Captain Scraggs - or, The Green-Pea Pirates by Peter B. (Peter Bernard) Kyne
page 98 of 333 (29%)
page 98 of 333 (29%)
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thing as drivin' a man to distraction. Halvorsen, are you with
me?" "Aye bane--for saxty dollars. Hay bane worth a month's pay for take dat swim." "You dirty Scowegian ingrate. Well, you don't get no sixty dollars from me. Bear a hand and we'll drop the ship's work boat overboard. I guess you can tow a signal halyard to the _Maggie_, can't you, Neils?" Neils could--and did. Within fifteen minutes the _Maggie_ was fast to her prize. "Now we'll cockbill the anchor," quoth Captain Scraggs, so McGuffey reporting sufficient steam in the donkey to turn over the windlass, the anchor was raised and cockbilled, and the _Maggie_ hauled away on the hawser the instant Captain Scraggs signalled his new navigating officer that the hook was free of the bottom. "The old girl don't seem to be makin' headway in the right direction," McGuffey remarked plaintively, after the _Maggie_ had strained at the hawser for five minutes. Mr. Gibney, standing by with a hammer in his hand, nodded affirmatively, while the skipper of the _Chesapeake_, whom Mr. Gibney had had the forethought to carry out on deck to watch the operation, glanced apprehensively ashore. Scraggs measured the distance with his eye to the nearest fringe of surf and it was plain that he was worried. "Captain Scraggs," the skipper of the _Chesapeake_ called feebly, |
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