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"I should have thought that would be rather an advantage in a husband," remarks Eleanor."Really Bertie was too expensive, he wanted so much pocket money, I could not afford the luxury of a _fiancé_ on his terms. Of course, he is broken-hearted, dear boy, and naturally I wept a few poetical tears, and said I should alw...
"You are a good woman," says the other, rising and looking down tenderly, lovingly at Eleanor.Again they clasp hands, then a cloud of towzled hair under a black crape bonnet vanishes down the platform, and Mrs. Roche is left alone, with the pieces of torn cardboard and the scent of patchouli on the opposite seat.CHAPTE...
It is more the annoyance of having dressed herself in vain than disappointment at not seeing him which vexes Eleanor."I dislike people throwing you over at the last moment; it is very inconsiderate and unkind. But I suppose he can't help it, poor fellow," with a touch of regret for her petulance. "I am very extravaga...
That evening the Lanes take him to the theatre. The play bores him to distraction, though they say that it is good. He remembers reading some excellent notices on it in the leading papers, and planning to take Eleanor the night after she returns. He is one of a gay, light-hearted party, and goes on with them to sup ...
"What do yer mean?" she gasps at last. "There ain't no harm come to my dearie!"She wrings her hands despairingly."Has Eleanor left you?" he asks in a voice so strangely unfamiliar that he hardly knows it for his own."Three days ago. She went 'ome, to be sure, as bright and as bonny as could be, looking that pretty, I...
"We had a glorious voyage, didn't we? and everybody was so nice to us. I remember, Carol, how frightened I felt when first you suggested this long journey, and promised to take me north of Burmah to this strange, uncivilised village, where I should have to eat nothing but rice, or shoot my own game. Of course you had ...
"You're awful pretty," he gasps at last, "and I am dropping no end of blood off my arm on your bodice. Oh! how my leg hurts. Guess I have broken it clean in two."At every step Eleanor fears she must give in, the perspiration is standing out on her forehead, while her own wounds smart and ache."I am afraid I shake you...
"Captain Stevenson is the dearest fellow on earth, and Major Short handsome enough to fascinate any woman. I assure you I am far too jealous to wish to introduce him. His eyes are soft and hazel, the sort that the feminine mind worships--adores! Hair dark and curling, with threads of grey. A smile that has worked d...
But the soul of the poet, soaring in the high region of his fancies, is suddenly rudely shaken. His horse starts, throws up its head and snorts, then shies across the road, as a dark shadow blackens the white stretch of moonlit ground."Steady," murmurs Quinton, patting the animal's neck, which is damp with sudden terr...
"Come back soon, Carol."She does not rise to kiss her hand or wave as he rides away.She is beginning to see with a woman's shrewd instinct that he treats her with more deference when she feigns indifference.She is dreaming over her book, and her idle fingers turn the pages till they come to _Macbeth_. By chance her ey...
"I am so sorry, darling," she answers penitently.Again she strikes the cords, this time hesitatingly, for her hand trembles.The spicy garlic smells are wafted on the night air.Eleanor breaks suddenly into song, as if inspired by the oriental atmosphere:"When the mist was on the rice fields, an' the sun was droppin' low...
"Has she any money?""Oh, yes, but hardly enough to take her home; she relied on living with you and Elizabeth. I shall help her all I can, and perhaps you will also."Big Tombo works hard, and he has a good store of hoardings laid by. He is an intensely generous man, and but for his wife's watchfulness would give away...
It is thus that Carol finds her, gazing tragically at the departing figure of Elizabeth Kachin."What's up?" he asks, seeing her distress."I have told Elizabeth," she says slowly, "what I am."Quinton bites his lips with annoyance."I should not have thought even you could have committed such an egregious act of folly!""I...
This is followed by a series of shrill barks--the sound as of a dog fighting for its life--a skirmish--a hideous yell--and then--silence."Something has killed him!" whispers Eleanor under her breath."We had better get on," replies Quinton; "it may be some dangerous beast.""What! ride off, and perhaps leave the wretched...
She takes up a large shady hat, and winds a long white veil over her face."Won't you come, too?" she asks mildly."No, certainly not, and I think you are very foolhardy to go."She stares at him in amazement."My dear boy, are we to stay in for ever because of old Quamina and her ugly sayings? If the devil is coming for ...
She takes out a cigarette, places it between her teeth, and hands her case to Eleanor."Have one?" she asks, with insouciance. Eleanor is staggered. She does not know whether to take this as a fresh slight or a very lame apology.Faint pulses of quivering sunbeams glance through the trees, playing round the dead body o...
"Maybe he has paid the devil off," Quamina surmises.* * * * *Captain Stevenson and Major Short ride over, much to Eleanor's delight, who enjoys a chat with the outer world as keenly as Carol.She longs once again to hear Major Short's melodious voice, and bringing her guitar, begs for "Mandalay."But ...
He sees in her eyes the overflowing of a heart; whose passionate adoration amounts to idolatry.He is touched and softened. He presses her lips, though they no longer thrill him, and she in her mute worship cannot define the change.Her love, he thinks, so freely given, so utterly beyond control, is after all a pitiable...
Eleanor shrugs her shoulders in sheer despair. She cannot bring this woman to reason. With a pitying smile she returns to the window, and buries her fingers in the soft silk of those yellow pillows with an almost frantic clutch. They are just like the sofa cushions at Lyndhurst. Philip, perhaps, is lounging on them...
With a woman's sharp instinct, intensified by dread, Eleanor sees that her doom is not yet; but the thought of another burns like fire in her brain. Her own miserable thread of life, what does it matter? She holds it as nought compared with the one she loves. She would die a thousand deaths if such a sacrifice would...
"By a masked fiend, who tore him from his horse and shook him by the throat, like a cat with a mouse, then flung him aside as a scorpion too poisonous to touch--a foul thing, only fit to lie beneath a rock, hidden from the sight of man. When he rose up, his assailant had gone, like a silent ghost on that lonely road."...
Produced by Paul Hollander, Malcolm Farmer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.netTHE GRAIN SHIPBYMORGAN ROBERTSONPUBLISHED BY McCLURE'S MAGAZINE AND METROPOLITAN MAGAZINEThe contents of this volume first appeared in the following magazines:"The Grain Ship"--_Harper's Monthly_. "From the Da...
"Not me," I said. "I found you on the road out here in a dazed state of mind, and you knew nothing whatever of ships or of sailors, though I took you for a shellback by your walk.""That's right. You can always spot one. You're a sailor, I can see, and an American, too. But what are you doing here? This must be the coas...
"The dog was a spirited little fellow, and used to sit on the skipper's shoulder when we were going about, or wearing ship, or handling canvas, and he would bark and yelp and swear at us, bossing each job as though he knew all about it. It kept the men good-humored, and we all liked the little beast. But from the time ...
"The man at the wheel had heard me arguing with the mate about making port, and, counting upon my sympathy, had prevailed upon the others forward to insist upon it. Well, you know the feeling of an officer up against mutiny. No matter what the provocation, he must put the mutiny down; so, when the men came aft, they fo...
"But he couldn't lie down; and when the time came that I had to sleep in the crosstrees again, I found, on waking, that Barnes had followed me, and in some way had got my gun out of my pocket. I knew he had it by the insane way he laughed as I came down from my perch. I hunted through the cabin for pistols or rifles, b...
Yet it never occurred to me that the wonderful and technically correct marines hanging on his walls were due to anything but the artist's conscientious study of his subject, and only his casual mispronounciation of the word "leeward," which landsmen pronounce as spelled, but which rolls off the tongue of a sailor, be h...
"The conditions would try anybody's temper, and I had my own troubles. There was a passenger on board, a big, fat, highly educated German--a scientist and explorer--whom we had taken aboard at some little town on the West Australian coast, and who was to leave us at Batavia, where he could catch a steamer for Germany."...
"Six men were clearing themselves from their lashings at the fore rigging, and three more, who had gone overboard with the first sea, and had caught the upper gear to be lifted as the craft righted, were coming down, while the professor still declaimed from the alley."'Hang on all,' I yelled; 'there's another sea comin...
"Soon the professor appeared and announced that his instruments were in good condition, and stowed high on shelves above the water."'I must resensitize my plates, however,' he said. 'Der salt water has spoiled them; but mine camera merely needs to dry out; und mine telescope, und mine static machine und Leyden jars--wh...
"Carefully gauging my stroke, I lunged with the knife, but I hardly think it entered the invisible fin, or tail, or paw of the monster; but it moved away from the screaming man, and the next moment I received a blow in the face that sent me aft six feet, flat on my back. Then came unconsciousness."When I recovered my s...
"Night came on, and, with its coming, the wind and rain ceased, though there was still a slight shower of ashes. But this ended toward midnight, and I could see stars overhead and a clear horizon. Sleep, in my nervous, overwrought condition, was impossible; but the professor, after the bright idea of using the turpenti...
"The elephant was moored to a stanchion by a short length of chain shackled around his hind leg, but it gave him a radius of action equal to his length and that of his hind leg and trunk. This precluded our using the fore-hatch to reach the hold, so we used the main-hatch; and, as there was daily use of it, this hatch ...
"Added to this were the insane orders to us fellows of the skipper and the two mates. They demanded that we go down and quell the disturbance. Well, we did not go down. We did other things."It was I who suggested to the skipper the advisability of cutting away the connections that held those spars and sails aloft, so t...
"He was only about forty feet down; and when young I had been a good ball-player. I leaned over and let that block go with all my strength. It wasn't the ordinary shell-block, but a solid carving of _lignum-vitae_; and it fetched that lion a smash on the head that must have cracked his skull, for he sank down, then got...
"They could find nothing eatable except soda biscuits, and they cleaned out the locker. But there was no water aft."Meanwhile the bark was getting lower and lower, and the rhino, to escape the wash, had drifted farther forward. I had wasted twelve bullets by this time, and had but three left. It was best, of course, to...
The dark, seamy-faced man of storm and strength, of stress and strain, asked her again to be his wife. He asked her as he would have asked a sailor to sign articles; and the frightened little woman accepted in about the same spirit that would have influenced the sailor; but she made one condition--that he would educate...
Then Sammy came home on his first vacation, and, learning of the money in the bank, used his prestige and address to such advantage that he persuaded the local authorities to declare Quinbey legally dead--an easy matter on that coast of many wrecks.Righteously indignant at the selfishness of the bank officials, he indu...
Quinbey wrote to Andover, and in a few days received a reply, which he read to his wife. It was a true account of Sammy's mishap in Boston; and, while Quinbey grinned--he could not smile--the mother wept silently, but asked no forgiveness for her wayward son. And when he rummaged a bureau, and brought forth an old jewe...
With this mental picture before me, my thoughts touched upon other happenings of that boyhood voyage--the long, tedious beat through the straits against light head winds and a continuous head tide; the man-killing log windlass, round which we hove, and lightened, chain of an eight-inch link; the natives, with their wel...
"'Put your knife on the water tank alongside my gun,' I said, 'and come aft where there's a clear space. We'll find out who runs this ship, you or the afterguard.'"'That sounds fair,' he said; 'but how about the after clap? This is not my proposition.'"'You mean darbies? There'll be none. The skipper wants you licked i...
"I tucked it under my mattress, resolved not to use it; but a little later put it into my trousers pocket. Fear of the law, forward and aft, began to yield to fear of death. Men openly sharpened their knives, and the afterguard ostentatiously showed their pistols. Their pistols were not so good as mine--they were doubl...
"I waited a few moments before following him, looking around at the prospect. Since I had gone aloft the wind had hauled to the north and died down to a gentle breeze, which barely ruffled the very slight ground swell. It was not the pressure of this wind that had driven the ship over the rock until she hung, pivoted, ...
"I have often wondered if God and the angels watched that fight in mid-ocean, or only hell and the devils. The nearest land to the west must have been Cape Race, the nearest to the east the Azores, each about five hundred miles away. I did not know the longitude; but I did know that we had sailed due east since I was d...
"They're keeping mum," he said, "and mean to try again; but it's no use. That treasure is seven hundred miles to the nor-nor'east now, and I was about the last man to look at it. It's resting in the hold of a small schooner, sunk in four hundred fathoms. I never heard of that treasure ship until about three years ago, ...
"We were pirates under the law, and didn't know but what all the revenue cutters on the coast were looking for us, for the theft of that schooner. But with seven millions of bullion and jewels, melted down, counted up, and translated into cash in some bank, we didn't care for the charge of piracy. The real trouble was ...
"Gleason had been choked to death, and I had examined the imprint of Pango's fingers before we buried him. There was hardly a sign; nothing at all to show that the little pink spots came from the pressure of a strangler's grip. Besides, you cannot choke a man asleep without waking him. He would make some kind of a fuss...
"The Jap must have been an expert in jiu jitsu, the wrestling game of that country. I've made a stagger at studying medicine since then, and learned a little. The pneumogastric nerve did the business. It passes from the base of the brain, down past the heart and lungs and ends near the stomach. It is motor, sensory, an...
"I reached the ferry on time; but Mrs. Milner was not there, nor did she come, though I waited until seven o'clock. Then I inquired, and an official informed that the five-thirty--the train boat--had met with an accident, and had landed her passengers at the nearest dock, which was a little further up. I hurried there,...
"'I've been turned out of my room,' he said. 'I'm allowed to sleep here, to-night; and I don't know how it will be to-morrow night--can't tell.'"'Well, I'll bunk in with you, here.'"'No,' he rejoined, heartlessly; 'on the whole, I don't want you. Get out and walk the street, or try someone else.'"'Then lend me some mon...
"Oh, I've got that kind of proof, too," rejoined the newcomer, stepping back and eying them with anger and disgust in his face. It was a face that must have been unused to such emotional expressions; it was smooth shaved, pink, and healthy, with keen blue eyes, the face of a man not yet grown up, or of a boy matured be...
"What's the use," said Benson, "if you haven't got a clear case against him? Now, I have. He shot Mahar on sight, in the presence of a dozen witnesses.""You mean," said Rogers, "that I was quickest. He pulled first; but I beat him to it, that's all.""Well," said the big proprietor, "we'll have to think on this a little...
The skipper turned to Rogers and said calmly, "By your own admission you are a fugitive from justice; hence, entitled to no sympathy from me." Then he turned to the two others and said, "You men put up a plausible story of being shanghaied. If you told it at the dock where I could get two men to replace you, I might pu...
Then Bill Rogers, desperado, outlaw, and fugitive from justice, went to the wheel, and as he steered he smiled again, grimly and painfully, for his nose hurt.Billings had followed him aft, up on the poop, and to the vicinity of the after companion, where he stood, waiting for the Captain. Snelling, having finished his ...
Hennesey's estimate of Murphy was not far wrong, though it might also apply to himself. The profits of a sailors' boarding-house depend not upon the cash paid in by men with money, who choose their own ship and come and go as they please, but upon the advance or allotment of pay which the law allows to deep-water seame...
"Yis; but I have to pay it, for no other class o' min can do the wurruk. Why, it 'ud kill an American or a Dootchman!""They must have money saved up.""All that they don't spind at me bar up on the corner. They have to save some, for in the nature o' things I can't git it all back. And they're all goin' back to the old ...
And thus did Murphy plan his dark vengeance upon Captain Williams. It went through without a hitch; the twenty-four wild men from Galway and Limerick, shipped on by Brother Mike, arrived at Murphy's house in a few days, and were housed and fed--"mate" with every meal--to the scandal of Mrs. Murphy, who averred that she...
"Ye did?" spluttered Murphy. "Well, Williams, I'll sue, don't ye fear. I'll sue.""That's as may be," said Williams, coldly. "Meanwhile, you'll sing small, do what you're told, and work your passage; and any time that you forget where you are, call on me and I'll tell you.""Ye want me to wark me passage, do ye? And what...
"Man that 'midship capstan, thin. Beat these Galway sogers and I'll give ye wark right along."With whoops and shouts they flocked to the capstan amidships, and began to compete, shoving on the bars, cheering and encouraging each other and deriding those on the forecastle deck, who responded. It was a tie; the Galways h...
For three stormy days the ship had been charging along before a wind that had increased to a gale, and a following sea that threatened to climb aboard. The jib-topsail, the skysails and royals, the lighter middle staysails, and the fore and mizzen topgallantsails had been blown away, and the ship was practically under ...
"Me brother Mike was right," muttered Murphy, as he drew his head in after a look at them. "They've forgotten their dinner. They'd rather fight than ate, but rather wark than fight."The big, light ship, even with upper canvas gone and the yards braced to port, was skimming along over the heaving seas at a ten-knot rate...
_Thurs., 10 days out._ Wish I knew who drinks my whiskey--Made sail at daylight; difficult work, this handling sail below decks; can't see aloft, must feel when sheets are home; don't like these new fangled rolling topsails that furl themselves; they're not shipshape, but we're too short-handed for the old style--Wind ...
At noon locked up the women and turned the lion loose; he didn't find the pug, but found most everything else; smashed some bird cages and a raven and dove got away; dove came back at sundown, but the raven didn't; let all the birds out to get the air and roost up aloft._Sat., 47 days out._ Chicken missing this morning...
Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Sarah Gutierrez, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was made using scans of public domain works in the International Children's Digital Library.)FABLES OF JOHN GAY (SOMEWHAT ALTERED).[Illustration]FABLES OF JOHN GAY (SOMEWHAT AL...
Now go, my booke, and be courageous, For now I send you forthe into the worlde. And though ye may find some outrageous, And in a pette be in some cornere hurl'd; Yet you by little fingeres will be greasèd And known hereafter by the marke of thumbe; At which, my little booke, be ye well ple...
Accept, my Prince, the moral fable, To youth ingenuous, profitable. Nobility, like beauty's youth, May seldom hear the voice of truth; Or mark and learn the fact betimes That flattery is the nurse of crimes. Friendship, which seldom nears a throne, Is by her voice of censure known. To on...
The wind was high, the window shook, The miser woke with haggard look; He stalked along the silent room, He shivered at the gleam and gloom, Each lock and every corner eyed, And then he stood his chest beside; He opened it, and stood in rapture In sight of gold he held in capture; And th...
Twisting his trunk up like a wipsy, "Friend," said the elephant, "you're tipsy: Put up your purse again--be wise; Leave man mankind to criticise. Be sure you ne'er will lack a pen Amidst the bustling sons of men; For, like to game cocks and such cattle, Authors run unprovoked to battle, ...
A pin which long had done its duty, Attendant on a reigning beauty,-- Had held her muffler, fixed her hair, And made its mistress _debonnaire_,-- Now near her heart in honour placed, Now banished to the rear disgraced; From whence, as partners of her shame, She saw the lovers served the same...
The rats by night the mischief did, And Betty every morn was chid. The cheese was nibbled, tarts were taken, And purloined were the eggs and bacon; And Betty cursed the cat, whose duty Was to protect and guard the booty. A ratcatcher, of well known skill, Was called to kill or scotch the ill...
His lord then sat to hear the trial: The mastiff pleaded his denial; The cur then, special pleading, stated The case--unduly aggravated.When evidence on either side Concluded was, the dog replied, And ended with this peroration: "Trust not to curs of basest station, With itching palms--a plo...
A sparrow who was passing by, And heard the speech, made this reply: "Old chaps, you were at Athens graced, And on Minerva's helm were placed, And we all know the reason why. Of all the birds beneath the sky, They chose you forth the lot to show What they desired their schools to know, T...
"Betwixt her panniers rocked, on Dobbin A matron rode to market bobbing, Indulging in a trancelike dream Of money for her eggs and cream; When direful clamour from her broke: 'A raven on the left-hand oak! His horrid croak bodes me some ill.' Here Dobbin stumbled; 'twas down-hill, And so...
Vice then stepped forth, with look serene Enough to stir a juggler's spleen: She passed a magic looking-glass, Which pleased alike dame, lad, and lass; Whilst she, a senator addressing, Said: "See this bank-note--lo! a blessing-- Breathe on it--Presto! hey! 'tis gone!" And on his lips a padl...
"We choose a minister to-night; Let him who wills prefer his right, And unto the most worthy hand We will commit the ebon wand."Fever stood forth: "And I appeal To weekly bills to show my zeal. Repelled, repulsed, I persevere; Often quotidian through a year."Gout next appeared to urge his claim ...
A shepherd's dog, unused to sporting, Picked up acquaintance, all consorting. Amongst the rest, a friendship grew 'Twixt him and Reynard, whom he knew.Said Reynard: "'Tis a cruel case That man will stigmatize my race: Ah! there are rogues midst men and foxes-- You see that where the parish stock...
There was an applewoman's stall, With plums and nuts, beneath a wall; With her he then proposed to trade,-- In corn, full payments to be made."Madam, in mind this dogma bear: 'Buy in the cheap; sell in the dear;' And, since my barley costs me nothing, My market is as cheap as stuffing."Away then...
He gained the vessel, took his stand. The beasts, astonished, lined the strand; He weighed the anchor, slacked the sail, Put her about before the gale, But shipped no rudder: ill then met her; He ran ashore, and there upset her.The roach and gudgeon, native there, Gathered to quiz the flounderin...
He looked again, and saw a breast Gnawed by corruption, wanting rest: He saw him one time drunk with power, Tottering upon Ambition's tower; Then, seized with giddiness and fear, Seeing his downfall in his rear, "O Jupiter!" the rustic said, "Give me again my plough and spade."But Jupiter wa...
"Away," the leopard said, "ye crew, Whose conscience honesty ne'er knew! Away, I say, with all the tribe Who dare to ask or take a bribe: Cudgels, and not rewards, are due To such time-serving tools as you!"FABLE LX.THE DEGENERATE BEES.(_To Dean Swift._)Though courts the practice disallow, I ne'...
And now the sylvans groan: the wood Must make the gamester's losses good. The antique oaks, the stately elms, One common ruin overwhelms. The brawny arms of boor and clown Cast with the axe their honours down, With Echo's repetitive sounds Complaining of the raided bounds.Pan dropt a tear, h...
The urchin, wanting wit, is sent To school to grow impertinent; To college next; which left, he blunders In law, or military thunders; Or, if by medical degree, The sexton shares the doctor's fee, Or, if for orders passed, as full fit, He only potters from the pulpit, We see that Nature ...
Amidst the galaxy of fair, Who do not moralise, the ear Might be offended to be told That beauty ever can grow old. Though you by age must lose much more Than ever beauty lost before, You will regard it, when 'tis flown, As if it ne'er had been your own. Were you by Antoninus taught? ...
Once on a time a magpie led Her little family from home, To teach them how to win their bread, When she afar would roam: She pointed to each worm and fly, Inhabitants of earth and sky, Or where the beetle buzzed, she called; But indications all were vain,-- They would not budge--th...
Louis XI. purchased the retreat of Edward IV. in 1475, when he seized on the domains of King Réné--Provence, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and Lorraine, and Burgundy from the domains of Charles the Bold; when we abandoned our blood allies for bribes. Again, in 1681, Charles II. was the pensioner of Louis XIV., when Louis sei...
And on the 10th October, when the Dutch were gone, we read:--"Up, and to walk up and down in the garden with my father, to talk of all our concernments: about a husband for my sister, whereof there is at present no appearance; but we must endeavour to find her one now, for she grows old and ugly. My father and I with a...
Such is the _stanza_ in which are written Spenser's 'Faërie Queen,' Thomson's 'Castle of Indolence,' and Byron's 'Childe Harold,' and it is the highest flight of poetry: after which comes the heroic verse, in which we lap the heavy poems we call epic--their Latin appellation; of these the Iliads of Homer and the Æneids...
"I have song of war for knight, Lay of love for ladye bright, Fairie tale to lull the heir, Goblin grim the maid to scare. If you pity kith or kin, Take the wandering harper in."But songs are like the flowers of the field: each age hath its own, which fade and perish and make way for another cr...
Produced by W. R. MarvinTHE ROVER BOYS IN SOUTHERN WATERSorTHE DESERTED STEAM YACHTBy Arthur M. WinfieldChatterton-Peck Company PublishersCopyright 1907 by The Mershon CompanyCONTENTSCHAPTERI. THE ROVER BOYS AND THEIR FRIENDS II. ABOUT A MISSING HOUSEBOAT III. A FRIEND IN NEED IV. HAROLD BIRD'S STRANGE TA...
"We don't want to see any more of Baxter," Sam had said, but this wish was not to be gratified. Floating down the Mississippi, the houseboat got damaged in a big storm, and had to be laid up for repairs. This being so, all on board decided to take a trip inland, and accordingly they set out, the ladies and girls by way...
"I did not like the looks of that planter at all," declared Dora Stanhope. "He had the face of a sneak. I was going to speak to Dick about it, and I am sorry now that I didn't.""I presume we shall have to remain here until you find the houseboat," came from Mrs. Laning."Either here or at the sugar plantation," answered...
The young Southerner led the way to the broad veranda, and all took seats. Then Dick and the others told about the missing houseboat and of how they had wanted to charter a tug or a steamboat to go in pursuit."I could not find a vessel of any kind," said Dick. "But some folks told me that you had a big gasoline launch,...
"Which isn't saying a great deal," came from Sam. "I never saw a river as muddy as the Mississippi.""I know one other stream that is worse, and that's the Missouri," said Harold Bird. "And as that flows into the Mississippi it makes the latter almost as bad."As soon as they were well on their way Dick brought out the f...
On board the launch were three poles of good size, each fixed so that a small, square board could be fastened to one end. Dick took one of these poles and Tom and Sam seized the others."Now, Hans, Fred, and Songbird, get in the stern," said Dick."That's the talk, and I'll try to back her at the same time!" cried Harold...
"I feel as if I had known them for years, instead of hours," he told himself. "There is a certain attractiveness about Sam, Tom, and Dick I cannot understand. Yet I do not wonder that they have a host of friends who are willing to do almost anything for them."When Tom went on guard he was still sleepy and he did a larg...
All were hungry and ate their morning lunch with considerable satisfaction, washing it down with some coffee made on a small oil stove that had been brought along."Well, I don't see anything of the houseboat," announced Dick, as he stood on a seat and took a long and careful look around. "Not a craft or a building of a...
It was no light task to reach the spot where the smokestack had been seen. They had another creek to cross and then had to crawl through some extra-thick bushes. But beyond was a stretch of clear water, and there they saw, safely tied to two trees, the object of their search, the missing houseboat.CHAPTER VIIIIN THE SW...
"This is no joke," said Dick, gazing around in perplexity. "If we are not careful we'll become hopelessly lost.""I think somebody had better climb a tree and look around," said Tom. "I'll go up if somebody will boost me."The others were willing, and soon the fun-loving youth was climbing a tall tree which stood somewha...
"What's the trouble?" came from close at hand, and Dick Rover burst into view, with Tom and Sam at his heels and each with his revolver drawn. Not far behind were Hans and Harold Bird."A bob cat! Look out for him!" cried Fred."Protect us!" put in Songbird. "We are helpless!""See, they are tied to the trees!" exclaimed ...
"Yes, a sailboat or a steamer would be better just now," answered Tom. "But we have got to put up with what we happen to have, as the dog said who got lockjaw from swallowing a bunch of keys.""Did dot dog git dot lockjaw from dem keys?" asked Hans, innocently."Sure he did, Hans. You see, they didn't fit the lock to his...