FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152  
153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   >>   >|  
erce delight, while the splash of the water as it rippled past the sides of the boat seemed to me the bravest and sweetest music I had ever heard. I think Joyce and Tommy realized something of what I was feeling, for neither of them made any real attempt at conversation. Now and then the latter would jump up to haul in or let out the main sheet a little, and once or twice he pointed out some slight alteration which had been recently made in the buoying of the river. Joyce sat quite still for the most part, either smiling happily at me, or else watching the occasional ships and barges that we passed, most of which were just beginning to get under way. We had rounded Canvey Island and left Hole Haven some little distance behind us, when Tommy, who was leaning over the side staring out ahead, suddenly turned back to me. "There's someone coming round the point in a deuce of a hurry," he remarked. "Steam launch from the look of it. Better give 'em a wide berth, or we'll have their wash aboard." I bent down and took a quick glance under the spinnaker boom. A couple of hundred yards ahead a long, white, vicious-looking craft was racing swiftly towards us, throwing up a wave on either side of her bows that spread out fanwise across the river. I shoved down the helm, and swung the _Betty_ a little off her course so as to give them plenty of room to go by. They came on without slackening speed in the least, and passed us at a pace which I estimated roughly to be about sixteen knots an hour. I caught a momentary glimpse of a square-shouldered man with a close-trimmed auburn beard crouching in the stern, and then the next moment a wave broke right against our bows, drenching all three of us in a cloud of flying spray. Tommy swore vigorously. "That's the kind of river-hog who ought to be choked," he said. "If I--" He was interrupted by a sudden exclamation from Joyce. She had jumped up laughing when the spray swept over her, and now, holding on to the rigging, she was pointing excitedly to something just ahead of us. "Quick, Tommy!" she said. "There's a man in the water--drowning. They've swamped his boat." In a flash Tommy had leaped to the side. "Keep her going," he shouted to me. "We're heading straight for him." Then scrambing aft he grabbed hold of the tow rope and swiftly hauled the dinghy alongside. "I'll pick him up, Tommy," I said quietly. "You look after the boat: you know her better than I do." H
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152  
153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
passed
 

swiftly

 

crouching

 

drenching

 

auburn

 
moment
 
slackening
 

plenty

 
estimated
 

square


glimpse

 

shouldered

 
momentary
 

caught

 
roughly
 

sixteen

 
trimmed
 
interrupted
 

straight

 

scrambing


grabbed

 

heading

 

leaped

 

shouted

 

dinghy

 

hauled

 

alongside

 

quietly

 

choked

 

sudden


flying

 
vigorously
 

exclamation

 

excitedly

 

drowning

 
swamped
 

pointing

 
rigging
 

laughing

 
jumped

holding
 

alteration

 
recently
 
buoying
 

slight

 

pointed

 
barges
 

beginning

 
occasional
 

watching