United States or Burundi ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
'Voices or no voices, said the captain, 'you'd better patch the old engines up, and see if you've got enough steam to whistle with. I've a notion that we've got into rather too crowded ways. "The engineer stayed on deck while the men went down below. The skipper hadn't got back to the chart-room before I saw thirty feet of bowsprit hanging over the break of the fo'c'sle.
The after-rail of the chart-room deck looked almost directly down the hatch whereon the fight was to take place. As Noyes was taking his position by the rail he guessed that the bosun must have just said something which pleased the crew, for most of them were still laughing heartily. Kieran, on a camp-stool, waited for the laughter to simmer down. He fixed a mocking eye on the bosun.
"Between the hours of 1 a.m. and 3 a.m., did any one leave or enter the after house by the after companion?" "Yes, sir. Mr. Singleton went down into the chart-room, and came back again in five or ten minutes." "At what time?" "At four bells two o'clock." "No one else?" "No, sir; but I saw Mr. Turner " "Confine yourself to the question. What was Mr. Singleton's manner at the time you mention?"
The other day I had been yarning under the bridge with one of the engineers, and he must have heard us. When I came up to take my watch, he steps out of the chart-room and has a good look all round, peeps over at the sidelights, glances at the compass, squints upward at the stars. That's his regular performance.
"I had forgotten that, but now I remember. The axe fell beside me, and I tried to scream, but I could not. I saw the door closed, very slowly and without a sound. Then I fainted." The thing was quite possible. Owing to the small size of the cabin, and to the fact that it must accommodate two bunks, the door opened out into the chart-room.
A score of geese like a long letter "V" were crossing the evening sky, they slanted their necks and all went twisting downwards somewhere about the horizon. Captain Shard rushed to his chart-room, and presently the men came in at the door with Old Frank in front looking awkward and twisting his cap in his hand. "What is it?" said Shard as though nothing were wrong.
It's on'y a day lost, an' I guess the other liquor on board 'll last till we make the island. Sink me, if this ain't the queerest run this crimson ship 'as ever 'ad. I'll be glad w'en it's ended." Coke lurched away in the direction of the chart-room. Hozier found him there later, poring over a chart of Fernando Noronha.
A dip in the sea would be the grand finale, but there is little risk of this as the water freezes as soon as a lane opens in the ice. The pressure-ridge is about fifteen to twenty feet high for several hundred feet, and the ice all about it is bent up in a most extraordinary manner. At 9 p.m. "June 13. The temperature in the chart-room ranges from zero to a little above freezing-point.
She began to be afraid of remaining on the bridge; her fear was not due to the really vital fact that it was so exposed; it arose from the purely feminine consideration that she was sure Coke had become a raving maniac, and she dreaded meeting him when, if ever, he reappeared. A bullet struck the front frame of the chart-room, and several panes of glass were shattered with a fearful din.
I had got my knife by that time, and in desperation I threw myself against the door. It gave way, and I fell full length on the main cabin floor. I was still in darkness. The silence in the cabin was absolute. I could hear the steersman beyond the chart-room scratching a match. As I got up, six bells struck. It was three o'clock. Vail's room was next to the pantry, and forward.
Word Of The Day