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In a minute I had her saddled and bridled; I tied the end of a half-full chaff-bag, shook the chaff into each end and dumped it on to the pommel as a cushion or buffer for Jim; I wrapped him in a blanket, and scrambled into the saddle with him. The next minute we were stumbling down the steep bank, clattering and splashing over the crossing, and struggling up the opposite bank to the level.
The inside of this curious bee-hive of a dwelling was dirty and dark, besides being half-full of smoke, created by the pipe of a squaw the old man's wife who regaled herself there with the soothing weed. There were several dogs there also, and two particularly small infants in wooden cradles, who were tied up like mummies, and did nothing but stare right before them into space.
And the impression of the scarcity of food was seemingly confirmed when the table was being set for the first meal at my hotel; when the waiter, who chanced to be an old friend, pointed to a little bowl half-full of sugar and exclaimed: "I ought to warn you, sir, it's all you're to have for a week, and I'm sorry to say you're only allowed a bit of bread, too."
The basket was half-full, in fact; more than half, and, on looking at it, a sudden thought struck the lawyer. He rang the bell, and presently Mrs. Sampson made her appearance. "How long has that waste-paper basket been standing like that?" he asked, pointing to it. "It bein' the only fault I 'ad to find with 'im," said Mrs.
But when it was past we were more than half-full of water. This I soon bailed out, while Peterkin again hoisted a corner of the sail. But the evil which Jack had feared came upon us. We found it quite impossible to make Penguin Island.
"My engines are wrecked, sir; utterly destroyed," answered Kennedy; "and the ship is holed through her bottom, down in the engine-room. The hole is big enough to drive a coach through, and the room is half-full of water already. If either of the bulkheads goes we shall sink like a stone!" At this juncture we were joined by the chief, second, and third officers, who came upon each other's heels.
He then went back to his horse's head. The sack made no bad seat, for it was half-full of turnip-seed; and upon it Annie sat, and drearily surveyed the circumstances. Auntie was standing in the middle of the shop. Bruce was holding the counter open, and inviting her to enter. "Ye'll come in and tak a cup o' tay, efter yer journey, Marget?" said he. "Na, I thank ye, Robert Bruce.
His vague contempt for Jim Logan had turned in the last few minutes to active loathing, even to hatred. He wanted the fellow punished, as he would have wanted a rattlesnake to have its poison fangs drawn. He wished to speak out and tell the now laughing policemen the brief story of Logan's hurried visit to the club. Down would go the half-full champagne glasses on the table.
Nearby were two ancient but substantial rocking chairs, singularly out of place, no doubt discarded survivors of long-distant days of comfort, rescued from an attic storeroom by the young trespassers. A scrap basket, half-full of torn and crumpled sheets of paper, stood conveniently near the table. He lighted both of the candles and extinguished the flickering faggot.
To the Napoleonic man-servant who opened to him, he gravely presented a tomato can half-full of water, and said: "Will yer please arsk Bill or Jinny if they'll be so good as to bile my billy at the drorin'-room fire. Tell 'em it's Nicholas Crips what makes the request. No, thanks, I won't come in, I'm afraid my motor car might bolt."
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