER 10 – ZULU RESCUE
CHAPTER 11 – ZULU TRAINING
CHAPTER 12 – UNDERCOVER BUS
CHAPTER 13 – BORDER CROSSING
CHAPTER 14 – ZULU WAR
CHAPTER 15 – VICTORY

 
 
 
CHAPTER 1 – THE FIERY HEADMASTER
 
 
 
 
 
27 boys, all lined up at the school rear assembly area, were being yelled at by the Headmaster, Mr McManus, for being 5 minutes late for school.
Mr McManus was terrorizing the boys by waving a cane in front of their faces and yelling, very loudly, every bit of hatred he could think of about boys from orphanages.
“You Home’s Kids are always trying to get away with something, with such farfetched excuses,” barked Mr McManus. “You are all going to be punished right now. Each of you is going to be caned twice, one on each hand; one for being late and one for telling lies.”
That is when the crying started. Some were bawling loudly, others just wimping and shaking all over. They were kids from primary school grades 4, 5 & 6.
Three boys were caned, then came Miles’ turn. You could hear his knees knocking as he was shaking all over and about to cry.
Whack! Miles cringed with pain.
Miles yelled, “NO!” pulling away both his hands and hiding them behind his back and stepping backwards away from the threatening cane.
Miles yelled out loud again, scaring all the birds out of a tree, “This is not right, you are caning us for something we didn’t do. Being late was not our fault, we were held back at the Home because someone had stolen a box of oranges.”
Miles paused to wipe away a few tears then very quickly put his hands behind his back again, “Ring Mr Ronkin at the Home and he will explain.”
Mr McManus was glaring with eyes like knives, cutting Miles in two. He was bright red in the face and slobbering a bit from the mouth.
“Miles Taylor, I know you well, don’t I. Just because you are eleven years old, you think you know everything. You think you can talk your way out of this, as you have tried previously and failed. You’re an agitator Taylor and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if you were the ringleader and organized all of this. Well it is not going to work and you are going to be caned the same as the rest of your kind.”
He glared at all the other boys threatening them by waving his cane at each of them.
“The reason I know you are lying Taylor is that there are twenty-seven of you here. Where is the twenty-eighth boy? He arrived on time, but all of you thought you would be clever and give some tall story why you were late. Well that doesn’t work with me, I know that you Home’s Boys lie and cheat.”
He started to poke Miles in the chest with his cane.
“Taylor, hold out your hand right now.”
Miles stepped back out of range of the cane, “Donald is the fastest runner in the school and we had no hope of keeping up with him. Grades 1, 2 and 3 went to school by bus. All the other primary school kids had to run the four miles barefoot in single file. We couldn’t run on the footpath because the hot weather had melted the tar, and with the prickles in the side grass meant we have to run single file on the narrow strip between melted tar and prickles. That slowed us down enormously.”
Mr McManus was getting angrier, staring at Miles with razor blades. He stepped closer to Miles to try to jab him again with his cane, but Miles kept backing up and staying out of reach.
“There was no way we could have kept up with Donald. He was too fast for us,” said Miles.
“You are breaking my heart,” said Mr McManus, glaring at Miles trying to get close enough to whack him with his cane. “You could write a book with all that rubbish. Stand still! Stop moving backwards, and take your punishment. Put out your hand Taylor.”
Miles backed up some more in defiance.
“Go to the end of the line, I will deal with you last, after I have punished all these other mongrels.”
Miles went to the end of the line, which gave him a big breathing space before the Headmaster would cane him again. The Headmaster continued caning each boy, once on the left hand and once on the right hand. As he got closer to Miles, the crying got louder and louder.
Mr McManus kept yelling out loud, “Stop crying or I will cane you again.”
The crying would fall silent for about ten seconds and then start again.
Miles was becoming very agitated and trembling all over; his caning was getting closer and closer.
Finally, Mr McManus stood in front of Miles, but before addressing Miles, he yelled at all the other kids.
“Don’t move an inch, stay in line until I have dealt with this dissident.”
Turning to Miles, he commanded, “It is now your turn, Miles Taylor, put out your right hand, face up.”
Miles put both hands behind his back in defiance.
Mr McManus was becoming more and more furious, and redder in the face, jabbing Miles on the chest several times with the end of his cane.
Miles backed up some more, refusing to obey him.
The whole school was watching the goings on from their classrooms. There were kids hanging out of windows everywhere. Even the teachers were watching.
Mr McManus turned towards the school pointing his cane at them and started yelling.
“Get back inside and back to your desks or I’ll cane all of you!”
As Mr McManus turned back, Miles backed up some more, keeping out of reach of the cane.
“Stand still,” said Mr McManus. “You’re a dissident Taylor, go to my office right now and I will deal with you after I’ve dealt with the rest of these liars and cheats. You are in big trouble disobeying me, especially in front the whole school.”
“Go on, move yourself, now!”
As Miles turned to go, Mr McManus whacked him twice on the back of his legs. Miles was wearing shorts so the cane hit bare legs making Miles jerk forward, nearly falling to the ground.
Angrily Miles turned around saying, “That hurt,” and grabbed the cane and snapped it in half, then started abusing him, “You stupid old man. See if you can cane anyone with this.”
Miles threw the two halves of cane at Mr McManus.
“You’re nothing but an ignorant old man who hates everybody. You just want to hurt people especially kids. No wonder all the kids and the Teachers hate you.”
Miles then started running towards the school back entrance.
Mr McManus chased after him.
The other twenty-six kids took this opportunity to escape, and ran out of the schoolyard and into the bush to hide.
Mr McManus was puffing and panting and gave up the chase. He turned and started yelling at the disappearing kids who were now fading into the surrounding bush.
“Come back here this minute you mongrels. You’re in big trouble.”
He was bright red in the face and sweating profusely, collapsing onto the ground to recover. It looked like he was having a heart attack.
One of the Teachers came rushing out to help him.
The kids were hanging out of the classroom windows again yelling “Good onya Taylor, Yeah, Yeah.”
Miles went into the Headmasters Office and stood there for a few minutes to catch his breath and muttering to himself, ‘Stupid old bastard.’
There were about six canes standing upright in a wicker basket by the side of the desk. Miles started breaking each one in half and throwing the pieces onto the desk. Two of them wouldn’t break but remained bent at an angle.
Miles felt shaken by the incident and was tense. He could feel his knees shaking, almost knocking each other. He was starting to get a bit apprehensive about what would happen next. He raised his aching left hand to see the damage. It was bright red, swollen and shaking too. He wiped away several tears and pulled himself together. Miles noticed a glass of water on the desk and drank it down with one gulp.
Miles started to think about what had happened, ‘ Mr McManus was wrong to cane everyone. We were all innocent. Speaking up and defying the Headmaster was the right thing to do. We didn’t have to put up with that sort of abuse just because we were from an orphanage. The repercussions of my actions meant that I was going be caned again, with ‘six of the best cuts’, plus be expelled from school; then a further ‘six of the best cuts’ from the Headmaster, Mr Ronkin, at SwanLake Boys Home. ’
Miles was starting to gain strength in his convictions and continued thinking, ‘ I am determined to make my point that the ‘Home’s Kids are not second class citizens or sheep to be pushed around. We wanted to be treated properly like any other kid and educated to become responsible Adults.’
The Kids at the Home came from all sorts of situations such as no parents, parents in jail, immigrants waiting for their parents to come from overseas, and many other reasons why Parents dump their children in a Home! The year 1956 was a new period for Australia as they were taking in thousands of migrants who were displaced people from many countries in Europe, mostly from England.
The Headmaster, Mr McManus, couldn’t come to grips with a group of children who had no parents to discipline them. He was