United States or Ireland ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
In fact, she stumbled over his prostrate body. With an amazon's strength, she gathered him into her arms, then staggered with him back to his couch, and as she strained him to herself she loudly called his name. Amid that demoniac din, amid the shrieking of those million devils, freed from the black chasms of the rock, her voice was as feeble as the wail of a sick child.
"Not at home, ma'am," repeated Henry, like a vocal machine. "My name is Wilson, young man," said she, persuasively, and the Amazon's voice was mellow and womanly, spite of her coal-scuttle full of field poppies. "I am her nurse, and I have not seen her this five years come Martinmas;" and the Amazon gave a gentle sigh of disappointment. "Not at home, ma'am!" rang the inexorable Plush.
Of course they were made prisoners, but they were treated well, and exchanged not many months after. Conduct like that of the Amazon's people in their hour of extreme danger and it is nothing more than British seamen commonly display in the same situation makes an Englishman proud of his country.
Anxiety for her father's safety made her sufficiently unhappy; but in addition her mind must cope with the mystery of Cap'n Amazon's identity and Cap'n Abe's whereabouts. For she was not at all satisfied in her heart that the storekeeper had sailed from the port of Boston on the Curlew; and the status of the piratical looking Amazon Silt was by no means decided to her satisfaction.
The nagging of Betty Gallup, the gossip of the other neighbors, the wild suspicions whispered from lip to lip did not influence her so much. It was what she had herself discovered the evening before in the captain's "cabin" that urged her on. Now Cap'n Amazon's display of tenderness "took all the wind out of her sails," as Betty Gallup would have said.
They got the limp figure up the stairs with the Amazon's help, but she did not follow, but went below to get her brother something to eat as his strenuous day had begun, and he stood in need of immediate ballast. The scene just enacted might have been a daily occurrence from her perfect indifference, as indeed scenes of violence no doubt were, but none of the men could equal her in sangfroid.
"Is that a' I am good for now?" said the indignant matron. There was here another laugh at the expense of the hero who had received this amazon's assistance. "Here, mother," said one of the sailors, "here's a cup of the right for you, and never mind that bully-huff."
She kept away from him as much as possible, for she feared that she might be tempted to blurt out just what she thought of his ridiculous stories. She did not like to hear Betty Gallup utter her diatribes against the master mariner; although in secret she was inclined to accept as true many of the "able seaman's" strictures upon Cap'n Amazon's character.
Those two hours were memorable and would remain so in Louise's mind for weeks. Lawford Tapp, too, quite gave himself up to the charm of the old romancer. To watch Cap'n Amazon's dark intent face and his glowing eyes, while he told of these wonders of sea and land, would have thrilled the most sophisticated listener.
Our Amazon's purpose was staggered by this providential incident; the sound of her native language, so unexpectedly heard, and so pathetically delivered, had a surprising effect upon her imagination; and the faculty of reflection did not forsake her in such emergency.
Word Of The Day