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Every now and then we heard the signal guns of the Spanish fleet booming at a distance to windward of us, and you may guess how our hearts leaped at the sound, and how we watched with all our ears for the next gun that was fired, trying to make out their bearings and distance, as we assembled in little knots upon the booms and weather-gangway.
The weather-gangway is usually left for the occasional transits of that most restless of mortals, the officer of the watch, who, as in duty bound, is eternally fidgeting about the trim of the sails, and must often step forward to the chestree, from whence, while resting his foot on the tack-block of the mainsail, he may cast his eye aloft to detect something to alter in the position of the head-yards.
Walk this boy up and down the weather-gangway, and every time you get forward abreast of the main-tack block, put his mouth to windward, squeeze him sharp by the nape of the neck until he opens his mouth wide, and there keep him and let the cold air blow down his throat, while you count ten; then walk him aft, and when you are forward again, proceed as before.
"Will you plaise just step to the weather-gangway, out of earshot of the man at the helm? I have got something I would like to say to you." Walter stepped to the gangway, and, seeing no one near, asked Tidy what he had to communicate.
I do not know what kept me awake, for lads of my age are apt to get all the sleep they can; but I believe I was thinking of Clawbonny, and Grace, and Lucy; for the latter, excellent girl as she was, often crossed my mind in those days of youth and comparative innocence. Awake I was, and walking in the weather-gangway, in a sailor's trot. Mr.
Captain Manual had his men paraded in the weather-gangway, and after a short address, calculated to inflame their military ardor and patriotism, acquainted them that he required twenty volunteers, which was in truth half their number, for a dangerous service. After a short pause, the company stepped forward, like one man, and announced themselves as ready to follow him to the end of the world.