United States or Croatia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
I had another reason; I saw that nothing would be easier than for Kidd or Yawl to slip on the cabin-hatch while I was below, and so have us at their mercy, for Ramon, though a stalwart youth enough, could not contend with the two sailors single-handed. "Just as you like, sir; it's all the same to me," answered Kidd, rather shortly, and then relapsed into thoughtful silence.
"Now, Mr Easy, the great ting will be to get hold of captain; we must get him on deck. Open cabin-hatch now, and keep the after-hatch fast. Two men stay there, the others all come aft." "Yes," replied Jack, "it will be a great point to secure the captain but how are we to get him up?" "You no know how to get captain up? By de holy, I know very well."
"Yes," replied Mesty, "one man sentry over cabin-hatch, and another over after-hatch. Now den we light candle, and all the rest go round the deck. Mind you leave all your pistols on capstern." Jack lighted the candle, and they proceeded round the decks: they had not walked far, when, between two of the guns, they discovered a heap covered with gregos.
And so we made the rest of the passage, von Brüning cuddled against me and the cabin-hatch, alternately shouting a jest to Davies and talking to me in a light and charming vein, with just that shade of patronage that the disparity in our ages warranted, about my time in Germany, places, people, and books I knew, and about life, especially young men's life, in England, a country he had never visited, but hoped to; I responding as well as I could, striving to meet his mood, acquit myself like a man, draw zest instead of humiliation from the irony of our position, but scarcely able to make headway against a numbing sense of defeat and incapacity.
What took place during those next few moments Hilary did not know, only that he made a spring to mount the cabin-ladder and got nearly out at the hatch, but as Tom Tully and another man sprang forward at the same moment they hindered one another, when there was a few moments' interval of fierce struggling, the sound of oaths and blows, a few shots were fired by the marines through the cabin skylight, and then Hilary found himself lying on the lower deck under Tom Tully, listening to the banging down of the cabin-hatch.
"Now, Mr Easy, the great ting will be to get hold of captain; we must get him on deck. Open cabin-hatch now, and keep the after-hatch fast. Two men stay there, the others all come aft." "Yes," replied Jack, "It will be a great point to secure the captain but how are we to get him up?" "You no know how to get captain up? By de holy, I know very well."
Do yer hear?" These words came clearly enough over the water in the silence of the tropic night, and once more all was still again, and there was a low whistling, as if someone were walking back to the cabin-hatch, where he stood for a few minutes, and then went below. "Tom," said Mark, "that's the slaver skipper." "Yes, sir, so I s'pose. Nobody else wouldn't bully like that."
At the first crash of broken glass on the deck, the crew had begun to appear, unobtrusively from all directions. Now cabin-hatch, galley-hatch, deck-house, every coign of vantage along the battlefield held its silent cluster of wondering figures.
Mark gave a sharp look round as they walked toward the cabin-hatch, to see through the hot glow the Nautilus at anchor, looking trim, and with every yard squared. She seemed to stand up out of the water in the transparent atmosphere, with every rope clearly seen, but there was a peculiar look seaward, as if the transparent darkness were sweeping over the ocean to shut her in.
A sour-looking fellow with a villainous grin slouched to the little cabin-hatch; and by this time the whole of the boat's crew, including the two blacks, and saving the coxswain, who held on to the chains, were aboard, Tom Fillot scanning the deck eagerly for some sign of the nefarious traffic, but none was visible. "Guessed yew was pirates for a moment, mister," said the skipper.
Word Of The Day