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The shock was so severe that the boat was nearly capsized, and six of the Indians were knocked into the sea and drowned. Captain Gallop immediately stood off and prepared for another similar broadside. In the mean time, he lashed the anchor to the bows of the vessel in such a way that the fluke should pierce the side of the boat, and serve as a grappling iron.
Best of all was the joyful yet apologetic way with which Richard sprang forward and held out his hand to Munson, crying out: "A fluke, my dear Mr. Munson; quite a fluke, I assure you. Pray forgive me. A mere lucky accident. My old fencing master, Martini, taught me that trick. I thought I had quite forgotten it.
As the Chinese drag their anchors on board instead of catting and fishing as other seamen do, this position of the stock offers no impediment. The flukes were of the same dimensions as those of similar sized anchors with us; they were straight and not rounded, and there were no palms. There was also a kedge, with only one fluke. The cables were of rattan.
The subject was brought up at dinner, and Dorothy asked the opinion of the voters of the family. "Probably he had made a fluke of some kind," one said. "More probably he had out-sharped the other side," suggested a second. "It will be in the papers to-morrow," said the first suggestor.
All our money goes to pay salaries, and a poor man has no chance at all. 'Well, says I, 'are you done up stock and fluke a total wrack? 'No, says he, 'I have two hundred pounds left yet to the good, but my farm, stock and utensils, them young blood horses, and the bran' new vessel I was a-buildin', are all gone to pot, swept as clean as a thrashin' floor, that's a fact; Shark and Co. took all. 'Well, says I, 'do you know the reason of all that misfortin'? 'Oh, says he, 'any fool can tell that; bad times to be sure everything has turned agin the country, the banks have it all their own way, and much good may it do 'em. 'Well, says I, 'what's the reason the banks don't eat us up too, for I guess they are as hungry as your'n be, and no way particular about their food neither; considerable sharp set cut like razors, you may depend.
"The newspapers were wild about you. It was a fluke, wasn't it Clancy 'getting' you in the ninth?" "No," he muttered sullenly, "he whipped me fairly." "Really. I'm awfully sorry. When one sets one's heart upon a thing " "Will you be quiet, Una?" he cried impetuously. "I won't have you talking this way, of these things. I I was jollied into the thing.
The question surely, which for practical men stands out from the mighty historical episode touched on in the last chapter, is this: Was the fact that these despised men were so entirely right and their triumphant adversaries so entirely wrong a mere fluke, or was it due to the soundness of one set of principles and the hollowness of the other; and were the principles special to that case, or general to international conflict as a whole?
And then, by golly, to go and make a fluke like that before them Diamond G men to go and let that blue roan pile yuh up b'fore he'd got rightly started t' pitch If yuh'd stayed with him till he got t' swappin' ends there, it wouldn't uh looked quite so bad. But t' go and git throwed down right in the start By golly!" Slim faced Andy accusingly.
And if the whole thing were just a fluke, a stray deposit of a little gold that did not amount to anything, then it would be best for her to know nothing about it. Ward felt in himself, at that moment, the keen foretaste of bitter disappointment which would follow such a certainty. He did not want Billy Louise exposed to that pain. He would tell her about the wolves, of course.
"Kezia's a wonderful woman," remarked Mr Fluke, after she had left the room. "I have a great respect for her, as you see. She is worth her weight in gold; she keeps everything in order, her husband and me to boot. Years ago, before she came to me, I had a large black tom cat; he was somewhat of a pet, and as I kept him in order, he always behaved properly in my presence.
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