Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 27, 2025
Captain Hankey had kept his eyes open to some purpose when he inspected the steamer, for he had seen a lot of things that had been stripped off the vessel put together in a heap under the bridge, as if her plunderers intended returning for them, not having been able to carry them away at their last trip; and, albeit he did not draw the attention of our first lieutenant to this, to my knowledge, when talking to him, no doubt, from the preparations he made, `old Hankey Pankey' drew his own conclusions.
"Then, we'll blaze away and let the beggars have it all together," yelled out `old Hankey Pankey, raising himself up in some wonderful sort of way on the top of the tree stump, for he could not stand on his legs; and, taking off his cap and waving it round his head thrice, he gave out the words, "One two three, Fire!"
But, though we might have faltered after our third repulse at the stockade, we were not frightened now; nor did a man of us wish to fall back, even if he had the chance. We were only waiting for `old Hankey Pankey' to give the word. He did not delay this long.
`Old Hankey Pankey' caught up the telescope that Mr Dabchick had just deposited on the slab, putting it to his eye. "Yes, they are dhows sure enough, Gresham," he said to the first lieutenant, after a brief inspection of the craft, which were stealing past us under the loom of the land far away to the westward.
Mr Dabchick had just sung out this for the second time on getting back to the weather end of the bridge, when Captain Hankey, accompanied by Mr Gresham and a lot of the other officers, rushed on deck, some of them half dressed and buckling on their gear as they came hurrying along. `Old Hankey Pankey' made straight for the bridge, the first lieutenant close at his heels.
Pipchin's were hardly less ludicrous in their way than that bitter old victim of the Peruvian mines in her perennial weeds of black bombazeen. Miss Pankey, for instance, the mild little blue-eyed morsel of a child who was instructed by the Ogress that "nobody who sniffed before visitors ever went to heaven!"
The bluejackets and marines belonging to the admiral's division then rejoined their ships at Mombassa; while our contingent, led still by `old Hankey Pankey, who was none the worse for the fray, retraced their steps through Teita and the `baboon valley' where, I may add, I met no second mishap to Malindi.
She was lying at the old decayed wharf by the lumber-yard of Pankey & Co., and almost thumping her side out against the rough logs. Augustus got into her and bailed her, for she was nearly half full of water. This being done, we hoisted jib and mainsail, kept full, and started boldly out to sea. The wind, as I before said, blew freshly from the southwest. The night was very clear and cold.
Then we heard tom-toms beating close by, and the clash of brass or some other metal that had a ring like cymbals. "They're waking up," cried `old Hankey Pankey' to Mr Gresham, with a pleased smile on his face. "The column will now advance. Close your ranks, men. Keep steady. Forward!"
Just at that moment, though, when starting forwards again, with the captain still pick-a-back on his shoulders, Larrikins stumbled over a dead Arab that lay in front of him, and down came he with `old Hankey Pankey' all in a heap together, with a couple of Somalis, at whom they were going full butt.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking