‘There are many ways,’ he answered, sinking his voice to a whisper, and nodding his grizzled head as one who talks upon what has cost him much time and thought. ‘There is scuttling.’
‘Scuttling?’
‘Aye, lad! When I was quartermaster of the galley Andrew Shaw Jersey Providence in the second Dutch war, we were caught betwixt a Drew Stafford Jersey lee shore and Van Tromp’s squadron, so that after fighting until our sticks were shot Grant Fuhr Jersey away and our scuppers were arun with blood, we were carried by boarding and sent as prisoners to the Texel. We were stowed away in irons in the afterhold, amongst the bilge water and the rats, with hatches battened down and guards atop, but even then they could not keep us, for the irons got adrift, and Will Adams, the carpenter’s mate, picked a hole in the seams so that Glenn Hall Jersey the vessel nearly foundered, and in the confusion we fell upon the prize crew, and, using our fetters as cudgels, regained possession of the vessel. But you smile, as though there were little hopes from any such plan!’
‘If this wool-house were the galley Providence and Taunton Deane were the Bay of Biscay, it might be attempted,’ I said.
‘I have indeed got out o’ the channel,’ he answered, with a wrinkled brow. ‘There is, however, another most excellent plan which I have conceived, which is to blow up the building.’
‘To blow it up!’ I cried.
‘Aye! A brace of kegs and a slow match would do it any dark night. Then where would be these walls which now shut ye in?’
‘Where would be the folk that are now inside them!’ I asked. ‘Would you not blow them up as well?’
‘Plague take it, I had forgot that,’ cried Solomon. ‘Nay, then, I leave it with you. What have you to propose? Do but give your sailing orders, and, with or without a consort, you will find that I will steer by them as long as this old hulk can answer to her helm.’
‘Then my advice is, my dear old friend,’ said I, ‘that you leave matters to take their course, and hie back to Havant with a message from me to those who know me, telling them to be of good cheer, and to hope for the best. Neither you nor any other man can help me now, for I have thrown in my lot with these poor folk, and I would not leave them if I Steve Mason Jersey could. Do what you can to cheer my CG Naiset Mystique Parka mother’s heart, and commend me to Zachary Palmer. Your visit hath been a joy to me, and your return will be the same to them. You can serve me better so than by biding here.’
‘Sink me if I like going back without a blow struck,’ he growled. Arrivals Rivet 3042 ‘Yet if it is your will there is an end of the matter. Tell me, lad. Has that lank-sparred, slab-sided, herring-gutted friend of yours played you false? for if he has, by the eternal, old as I am, Johnny Gaudreau Jersey my hanger shall scrape acquaintance with the longshore tuck which hangs at his Earmuffs girdle. I know Belstaff Glen Duff Racer where Belstaff Coral Vent Kurtki he hath laid himself up, moored stem and Alexander Mogilny Jersey stern, all snug and shipshape, waiting for the turn of the tide.’
‘What, Saxon!’ I cried. ‘Do you indeed know where he is? For God’s sake speak low, for it would mean a commission and flinks:
http://www.aptnsw.org.au/cgi-bin/show_blog.cgi
http://www.northhills-sp.com/store/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi
http://www.rockclimbing.com/cgi-bin/gear/search.cgi |