United States or Guernsey ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Twelve or fourteen hands are quite enough to show," the captain said. "The anchor's up, sir," Joe shouted. "Let it hang there. We will get it aboard, presently. "Now haul that fore-staysail across, ease off the spanker sheet. "Now, as she comes round, haul on the braces and sheets, one by one. Do it in as lubberly a way as you can."
Every now and again, however, some song that touched the pathos of our situation was given forth; and you could hear by the voices that took up the burden how the sentiment came home to each. "The Anchor's Weighed," was true for us. We were indeed "Rocked on the Bosom of the Stormy Deep."
Then, a little after: "Who says the anchor's fouled? How can I tell for the noise? Tell them, less noise below. I never done it, tell them! And take his grinning face out of the way, or you'll never get it clear! 'Tisn't Christian burial look at their fins! D n them, Hayling, look at their fins! Three feet of sand, or they'll never stay covered. Who says as I poisoned them? Hayling knows.
The night was dark and windless: the street lit glimmeringly from end to end, lamps, house-windows, and the reflections in the rain-pools all contributing. From a public-house on the other side of the way, I heard a harp twang and a doleful voice upraised in the "Larboard Watch," "The Anchor's Weighed," and other naval ditties. Where had my shyster wandered?
The whaleboat was then cut adrift, the upper topsails and the spanker set, the yards braced up, and the spanker sheet hauled out to starboard. "Heave away on your anchor, Mr. Carthew." "Anchor's gone, sir." "Set jibs." It was done, and the brig still hung enchanted. Wicks, his head full of a schooner's mainsail, turned his mind to the spanker.
In another instant I was carried beyond the crest of the Golden Cliffs, out over the Valley Dor, where, six thousand feet below me, the Lost Sea of Korus lay shimmering in the moonlight. Carefully I climbed to a sitting posture across the anchor's arms. I wondered if by chance the vessel might be deserted. I hoped so.
"I'll talk about that after the anchor's down," returned Wicks, and he drew Carthew forward. "I say," he whispered, "here's a fortune." "How much do you call that?" asked Carthew. "I can't put a figure on it yet I daren't!" said the captain. "We might cruise twenty years and not find the match of it. And suppose another ship came in to-night? Everything's possible!
We're overloaded already. Hustle your baggage in; the anchor's afloat and you've no time to lose." "Come on, Charley, you and Grigsby," called Mr. Adams. "Bear a hand with that baggage," bellowed the captain; and several sailors sprang to the head of the stairs. Mr. Adams ran rapidly down again, passing Charley, who scampering gladly up. "You'll have to wait over, Motte," he said. Mr.
"One's clear now," he added. "Bring her up again." The ketch forged ahead, but the wait was longer than before. "Caught," Halvard's voice drifted thinly aft; "coral ledge." Woolfolk held the Gar stationary until the sailor cried weakly: "Anchor's apeak." They moved inperceptibly through the dark, into the greater force of the wind beyond the point.
Every now and again, however, some song that touched the pathos of our situation was given forth; and you could hear by the voices that took up the burden how the sentiment came home to each, 'The Anchor's Weighed' was true for us.
Word Of The Day