United States or Burkina Faso ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
When the evening closed in, the Frenchman was in sight about two leagues off, coming up astern. The "Thisbe," now casting off the prize, stood towards her. At this time there was no other sail in sight, with the exception of a small boat, apparently a fishing boat, which kept as close as she could to the "Thisbe," possibly to watch what was going to take place.
"Well, unless every man on board is clean witless they must deem us both harmless. Maybe they have heard of a wedding party that is to cross and are waiting for us. Otherwise it seems impossible that they will face us and the Dane as well." Now Eric was back on his old tack, and passing astern of us.
The broken and formidable sea raged round the lifeboat like a pack of wolves. It broke on both sides of the lifeboat right into her, and literally boiled over her as she flew before the gale and the impulse of the swell astern. Nothing could be seen in this stormy flight except the white burst of the tumultuous waves, and all around was midnight blackness.
Our simple forest friend laid in his winter stock traps, flour, salt, tobacco, and pork, a new axe and accompanied us back down the lake again on the steamer. She stopped in mid-stream, while Jimmie got his bundles into his "bark" and shoved off, amid a hail of "good-byes." The engine palpitated, the big wheel churned the water astern, and we drew away.
Deacon raised the stroke slightly, to thirty-three, but soon dropped to thirty-two, watching Shelburne carefully lest she make a runaway then and there. Baliol was half a length astern at the two-and-a-half mile mark, passing which the Shelburne crew gave themselves up to a tremendous effort to kill off her rival then and there. "Jim! They're doing thirty-six walking away."
They got her righted, and though she was still full of water put the child on board. The mainsail had been carried away, but the jib still drew her sluggishly along, and Francois and the woman swam astern and worked the rudder with their hands. The cold was cruel; the fatigue, as time went on, became excessive; and in that preserve of sharks, fear hunted them.
"It's no go, boss," he said, "my eyes are pretty good, but they're not good enough to see through such darkness as this." Johnson chuckled. "Do you think," said he, "it looks any lighter ahead? Would our sails show against that cloud-bank in the wake of the fore- mast?" "Not they," answered the mate confidently. "Why, it's darker, if anything, ahead than it is astern."
However, they altered their course to avoid it; and a little before sunset, dropping the islands astern, resumed their previous track. But very soon after, they espied our little sea-goat, bounding over the billows from afar. This they took for a canoe giving chase to them. It renewed and augmented their alarm.
It struck the flying jib-boom, breaking it short off and rendering that sail useless, glanced and splintered the rail close by the spot where the captain and his pilot were standing, went shrieking off over the water, and finally exploding an eighth of a mile astern.
But there was nothing of this appeared; and as we made nearer and nearer the shore, the land looked more frightful than the sea. After we had rowed, or rather driven, about a league and a half, as we reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came rolling astern of us, and plainly bade us expect the coup de grace.
Word Of The Day