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Full Title
Civilian Against Plebe; or, Trying to Down Clif Faraday / by Ensign Clarke Fitch, U.S.N.
Author
Fitch, Clark. Sinclair, Upton, 1878-1968.
Date Added
9 January 2014
Format
Journal
Language
English
Publish Date
1898-12-31
Publisher
New York : Street & Smith
Series
True blue : a weekly devoted to the stirring adventures of our boys in blue > no. 34
Source
Dime Novel and Popular Literature
Alternate Title
Trying to Down Clif Faraday. True blue : a weekly devoted to the stirring adventures of our boys in blue, no. 34, December 31, 1898.
Topic
Popular literature > Specimens. Dime novels > Specimens. United States. > Navy > Juvenile literature. Sea stories, American. Spanish-American War, 1898 > Juvenile fiction. Faraday, Clif (Fictitious character) > Juvenile fiction.
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Disclaimers
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OCR
ot cites rane nie rats ai ct a .
- wats aka ener Boy
18 TRUE BLUE.
~ ~~
“Drat it!’ he muttered—‘“the rope’s like
army beefsteak !”
“They are coming!” remarked Clif, dole-
fully.
“They are coming! And—a minute more! ©
And—they shan’t beat me!”
“They have.”
“Haven't!” ;
The cadets below were beginning to return
—their arms full of wood.
This shut out a view ahead for them, and
made the ascent necessarily slow, because
careful,
“Along you come!” uttered the determined
tramp.
He did not dare to get upright lest his form
be too clearly silhouetted to accidental glance.
Squatting like a frog and backing like a
crab, he began pulling bag and inmate across
the smooth, rocky surface.
“Tere we are!” he puffed, reaching the
hogshead—“first work I’ve done in a month!”
“I’m afraid it’s wasted,” suggested Clif.
“No! y?
“They will be up here ina minute—they
will see us.’
-“FHow’s that?”
The tramp had secured temporary shelter
ac least for his charge and himself.
Landing Clif inside the great hogshead, he
followed.
Then he began plunging and hacking at the
stubborn ropes like a surgeon in a dissecting
room,
‘Clif felt the strands were beginning to give
—the tramp had snapped them; top and bot-
_ tom.
To cut them all would fatally consume time
—he began “unrolling” Clif.
The performance was not particularly un-
comfortable, for the inside of the hogshead
was padded inch-thick with some kind of felt
lining.
“Hurry !” breathed Clif, ds there was a
shout.
The unwinding process proceeded, to the
flutter of the tramp’s labored breathing.
“Where’s your bag?”
“Where’s your Clif Faraday?”
“The deuce!”
Clif’s vanishing had been discovered.
A frightful uproar prevailed—beyond im-
mediate sight, but_ effectively within clear
hearing.
“He’s. rolled away!” shrieked Chaiwncey
De Lawncey’s strident tones.
“By the blood of Bruce, he must have
flown!” roared McFatrick.
“Give a search—here you, Dockery! light
the beacon—give us light!”
Dockery must have been the cadet, Clif
urmised, who at the first startling announce-
ment of the disappearance of the captive had _
dropped his armful of wood, so that it had
struck the headed end of the hogshead with a
jar.
Now he began picking it up and firing it
over to a comrade at one of the tarred kegs.
“Out!” whispered the tramp, triumphantly.
Clif wriggled free of slit bag and severed
cable. .
A sneak downhill riverward seemed the |
safest course on the programme.
Clif prepared for the bolt—had half-whis-
pered his intention to his trampish companion,
when there came a shock.
Dockery had picked up the pieces of wood
without’ looking.
He had picked up the w vedge holding the
hogshead in ‘place, now.
The hogshead took a slanting roll, swift as
an upright egg tilting a split in a crate.
“Dockery has done it!” breathed Clif, with
a thrill.
“Hickery, dickory, dock!
?
was jolted out of
the tramp, and he grabbed Clif, headed for a
destructive dive. ‘‘No! no! steady ! brace—
brace, or you're lost!” -
CHAPTER VII.
_ A TRAMP PILOT. ss
The padded hogshead was started, and. in
five seconds there‘was no getting out.
“Brace!” vigorously repeated the tramp.
His nervy direction was accompanied by
an illustration of what he meant.
Clif was quick to catch on—as he always
was—in moments of peril.
He flung himself spoon-fashion flat across
the rounding surface of the hogshead, side
by side with the tramp.
Steadily as he might, he braced feet and 4
shoulder at opposite edges.
There was just “give” enough to thet