Haikus from Prester John by John Buchan

From a book categorized as Fiction / Action & Adventure and 305 pages follows a description and a number of hidden haikus found in the book:

Prester John is an adventure novel by John Buchan. It tells the story of a young Scotsman named David Crawfurd and his adventures in South Africa, where a Zulu uprising is tied to the medieval legend of Prester John. Crawfurd is similar in many ways to Buchan's later character, Richard Hannay. The legends of Prester John were popular in Europe from the 12th through the 17th centuries, and told of a Christian patriarch and king said to rule over a Christian nation lost amidst the Muslims and pagans in the Orient. Written accounts of this kingdom are variegated collections of medieval popular fantasy. Prester John was reportedly a descendant of one of the Three Magi, said to be a generous ruler and a virtuous man, presiding over a realm full of riches and strange creatures, in which the Patriarch of the Saint Thomas Christians resided. His kingdom contained such marvels as the Gates of Alexander and the Fountain of Youth, and even bordered the Earthly Paradise. Among his treasures was a mirror through which every province could be seen, the fabled original from which the "speculum literature" of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance was derived, in which the prince's realms were surveyed and his duties laid out.

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I moved a few steps
 up the deck, and then I saw
that his skin was black.

You see, there are few
 white men near, and young fellows
want society.

I got up at dawn
 stiff and cold, and ate a few
raisins for breakfast.

There was a clear path
 through the jungle, a path worn
smooth by many feet.

'I haven't the nerve
 for this job, Davie,' he said;
'I'll have to resign.

You may imagine
 that my curiosity
ran to fever-heat.

Suddenly the legs
 twitched up, and his boots appeared
above the counter.

My unknown friend must
 therefore be somewhere within
eighty miles of me.

'That's a mystery
 no scholar has ever been
able to fathom.

You will find little
 in it, for it is newly
built and not yet stocked.

My pony was stalled
 in a rough shed we had built
opposite the store.

It flew up and down
 as its bearer cast the light
into the corners.

I looked on the last
 months as a clear course which had
been mapped out for me.

I lifted my head
 as much as I dared to see
what would happen next.

I was determined
 that such cowardice should not
be laid to my charge.

To get this over
 his snapping jaws took the whole
strength of the party.

The police patrols
 must be on this road, and there
was risk in crossing.

In particular
 there was a faint splash of blood
on the left temple.

These things troubled me
 less than the fact that I had
no light at all now.

'It belongs to you,
 Davie,' he said, 'and we must
see that you get it.