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"If the old feller don't put on brakes pretty soon the harpoon'll git so hot it'll melt the blubber and pull out," chuckled the stroke-oar. It was the first word spoken that showed relief. There was a perceptible slackening of our speed. And the whale was "going back to town," as the captain had intimated. "Get hold of that line, Webb, and stand ready to haul," said Mr.
Another time it was a devout Moslem sheykh who begged 'Ali to give him a Christian slave to kill, as he did not feel that he had offered any sufficiently pleasing sacrifice to the prophet Mohammed. 'Ali unchained the stroke-oar of his galley, a muscular Spaniard, and armed him at all points, and sent him to be killed by the holy man.
"No bottom yet, sir," reported the stroke-oar at frequent intervals; and at each report the coxswain starboarded an extra half-point or so, until at length the boat's nose was pointing straight for the mouth of the creek, and at every stroke of the oars the fiendish uproar of horns, tom-toms, and shouting or chanting, whichever it was seemed to come to our ears more distinctly, and with more ominous import.
Otoo saw to it that he always pulled stroke-oar in my boat. Our custom, in recruiting labor, was to land the recruiter on the beach. The covering boat always lay on its oars several hundred feet off shore, while the recruiter's boat, also lying on its oars, kept afloat on the edge of the beach.
"The Teaser or some other steamer; and she's running fast for harbour. Let's see: those are the Black Gull Islands to port there. Were you with us when the cutter's crew landed, Jecks?" "Yes, sir; I rowed stroke-oar, sir." "To be sure. The second one from the north had the highest ground." "Yes, sir; but you couldn't land for the surf and the shark-fin rocks, if you remember."
He saw six sweeps at work, and in the stern, clearly outlined against the overhanging wall of white, a man who stood erect, gigantic, swaying with his weight on the steering-sweep. This he saw, and an eighth man who crouched in the bow and gazed shoreward. But what startled Sheldon was the sight of a woman in the stern-sheets, between the stroke-oar and the steersman.
Of late years I have observed a great increase in the number of athletic students, and a great decrease in scholarship. The fame of the half-back and the short-stop and the stroke-oar has grown out of proportion to their real worth. The freshman is dazzled by it. The great majority of college men cannot shine in sport, which is the best thing that could be.
Otoo signed on before the mast; and for the next half-dozen years, in as many ships, we knocked about the wildest portions of Melanesia. Otoo saw to it that he always pulled stroke-oar in my boat. Our custom in recruiting labor was to land the recruiter on the beach.
Frank then descended with the cat in his arms and took a seat in the stern-sheets, the first mate very good-naturedly pulling the stroke-oar on the return journey in his place; and, all these little matters being thus arranged, Pussy's rescuers started again for the shore.
I gave you a 'Van' to your name when I might have called you 'Perkins' or 'Simpson. I have humbled myself so far as to brag of your polo ponies, your automobiles, and the iron muscles that you acquired when you were stroke-oar of your 'varsity eight, or 'eleven, whichever it is. I created you for the hero of this story; and I will not submit to having you queer it.
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