United States or Laos ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
And as the dim light of the candle fell upon his upturned face, Reginald, with a cry of horror, recognised the features of Mr Durfy, already released by death from the agonies of smallpox. Booms was not exactly the sort of man to be elated by the mission which Miss Shuckleford had thrust upon him.
The long royal-masts were sent down and replaced by stump topgallant masts, the flying jib-boom, and the studding-sail booms were also sent down, and all the boats, except one, were got in and secured, and the hatches were battened down, and everything else was done to make the ship light aloft. Some of the men thought the captain over careful, but it was soon shown that he was right.
"She is round, too," Frank said, as the boom went off nearly square. "We have gained, and she is not more than half a mile away." The manoeuvre had, in fact, brought the yachts nearer to each other. Both had their booms over to starboard. "Quick with that square sail," Frank shouted. "She is drawing away from us fast."
I was Horace's chum at Wilderham, you know, and used to spend my holidays regularly at Garden Vale. Is she very ill?" "Very," said Booms; "and the worst of it is, Reginald is not at home." "Where is he. Horrors told me he had gone to the country." Booms would tell him. For the visitor called his friend Horrors, a pet name none but his own family were ever known to use.
With scarcely any perceptible shock we struck her fair and square amidships, right in the wake of where I judged her boiler-room would be; there was a horrible crackling and rending of wood and iron as our stem sheared into and through her deck, a clamour of yells from the crew as they fought with each other in their mad haste to lower the boats, and the destroyer heeled over until she was almost on her beam-ends, a volleying succession of deep, heavy booms, accompanied by a tremendous outburst of steam, proclaimed that her boilers had burst, and at the same instant she seemed to crumple up and break completely in two, her bow-half sweeping along our port side, while her stern-half drove past to starboard, the crew, unable to get the boats afloat, leaping desperately overboard.
It was ascertained that large numbers of Chinese war-junks were collected, keeping out of the way, as they fancied, of the outer barbarians, in the various creeks and channels which run into the Canton river. These channels were narrow and shallow in some places, and guarded with forts and booms, and natural as well as artificial bars.
"That'll do," he advised, "we're all here. Lord, Corrigan! I thought you were afire at least." "You got to show us up a reg'lar Christmas dinner to match that," said one of the men to Corrigan. After the meal, which Bobby enjoyed thoroughly, because it was so different from what he had at home, he had a request to proffer. "Papa," he demanded, "I want to go out on the booms."
Jim feared that there might be a second chain across the harbour, a little higher up, but the Peruvians had evidently considered the single barrier sufficient, for there were no more booms. Now he could see the towering spars of two school hulks, and in a few minutes he passed slowly and silently by them, but without stopping.
The calms here are unlike those in most parts of the world, for there is always such a high sea running, and the periods of calm are so short, that it has no time to go down; and vessels, being under no command of sails or rudder, lie like logs upon the water. We were obliged to steady the booms and yards by guys and braces, and to lash everything well below.
"We shall carry this wind for another ten minutes at the most," he assured us. "And these devils have boats." So it proved. Within ten minutes our booms were swinging uselessly; the sea spread calm for miles around us; and we saw no fewer than three boats being lowered from the xebec, now about four miles away.
Word Of The Day