'Twixt Land and Sea |
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afraid asked Bonito breath brig bungalow cabin Captain chair cheroot chief mate close course cried dare dark deck door Dutch eyes face father feeling fellow felt gave gazed girl glance gone Gulf of Siam gunboat hair hands harbour head hear heard Heems Heemskirk island Jacobus Jacobus's Jasper Allen kirk knew laugh lieutenant light lips looked Makassar Mesman mind Miss Freya mulatto murmured Nelson or Nielsen Neptun never night old Nelson once Palembang papa perhaps phosphorescent poop potatoes quarter-deck quiet reef round sails Schultz second mate seemed Sephora Seven Isles ship ship's side silence sitting smile sort sound stare steward stood suddenly Sunda Straits suppose taffrail talk tell thick thing thought told tone took turned verandah voice watch whispered woman wonder words
Popular passages
Page 156 - Siam, tack for tack, in light winds and smooth water) - the fourth day, I say, of this miserable juggling with the unavoidable, as we sat at our evening meal, that man, whose slightest movement I dreaded, after putting down the dishes ran up on deck busily. This could not be dangerous. Presently he came down again; and then it appeared that he had remembered a coat of mine which I had thrown over a rail to dry after having been wetted in a shower which had passed over the ship in the afternoon. Sitting...
Page 161 - I protested. His scornful whispering took me up. 'We aren't indeed! There's nothing of a boy's tale in this. But there's nothing else for it. I want no more. You don't suppose I am afraid of what can be done to me? Prison or gallows or whatever they may please. But you don't see me coming back to explain such things to an old fellow in a wig and twelve respectable tradesmen, do you? What can they know whether I am guilty or not - or of what I am guilty, either? That's my affair. What does the Bible...
Page 146 - I did not engage that young fellow. His people had some interest with my owners. I was in a way forced to take him on. He looked very smart, very gentlemanly, and all that. But do you know -- I never liked him, somehow. I am a plain man. You see, he wasn't exactly the sort for the chief mate of a ship like the Sephora." I had become so connected in thoughts and impressions with the secret sharer of my cabin that I felt as if I, personally, were being given to understand that I, too, was not the sort...
Page 131 - I reckoned it would be dark before we closed with the land," he continued, so low that I had to strain my hearing, near as we were to each other, shoulder touching shoulder almost. "So I asked to speak to the old man. He always seemed very sick when he came to see me — as if he could not look me in the face. You know, that foresail saved the ship. She was too deep to have run long under bare poles. And it was I that managed to set it for him. Anyway, he came. "When I had him in my cabin — he...
Page 172 - and stop there" — shake — "and hold your noise" — shake — "and see these head-sheets properly overhauled" — shake — , shake — shake. And all the time I dared not look toward the land lest my heart should fail me. I released my grip at last and he ran forward as if fleeing for dear life. I wondered what my double there in the sail-locker thought of this commotion. He was able to hear everything — and perhaps he was able to understand why, on my conscience, it had to be thus close —...
Page 166 - The only reason you need concern yourself about is because I tell you to do so. Have them open wide and fastened properly." He reddened and went off, but I believe made some jeering remark to the carpenter as to the sensible practice of ventilating a ship's quarter-deck. I know he popped into the mate's cabin to impart the fact to him because the whiskers came on deck, as it were by chance, and stole glances at me from below— for signs of lunacy or drunkenness, I suppose. A little before supper,...
Page 124 - Hadn't the slightest idea. I am the mate of her " He paused and corrected himself. "I should say I was." "Aha! Something wrong?" "Yes. Very wrong indeed. I've killed a man.
Page 172 - She's ashore already," he wailed, trying to tear himself away. "Is she? . . . Keep good full there!" "Good full, sir," cried the helmsman in a frightened, thin, childlike voice. I hadn't let go the mate's arm and went on shaking it. "Ready about, do you hear? You go forward"— shake— "and stop there"— shake— "and hold your noise"— shake— "and see these head-sheets properly overhauled"— shake, shake— shake.
Page 154 - I was not wholly alone with my command; for there was that stranger in my cabin. Or rather, I was not completely and wholly with her. Part of me was absent. That mental feeling of being in two places at once affected me physically as if the mood of secrecy had penetrated my very soul.
Page 141 - We listened to the steward going into the bath-room out of the saloon, filling the water-bottles there, scrubbing the bath, setting things to rights, whisk, bang, clatter — out again into the saloon — turn the key — click. Such was my scheme for keeping my second self invisible. Nothing better could be contrived under the circumstances. And there we sat ; I at my writing-desk ready to appear busy with some papers, he behind me, out of sight of the door. It would not have been prudent to talk...