The Green Hand: Adventures of a Naval LieutenantCupples, George
General
The Green Hand: Adventures of a Naval Lieutenant
Cupples, George
Sea stories; Seafaring life -- Juvenile fiction; Voyages and travels -- Juvenile fiction
"What was done, though, required to be done quickly, and I looked about
for Tom Westwood, till I saw him on the poop amongst the rest, talking
again to Miss Hyde, as they all crowded towards the lee-quarter to watch
the land-haze seemingly dropping astern. My heart swelled as it were
into my throat, however, at such an appearance of good understanding
betwixt the two--whereas there was _she_, an hour ago that very morning,
would scarce favour me with a look or a word!--and, for the life of me,
I couldn't have spoken to Westwood at the time, much less gone hand in
hand; for that matter he didn't seem to be suspecting aught wrong to
trouble himself about. What to say or do, either, I couldn't think;
since the more he cut me out, and the less friendly I felt to him, the
less could I risk the chance of showing us both up for what we
_were_--which, of course, would bring him in for the worst of it; as if
_I_, by Jove, were going to serve him some low trick for the sake of
shoving _him_ out with the young lady.
"Meantime I kept fidgeting about, as if the deck were too hot for me,
snatching a glance now and then, in spite of myself, at Violet Hyde's
fairy-like figure; so different from the rest of them, as she stretched
eagerly from below the awning over the ship's quarter-gallery, trying to
make out where the land lay--now putting her little hand over her eyes
to see better, then covering them altogether from the dazzle, as she
drew in her head again and shook her bright brown hair in the shadow,
answering Westwood--confound him! The Indian servant each time carefully
poking out the red and yellow punkah-fringe for a cover over her, while
the passengers were one and all ready to cry at not seeing the land, and
leaving it behind. The judge himself was the only man that seemed to
have a dim notion of something queer in the whole case; for every few
minutes he walked quietly to the break of the poop, where I noticed him
cast a doubtful look down upon the 'chief officer'; and when the surgeon
came up, he asked anxiously how Captain Williamson was, and if he
couldn't be seen below. However, the surgeon told him the captain had
just fallen for the first time into a good sleep, and there was no
admittance, but he was likely to be much better soon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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