United States or Mongolia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
And you'll find the other in the bottom of the skiff's forward locker! Put a little more wood on the fire, Kid; and say, Bill, hand me that, won't you? Who's going to get a pail of water?" All three of us were going to get a pail of water, of course! It was the one thing in the world we wanted to do very much get a pail of water! But the raw materials how they played on them!
I untied the rope, where it was made fast to the skiff's bow, and with it and the anchor in my hands, scrambled aft and wedged the anchor under the stern thwart of the little craft. "Now," I said, "you can pull in the slack until you get to the end. Then make it fast to your bow somewhere."
Arriving within a few cable lengths of the cetacean, our longboat slowed down, and the sculls dipped noiselessly into the tranquil waters. Harpoon in hand, Ned Land went to take his stand in the skiff's bow. Harpoons used for hunting whales are usually attached to a very long rope that pays out quickly when the wounded animal drags it with him.
He began rowing toward the weed-covered flat. I said nothing. I was furiously angry and it was some moments before I recovered self-possession sufficiently to get my remaining oar over the skiff's stern and, by sculling, hold her against the tide. Then I watched and waited. It was not a long wait. Victor was in difficulties almost from the beginning.
"I was a-walkin' with my missus alongside the Serpentine in London, that is. There was swans sailin' on it, an' we was 'eavin' bits of bread to 'em. 'Fred, she says, 'you'll 'ave it beautiful for your regatta. You'll win, she says, 'the Stokers' Cutters, the Vet'rans' Skiff's, the Orficers' Gigs, an' the All-comers."
Willie Bagner's skiff's bin stolen, an' I believe the party that took it hez got little Lily, because I foun' the hoop I give her, an' this envellup in the same place, an' it seems to me the galoot whose name's on it is hid somewhere up the river, an' I'm goin' after him if I has to go alone." "But you won't go alone, while I'm alive," insisted Leander, intensely excited.
Yet, when we fetched up, through the darkness we could hear the seas breaking on the solid shore astern, and so near was it that we shortened the skiff's painter. Daylight showed us that between the stern of the skiff and destruction was no more than a score of feet. And how it did blow!
We were less than a skiff's length apart, each trying to outpose and outstare the other. I won. Human eyes are none the strongest, neither is human patience, yet I have rarely seen a creature that could outwait a man. The only steady, straightforward eye in the Jungle was Mowgli's because it was the only one with a steady mind behind it.
Suddenly an oar snapped. Instantly Neils unshipped the remaining oar, sprang to the stern, and attempted, by sculling, to keep the skiff's head up to the waves.
Having taken the sharp edge off his appetite, Marcy told Julius to make the skiff's painter fast to the stern of his dugout and go ahead; and the sooner he reached home the better he would like it.
Word Of The Day