United States or Haiti ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
And then I realized that it was the chuckling of water under the Kawa's counter as manned by the intrepid Triplett she merrily footed it over the wrinkled sea. Once more the "Kawa" foots the sea. Triplett's observations and our assistance. The death of the compass-plant. Lost! An orgy of desperation. Oblivion and excess. The "Kawa" brings us home. Our reception in Papeete.
"A compass-plant," said Triplett, "is ," but for the third and last time, I anticipate. I must get over that habit. Swank's popularity on the island. Whinney's jealousy. An artistic duel. Whinney's deplorable condition. An assembly of the Archipelago. Water-sports on the reef. The Judgment.
The lenses ain't very good; had to use fish-skin. Got my compass-plant nicely rooted in sand, see she's doin' fine." "What's this all for?" asked Swank. Triplett smiled malevolently. "Don't you want to know where you be? I've got it all figgered out. Got a chart, too." He unrolled a broad leaf on which he had drawn a rough sketch of the island, probable north and possible latitude and longitude.
It was as if the Filberts had never existed. The captain alone was cheerful. Joy bubbled from that calloused heart of his in striking contrast to the gloom of his companions. Most of the time he was our helmsman, his eye cocked aloft at the taut halyards of eva-eva, occasionally glancing from the sun to the compass-plant which bloomed in a shell of fresh water lashed to an improvised binnacle.
We tried to help him. While the Captain pointed his astrolabe sunward and announced the figures Whinney and I, like tailors' assistants, took them down, Whinney doing the adding, I the subtracting and Swank the charting. The results were confusion worse confounded. And then a dreadful thing happened. The compass-plant sickened and died.
Peering through the port-hole I could see Triplett by the light of a phosphorous dip working on a rude diagram; at his elbow was the blue flower in a puta-shell of water. "Triplett," I asked sternly, as I stood beside him an instant later, "what is that flower?" "That," said Triplett, "is a compass-plant." "And what is a compass-plant?"
Word Of The Day