United States or Sierra Leone ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Then we shouldered our parcels and resumed our business. Two full dinghy-loads of Stores we ferried to the Dulcibella, chief among which were two immense cans of petroleum, constituting our reserves of heat and light, and a sack of flour.
It was so apt to sting her with the reminder of her own poverty, the life of drudgery and dependence that was to be her portion till the end of her days. She did not, in the Mauleverer phraseology, 'take to' the new girls. She left them to be courted by Miss Pillby, and petted by Miss Dulcibella. She felt as lonely as one who has outlived her generation.
The colder and stormier it is, the better for them. I had forgotten the ducks and the cold, and, suddenly presented as a shooting-box in inclement weather, the Dulcibella lost ground in my estimation, which she had latterly gained. 'I'm fond of shooting, I said, 'but I'm afraid I'm only a fair-weather yachtsman, and I should much prefer sun and scenery. 'Scenery, he repeated, reflectively.
He had doubled round the bows of the yacht, and I did the same, ducked under the bowsprit, forgetting the bobstay, and fell violently on my head, with all the wind knocked out of me by a wire rope and block whose strength and bulk was one of the glories of the Dulcibella. I struggled on as soon as I got some breath, but my invisible quarry was far ahead.
It returned again when von Brüning offered to tow us out in the evening. It was in my mind when I questioned him as to his business ashore, for it occurred to me that perhaps his landing here was not solely due to a wish to inspect the crew of the Dulcibella.
Still, I had an object in coming, and as I was there I thought I might as well gain it. The notion of Davies in his Norfolk jacket and rusty flannels haranguing a frigid German in evening dress in a 'gorgeous' saloon tickled my fancy greatly. 'He seemed very much astonished to see me; had evidently seen the Dulcibella arrive, and had wondered what she was.
Under the stern-deck was stored a massive roll of tarpaulin, a corner of which made an excellent blanket, and my bundle a good pillow. It was a descent from the luxury of last night; but a spy, I reflected philosophically, cannot expect a feather bed two nights running, and this one was at any rate airier and roomier than the coffin-like bunk of the Dulcibella, and not so very much harder.
A momentary thrill of curiosity broke in upon my depression as I sat down to open it. A comer on the reverse of the envelope bore the blotted legend: 'Very sorry, but there's one other thing a pair of rigging screws from Carey and Neilson's, size 1 3/8, galvanized. Here it is: Yacht 'Dulcibella, Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, 21st Sept.
Crossing the bridge I climbed the Dybbol dotted with memorials of that heroic defence and thence could see the wee form and gossamer rigging of the Dulcibella on the silver ribbon of the Sound. and was reminded by the sight that there were stores to be bought.
A diminished row of stolid Frisians still ruminated over the Dulcibella. Friend Grimm was visible smoking on his forecastle. We went on board in silence. 'First of all, where exactly is Memmert? I said. Davies pulled down the chart, said 'There, and flung himself at full length on a sofa. The reader can see Memmert for himself.
Word Of The Day