United States or Cyprus ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Let's go start the fun." On the way aft they passed the firemen sprawling on the shady side of the deck. They stumbled to their feet at sight of Hovey, and swore volubly that the hole of the ship was too hot for a man to live in it five minutes. Hovey passed them without a word. He had to tend to Campbell now, and without an engineer it was useless to work men in the fireroom.
They wouldn't work for me. They stood around looking stupid at me and left me alone in the fireroom, and I had to come back on deck, in the sight of Kate, and rouse you out of your sleep and beg you to go back and try to make the lads keep at their work. And you got up to your knees, struggling to get back your consciousness!
Therefore he thrust out his lower jaw and favored McTee with a glare of hate. He was repaid by the glow of content which showed in the captain's face. "And the hole of the Heron," he said, speaking softly lest his voice should carry to the man in the wheelhouse, "is it cooler than the fireroom of the Mary Rogers?" Harrigan glanced up, glowering. "Damn you, McTee!"
They were led to a high-ceilinged bathroom cool with glazed, white bricks which lined it, where the two servants poured over them bucket after bucket of cold water, and the grime of the voyage and the labors in the fireroom and the mighty weariness of their muscles disappeared little by little in slow degrees.
Campbell closed and locked the door and turned back to Harrigan with a grin. "The world's a wide place," he said, "but there's few enough in it who know our Bobbie, God bless him! When I've found one, shall I let him go down to the fireroom? Ha! Now tell me what's wrong between you and McTee."
As he worked, he hummed a tune and saw the narrow jaw of McTee jut out. Harrigan smiled. He had scarcely finished stowing his bucket and brush away when the bos'n brought him word that he was wanted in the fireroom. Masters's face was serious. "What's the main idea?" asked Harrigan. The bos'n cast a worried eye fore and aft. "Black McTee's breakin' you," he said; "you're getting the whip."
As week after week passed, and the new hand revealed no temperamental proclivities, no "kid-glove" inclinations, seemingly content with washing down decks, lassooing pier bitts with the bight of a hawser at a distance of ten feet, and hauling ash-buckets from the fireroom when the blower was out of order both of which last were made possible by his mighty shoulders the Captain began to take a different sort of interest in him.
"I think you are right; but she has room enough to run away from us if she can," added the captain. It was a busy time in the fireroom, but there was nothing to do on deck but watch the steamer. She had actually lighted the green light on the starboard, and evidently did not expect to be overhauled, even if her commander had noticed the presence of the Bellevite.
Then they would have their revenge. The second day was a repetition of the first. He began with scrubbing down the bridge. The suds, strong with lye, ate shrewdly at his raw hands. Still he hummed as he worked and watched McTee's frown grow dark. When he was ordered below to the fireroom, he wrapped his hands in the soft waste again.
Of course I couldn't stand for that, you know, and " "Oh, Of course not, you stuck-up little donkey," interrupted Ned. "So I started as a stowaway on the Key West steamer " "You cheeky little imp! Did they put you in command of the ship when they found you?" "No, only put me in the fireroom, shoveling coal in the furnace." "But that's not boy's work. What business "
Word Of The Day