FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94  
95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   >>   >|  
r, to follow him, and hastily made his way into the saloon. "Bring me the captain's charts," he said, as soon as Ned joined him. The charts were produced; and after carefully looking them over Williams selected a track-chart of the world, which he carefully spread out on the table. "Now, show me whereabouts we are," he said. Ned indicated the position of the ship by making a pencil dot on the paper, and a long period of anxious study on Williams' part followed. "What is the course to the Straits of Sunda?" was the next question. Ned told him; whereupon Williams left the saloon, and a moment later was heard altering the course of the ship in accordance with Ned's information. He then returned to the saloon, and unrolled a chart of the North Pacific, which he pored anxiously over for fully a quarter of an hour, finally huddling the charts all together in a heap, with the remark, "That will do for the present;" which Ned construed into a token of dismissal, and accordingly left the cabin. Day followed day with little or no variety, the weather continuing fine all the time, and at length the _Flying Cloud_ arrived within a few days' sail of the Straits of Sunda. Ned now spent on deck every moment he could possibly spare from sleep, as he was not without hopes that hereabout a man-of-war might be fallen in with; and he was resolved that, in such a case, it should go hard but he would make some effort to communicate to her the state of affairs on board. And, as a matter of fact, they actually did sight a frigate on the day upon which they entered the straits. But Williams was not to be caught napping; he too had evidently contemplated some such possibility, and had taken such precautions as not only rendered it impossible for anyone to make a private signal, but had also arranged such answers to the signals usually made on such occasions that the frigate was completely hoodwinked, and passed on her way without attempting to send a boat alongside. This was a terrible disappointment, not only to Ned but also to Gaunt and the doctor, each of them having confidently reckoned upon a certain deliverance in the event of a man-of-war being fallen in with. They now recognised that in Williams, whether educated or not, they had a man of no ordinary acuteness to deal with; they realised that, though apparently free as air to act as they pleased, an unceasing watch was being kept upon them, and they felt that hencef
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94  
95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Williams

 

saloon

 

charts

 
moment
 
frigate
 

Straits

 
fallen
 

carefully

 

caught

 

napping


evidently
 

straits

 

entered

 

contemplated

 

hereabout

 
resolved
 

effort

 

communicate

 

matter

 
affairs

completely

 
recognised
 

educated

 

ordinary

 

acuteness

 

confidently

 

reckoned

 
deliverance
 

realised

 

unceasing


hencef

 

pleased

 

apparently

 

arranged

 

signal

 

answers

 

signals

 

private

 

precautions

 

rendered


impossible

 

occasions

 

terrible

 

disappointment

 

doctor

 

alongside

 
hoodwinked
 

passed

 

attempting

 

possibility