FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170  
171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   >>   >|  
t?" "Nonsense!" cried Poole. "We are all coming down to get on board the schooner as quickly as we can." "And a blessed good thing too," growled the other man. "But you'd better stop where y'are, for this 'ere's an awful place. Anybody might have my job for me." "Yes," said Poole, "I know it must have been terribly bad, but we are off again directly with the news that you two are all right." "That we are which, sir?" said the first speaker. "Oh, I say, Mr Poole, sir, don't go and tell the skipper a lie like that." "No, no; of course I'll tell him about how you have suffered; but we haven't been lying in feather-beds up there. Here, I say, Fitz, don't laugh." "I couldn't help it," cried Fitz. "No, sir, you couldn't," said the first man. "We couldn't at first. I laughed at Jem to see him smacking his own face all over, and he laughed at me and said mine looked beastly. And we didn't either of us look nice when the sun rose this morning, not even when we'd had a good wash. But it's all over now, as you are coming down, and the first thing Jem and me's going to do as soon as we gets aboard the schooner is to go and hide our heads in the hold. Say, Jem, old lad, I wonder what Chips will say to you when he sees your mug!" "Just the same as he will say to you, messmate, about yourn." "Hush! Don't talk. Get back into hiding again, and be ready to pick up the first load as soon as they come down." "What of, sir? Prisoners or plunder?" "Spaniards, my lad. Come, be serious. We are in a queer fix up there, shut in by the enemy. Have you seen anything of them here?" "Yes; about a couple of dozen ugly-looking beggars, sort of mahogany-brown, come and had a look; but they didn't see us, and went back. It was just afore that first firing began." "That's right," cried Poole. "Back with you; but it won't be long before some one comes, and then you must drop down to the coast, signal the schooner, land your load, and come back; but keep two men to help you." "Ay, ay, sir." "One word; you haven't seen any of the Teals, I suppose?" "Oh yes, sir. Old Butters rowed up with the dinghy this evening." "Last evening, mate," growled the other. "Yes, that's right, messmate. He just had a word with us. Mr Burgess sent him. He wanted news, but of course we had got none, only about the shooting. The bosun said that if the skipper didn't soon come back he was afraid accidents would happen t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170  
171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

couldn

 

schooner

 

skipper

 

messmate

 

laughed

 

evening

 

growled

 

coming


couple
 

shooting

 

happen

 

mahogany

 
beggars
 
accidents
 

Spaniards

 

Prisoners


afraid

 

plunder

 

dinghy

 

signal

 
Butters
 

suppose

 

firing

 
Burgess

wanted

 

speaker

 

directly

 

terribly

 

smacking

 

feather

 

suffered

 

blessed


quickly

 
Nonsense
 

Anybody

 
hiding
 

beastly

 
looked
 
morning
 

aboard