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The reason for this lack of watermanship is partly due to the difficulty in coaching otherwise than from the stern of a boat, there being no towing path on which the coach can ride or run alongside his men, as is done at Oxford or Cambridge, while the hire of launches is too expensive.
Wallace leaped from the deck on the rocks, and, with the same rope in his hand with which he had saved the life of the seaman, he called to the two men to follow him, who yet held similar ropes, fastened like his own to the prow of the vessel; and being obeyed, they strove by towing it along, to stem the suction of the current. It was at this instant that Lady Mar rushed forward upon deck.
The natives of Moogi treacherously attacked and killed the whole of a detachment, including the French officer in command, during the absence of Colonel Gordon, who was engaged in the operation of towing the steamer through the rapids only a few miles distant.
In a moment a sailor had flung us a line, and we were towing along at the mizzen channels, with the men climbing aboard as fast as they could. Miss Sackett was passed over the rail, and her mother took her below. I was the last one except Johnson to climb up. He stood at the bow ready to hitch on the tackles.
The wind and sea-way together were too much for the cutter. The Colleen left her behind, and she at last drew off after bunching a few farewell shots. O'Donnell then hove-to and took his seine-boat on deck. He had been towing it the wrong end foremost for the whole forty miles, and he was worried over it. "It's strained her maybe and she almost a new boat," he lamented. "For the rest I don't care.
The men in the boat were Moran, the slow-moving character whom Cora had seen in the store; Bruce, the "society" chap; Kelly, a blunt and unscrupulous Irishman, who handled the money for the factory interests, and a man to run the boat. He had been brought in at the last minute. "We lost a lot of time, towing those chumps," grumbled Moran, as the Pickerel forged ahead.
After searching for some time for a landing place among the wonderful banks of reeds, we discovered a passage that had evidently been used as an approach by canoes, but so narrow that our large canoe could with difficulty be dragged through all the men walking through the mud and reeds, and towing with their utmost strength.
Eight of the remaining sixteen men of the crew were then directed to take their places around the ladies' inclosure, along with Mr Adams and Frank Harness, while the other eight hands, under the command of Mr McCarthy, were told off to the jolly-boat, which was provided with double-banked oars and attached to the raft by a stout tow-rope it being the intention of Mr Meldrum, who remained on the raft as deputy commander-in-chief of the whole party in poor Captain Dinks' place, to relieve the rowers every alternate hour, so that all should have an equal share in the arduous task of towing, a job which would tax all their strength.
Retarded by the vast, birdlike bulk that trailed below, they seemed hardly to make any progress at all. Stern ordered the free boats to hitch on and help by towing. Lines were passed, and after a while all twenty-five canoes, driven by the power of two hundred and fifty pairs of sinewy arms, were dragging the Pauillac shoreward.
They found her floated, and riding easily, and, after towing her to the dock, they returned to the house. Partaking of a hasty supper the young folks, leaving Ponto and the servant in the bungalow, went down to the beach, and started for a moonlight ride in the Ripper. "ISN'T this perfectly delightful," remarked Nellie, as she reclined on some cushions in the little cabin.
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