The Adventures of Dick Maitland: A Tale of Unknown AfricaCollingwood, Harry
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The Adventures of Dick Maitland: A Tale of Unknown Africa
Collingwood, Harry
Adventure stories; Africa -- Juvenile fiction
For a full hour the ship remained hove-to with her head to seaward,
during which an early breakfast was served to the occupants of the
cuddy; then, upon the appearance of the tug coming out over the bar, the
_Concordia_ wore round and headed inshore, the light sails were rapidly
clewed up or hauled down, the towline was got ready for passing, and in
a moment everything was bustle and apparent confusion upon the ship's
decks, barefooted seamen rushing hither and thither, flinging down coils
of rope on deck, casting off halyards and sheets, and dragging
vociferously upon clew-garnets, clewlines, downhauls, and the other
complicated paraphernalia of a ship's furniture, with the captain
shouting orders from the poop, and the mate in charge of a gang of men
on the forecastle getting the anchor a-cockbill ready for letting go,
and preparing for the arrival of the tug alongside. Then up came the
little steamer, rolling and pitching heavily upon the long ground swell,
sweeping round in a long curve that brought her all but alongside the
wallowing ship; a brief interchange of hails between her bridge and the
_Concordia's_ poop, the sudden snaking out of a whirling heaving-line
from the forecastle of the latter, followed by the thin but tremendously
strong steel towing hawser; and as the few remaining sheets of the
ship's canvas shrivelled in to the masts and yards the tug passed ahead,
the towrope rose dripping out of the water, tautened to the semblance of
a metal rod, and away went the two craft, heading for the middle of the
space of water that divided the two breakwaters. Half an hour later the
_Concordia_ came to an anchor in the spacious but shallow inner harbour
opposite the railway station, and the long voyage was at an end.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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