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Having erected the door in front of its own doorway, Joe leaned his preventer against the wall, placed his lantern on the chimney-piece, and sat down to meditate. He had not meditated long, when the steady draught of air from the window at his back began to tell upon him. "Och! but it's a cowld wind," said he. "I'll try the other side. There's nothin' like facin' wan's inimies."
Where's the woman? That wasn't powder, Riley. What was it?" "Steam," answered the machinist, coolly. "They didn't rake the fires until too late, I suppose, and left the engine under one bell possibly, while they steered 'fore the wind with the preventer tiller." "They've got somebody. Can you see? It's the woman! Blown overboard. See any one else? I don't."
It was past one o'clock when the fire was finally extinguished. A few night-birds and late revellers still hung about it, as if in the hope that it would burst forth again, and afford them fresh excitement; but before two o'clock, everyone had gone away, and Joe was left alone with his "preventer" and lantern.
Instantly Dale seized an instrument from the engine, named a "preventer," like a large boat-hook, and, raising it at the full stretch of his powerful arms, he brought it swoop down on the heads of the roughs six of whom, including Gorman, measured their length on the ground.
"Well, we can only act for the best," replied the captain curtly, apparently not relishing this criticism of his seamanship from a landsman as he thought who knew nothing about the matter; and he then moved back to his post by the binnacle, leaving Mr Meldrum standing by the head of the companion, where he was presently joined by Frank Harness, the first and second mates being both forward, superintending the bending of preventer stays to secure the masts, which seemed to be ready to jump out of the ship from the leverage exercised even by the little sail she was carrying.
As they were the only whites on board, the captain took little Tommy into the cabin with him to sit at the same table; but there was too much truth in the negro's statement, and instead of sitting down to one of those nice dinners which are spread in Boston ships, both great and small, there, on a little piece of pine board, swung with a preventer, was a plate of black homony covered with a few pieces of fried pork, so rank and oily as to be really repulsive to a common stomach.
The Pallas was a very crank vessel, and her lee main-deck guns were under water, and even the quarter-deck carronades were at times immersed. However, the Frenchmen came up so fast that it was necessary, at any cost, to crowd on more sail. Cochrane had all the hawsers brought up, and with these got up preventer stays, and then every sail was spread. “This drove her bows-under through the seas.
We rolled so, that preventer stays were rigged to make sure of our masts and the guns were secured with double lashings round the breech; while lifelines were rove fore and aft to assist us in keeping our footing along the deck. So far, we had been all alone; the other ships of the squadron having parted company early in the afternoon, each making shift as best she could for herself.
Our preventer back-stays which, for the benefit of the uninitiated, I may explain, were simply extra ropes intended to take a portion of the strain and so relieve the ordinary back-stays whenever it became necessary to carry a very heavy press of canvas were already cut and fitted; all that we had to do, therefore, was to send their upper ends aloft and attach them to their respective spars by shackling the eye to a stout iron collar on the spar, fitted especially for the purpose, set up the lower ends by means of runners to ring-bolts in the stanchions, and the thing was done.
"See here, dad," put in Bob at this point. "Stoop down a bit and look under the forward end of the body here." His father did as requested, and Bob pointed out a circular opening about the size of a saucer, from which protruded the end of an aluminum-encased shaft bearing a small rubber-tired wheel of very sturdy proportions. "That is our preventer, dad," smiled his son.
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