United States or Antigua and Barbuda ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The three put a little more punch into their lagging strokes, noting, as they neared the steep bank, that a couple of men had appeared at its top and were staring at them. Gradually the long dugout worked in to the muddy shore, where the paddlers stabbed their blades into the clay and held it firm. "Ahoy, up there! This the Nunes seringal?"
She rounded to, backed her main topsail, and showed her decks full of men, four guns on a side, hammock nettings, and everything man-of-war fashion, except that there was no boatswain's whistle, and no uniforms on the quarter-deck. A short, square-built man, in a rough grey jacket, with a speaking-trumpet in hand, stood in the weather hammock nettings. "Ship ahoy!" "Hallo!"
What the boys saw was a bright light shining through the darkness a short distance off the starboard bow, and what they heard a moment later was the puffing of a small but exceedingly active steam engine. The light presently disappeared but the puffing continued, increasing in force and frequency as the approaching launch gathered headway, and then came the hail: "Schooner ahoy!"
Vegetables twice a week and milk every morning came from the palatial grounds of the admiralty. "Spray ahoy!" would hail the admiral. "Spray ahoy!" "Hello!" "To-morrow is your vegetable day, sir." "Aye, aye, sir!" I rambled much about the old city, and a gunner piloted me through the galleries of the rock as far as a stranger is permitted to go.
The tired muscles were strained in a final effort, and the moist veins bulged about their temples. "Boat ahoy!" came from the schooner. "Look alive or we'll leave you." "Leave " the rest of Duff's exclamation was lost as he threw his whole effort into a last spurt. The shadow of the lofty sails was towering over the yawl when the Wanderer began to glide ahead.
Another blast howled through the distant trees and swept down upon him. Then, borne on the wind, he heard from somewhere ahead, and alarmingly near at hand, other sounds, voices, calls for help. "Ahoy!" he shouted. "Ahoy there! Who is it? Where are you?" "Help!" came the calls again and nearer. "Help!" "Look out!" roared Seth, peering excitedly over his shoulder into the dark. "Where are you?
His hair was sandy, and very much ruffled, and his big, pale blue eyes were wide open, as though he were surprised about something. "Ship ahoy!" he remarked again, but in an ordinary conversational tone, this time. Then he climbed to his feet, carefully, so as to keep the steep sides of his little, sand island from giving way, and letting him down into the water.
"Dusk fell, then a night black as pitch; and peering upon the river I heard a low, mournful hail, 'Ship, ahoy! Two Gravesend watermen came alongside. They had a lantern in their wherry, and looked up the ship's side, holding on to the ladder without a word. I saw in the patch of light a lot of loose, fair hair down there." He shuddered again.
When the boats were within hailing distance, a man in the bow of the long-boat rose up. "Quarter-boat ahoy!" "Ahoy!" "How much water have you?" "None!" The word came floating over the placid moonlit water. At it the fellows in the long-boat ceased rowing, and you could see the water-drops dripping off their oars like diamonds in the moonlight. "Quarter-boat, ahoy!" shouted the fellow in the bow.
To their great surprise, they saw that he was using a skipping-rope, and skipping towards them, smiling good-naturedly. "Thank goodness, here's a man at last," said Dick. "Now we shall be able to find out something as to where we are, and how we are to get home again." "Ship ahoy!" called out the sailor, when he first saw them. "How do you do?" said Dick, politely offering his hand.
Word Of The Day