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Who's for a cheap ride on what a pleasant writer calls the 'silent highway? silent no longer, since the steamers have taken to plying above Bridge at a charge which has made the surface of the Thames, where it runs through the heart of London, populous with life, and noisy with the clash of paddles and the rush of steam, to say nothing of the incessant chorus of captains, engine-boys, and gangway-men with their 'Ease her, 'Stop her, 'Back her, 'Turn ahead, 'Turn astarn, 'Now, marm, with the bundle, be alive, 'Heave ahead there, will you? &c., all the day long.
Old Clay pleased him, you may depend; he turned round and clapped his hands, and larfed, and waved his hat to his officers to come on; and they whipped, and spurred, and galloped, and raced for dear life; but we dropped 'em astarn like any thing, and he larfed again, heartier than ever There is no people a'most, like to ride so fast as sailors; they crack on, like a house a fire.
He contented himself with remarking, in reference to these things, that "w'en things in gin'ral wos more nor ord'nar'ly oncommon, an' w'en incomprehensibles was blowin' a reg'lar hurricane astarn, so that a man couldn't hold on to the belayin'-pins he'd bin used to, without their breakin' short off an' lettin' him go spin into the lee-scuppers, why wot then? a wise man's course wos to take in all sail, an' scud before it under bare poles."
Oh, we kin tow her astarn in plain sailin', 'n' when we come to a cataract we can put Sweeny in an' let her slide." "No ye can't," said Sweeny. "It's big enough, an' yet it won't howld um, no more'n a tayspoon'll howld a flay." "Wal, we kin let her slide without a crew, 'n' pick her up arterwards," decided Glover. We must hasten over the minor events of this remarkable journey.
Another heavy report seemed to strike the schooner again, as the smoke curled rapidly out of the cabin window, and Mark pressed to it, thrust out his head, and uttered a loud cheer. "Why no yes hooray!" roared Tom Fillot, as he caught a glimpse of something half a mile away, seen through the thick white smoke. "Cheer, lads, cheer! It's the Naughtylass just astarn."
The fugitives in the gig see fires on both shores fifty or more the lurid flames symbolising the fierce implacable hostility of the savages who have set them alight. "We're boun' to keep on till we've got 'em all astarn," says Seagriff. "So long's thar's a spark ahead, it'll be dangersome to put in.
"Chaps," he called to the remnant of the crew gathered grimy about the after-hatch. "I thank my God for this booriful sight. Frenchman to port!" shooting his left arm. "Frenchman to starboard!" shooting his right. "Frenchman astarn!" with a backward toss. "And God A'mighty aloft. What more can a Christian ask?" A shot from the frigate splashed under the bows of the sloop, sluicing her deck.
I shan't be long astarn of my messmate here; can't you see that?" "Heaven forbid!" said Hazel, surprised and alarmed. "Why, you are not wounded mortally, as Cooper was. Have a good heart, man, and we three will all see old England yet." "Well, sir," said Welch, coolly, "I'll tell ye.
Right ahead o' us lay the 'Santissima Trinidado' a great four-decker, young sir astarn o' her was the 'Beaucenture, and astarn o' her again, the 'Redoutable, wi' eight or nine others. On we went wi' the Admiral's favorite signal flying, 'Engage the enemy more closely. Ah, young sir, there weren't no stand-offishness about our Nelson, God bless him!
"Couldn't, Tom. It does smart so." "But s'pose your whiskers had growed, sir. Why, it would ha' took all them off too." "Don't don't talk, man," cried Mark impatiently. "Only try if you can see what's going on. How was it we didn't see the Nautilus before?" "She must ha' come round some pynte sudden-like, and took 'em on the hop, sir. We couldn't make her because we can only see just astarn.
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