Genre - Adventure. You are on the page - 25
he time, my brothers Hosea andEphraim were respectively nine and seven, while little Ruth could scarcehave been more than four. It chanced that a few days before a wanderingpreacher of the Independents had put up at our house, and his religiousministrations had left my father moody and excitable. One night I hadgone to bed as usual, and was sound asleep with my two brothers besideme, when we were roused and ordered to come downstairs. Huddling on ourclothes we followed him into the kitchen,
-glass."Tell Colonel Flanagan to see to it, Stephen," said the general; and thegalloper sped upon his way. The colonel, a fine old Celtic warrior, wasover at C Company in an instant. "How are the men, Captain Foley?" "Never better, sir," answered the senior captain, in the spirit thatmakes a Madras officer look murder if you suggest recruiting hisregiment from the Punjab. "Stiffen them up!" cried the colonel. As he rode away a colour-sergeantseemed to
the residential quarter of a prosperous town. It should have been surrounded by an acre of well-kept garden, and situated in a private road, with lamp-posts and a pillar-box.For all that, it offered a solidly resistant front to the solitude. Its state of excellent repair was evidence that no money was spared to keep it weather-proof. There was no blistered paint, no defective guttering. The whole was somehow suggestive of a house which, at a pinch, could be rendered secure as an armored car. It
ssed the bottomof the High Street, he came opposite to one of the many tavernswhich looked out upon the river. In the open bay window satmerchants and gentlemen, discoursing over their afternoon's draughtof sack; and outside the door was gathered a group of sailors,listening earnestly to some one who stood in the midst. The boy,all alive for any sea-news, must needs go up to them, and take hisplace among the sailor-lads who were peeping and whispering underthe elbows of the men; and so came in
craft ofbirch bark like a thing of life, answering cheerfully all hiscompanion's questions. Both were gay and light-hearted. On suchoccasions men lose the superficial, worldly distinctions; they becomehuman beings working together for a common end. Simpson, the employer,and DΓ©fago the employed, among these primitive forces, were simply--twomen, the "guider" and the "guided." Superior knowledge, of course,assumed control, and the younger man fell without a second thought
is eyes. He breathed hard. At last he said, "Dear Father in Heaven, I live. Thou hast saved me. I thank Thee."VII THE FIRST NIGHT ON LAND "Where are my companions?" That was his first thought. He began to call and halloo: "Where are you?" "Come here!" But no one answered. Then he wished to see if anyone lived on the land, and he cried, "Is there no one here? Hello!" but all remained still. All at once he drew himself together and shrank back. He