The Card, a Story of Adventure in the Five TownsBennett, Arnold
General
The Card, a Story of Adventure in the Five Towns
Bennett, Arnold
Adventure stories; City and town life -- Fiction; Staffordshire (England) -- Fiction
SIMEON EDWARDS, _Coxswain_.
Return Fare, with use of Cork Belt and Life-lines if desired, 2s. 6d.
A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY
A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE
_P.S._--The bravery of the lifeboatmen has been the theme of the
Press throughout the Principality and neighbouring counties.
E.D. MACHIN.
At eleven o'clock there was an eager crowd down on the beach where, with
some planks and a piece of rock, Simeon had arranged an embarkation pier
for the lifeboat. One man, in overalls, stood up to his knees in the
water and escorted passengers up the planks, while Simeon's
confidence-generating beard received them into the broad waist of the
boat. The rowers wore sou'westers and were secured to the craft by
life-lines, and these conveniences were also offered, with life-belts,
to the intrepid excursionists. A paper was pinned in the stern:
"Licensed to carry Fourteen." (Denry had just paid the fee.) But quite
forty people were anxious to make the first voyage.
"No more," shrilled Simeon, solemnly. And the wader scrambled in and the
boat slid away.
"Fares, please!" shrilled Simeon.
He collected one pound fifteen, and slowly buttoned it up in the
right-hand pocket of his blue trousers.
"Now, my lads, with a will," he gave the order. And then, with
deliberate method, he lighted his pipe. And the lifeboat shot away.
Close by the planks stood a young man in a negligent attitude, and with
a look on his face as if to say: "Please do not imagine that I have the
slightest interest in this affair." He stared consistently out to sea
until the boat had disappeared round the Little Orme, and then he took a
few turns on the sands, in and out amid the castles. His heart was
beating in a most disconcerting manner. After a time he resumed his
perusal of the sea. And the lifeboat reappeared and grew larger and
larger, and finally arrived at the spot from which it had departed, only
higher up the beach because the tide was rising. And Simeon debarked
first, and there was a small blue and red model of a lifeboat in his
hand, which he shook to a sound of coins.
"_For_ the Lifeboat Fund! _For_ the Lifeboat Fund!" he gravely
intoned.
Every debarking passenger dropped a coin into the slit.
In five minutes the boat was refilled, and Simeon had put the value of
fourteen more half-crowns into his pocket.
The lips of the young man on the beach moved, and he murmured:
"That makes over three pounds! Well, I'm dashed!"
At the hour appointed for dinner he went to St Asaph's Road, but could
eat nothing. He could only keep repeating very softly to himself, "Well,
I'm dashed!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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