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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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OCR
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dike padding to afford a certain clutch for toe
and arm joints. :
“Everything or nothing!” shot out the
tramp.
Then it was like a leap from an abyss into
the realms of the air.
The hogshead started a flying whirl. -
Clif’s head went spinning, his breath
seemed drawn out of him in sharp, painful
gasps.
Bang!
Bump!
Splash!
“Ah, afloat!”
Even amid the dislocation of reason, time,
space, the naval cadet could not repress a se-
cret smile at his happy-go-lucky comrade, full
of grit as a nut is full of meat.
“We want to get out of this,” he began.
“Bide a bit!” tranquilly insinuated the |
tramp—“mere puddle for a cockleshell, this.
No need of hunting the voudoo lady with red
hair till we have to! We are where neither
hound nor hunter can pursue for the present,
so—float !”"
The hogshead stopped whirling, tipped,
balanced, rocked, and went down stream like
a swan, a trifle of water seeping in.
If the crowd on the hilltop suspected that
the fugitive hogshead contained their escaped
' victim, they did-not show it by pursuit.
Less than twenty feet. were accomplished
past an obscuring turn, when Clif’s droll co-
partner in adventure crawled out, waded,
pulled the hogshead ashore, and held it for
Clif to make a safe landing.
“How was it?” he insinuated,
chuckle. Ok
with 2
> i
“Tt was a great act!’
“It was my only bed!” craftily suggested
the tramp.
“Ah, I forgot!” exclaimed Clif, with alac-
rity, reaching toward his pocket.
“That’s all right—I never collect fares tile.
we've landed!”
~ Clif gladly gave the fellow a silver dollar.
Then he took in his bearings, calculated the
‘shortest cut to Castleton, and started up.
“Going?” asked the tramp.
“To Castleton. Perhaps you had also bet-
ter get that far away from the crowd? They
BLUE. 39
might interview you unpleasantly if they dis-
covered you.” .
The tramp shrugged his shoulders.
““PIl keep with you just for company!” he
said, trooping alongside, “and because the
nighest hay mow lies in that direction. Hay
mow !—and I might, have been standing on
the mizzen deck ”
“What’s that2” propounded Clif, with a
stare.
“Well, then, the jib sail of the pilot house,
or whatever the captain of a craft does stand
on.”
“Ts that so, now?” queried Clif, politely.
“Sure thing! It was this way: Know
Grigsby? But, of course, you don’t know—
hey! hello! Got ’em?”
Clif had stopped short, grabbing the tramp,
as if now and here was the only time and
place to rob him of a secret.
Know Grigsby !—when of all the persons
in the world Grigsby was the one bright, par-
ticular person Clif did wish to know—inti-
mately, promptly, effectively.
'.The naval cadet was moved far out of the
conunon by the sure, splendid discovery of
the moment.
“Quick!” he almost panted—“do you know
Grigsby ?”
“For a_ thieving rogue,’
tramp, squarely.
“I'm glad you realize it!” said Clif.
“T do, fully, and that’s a sort of satisfaction
that I turned down the chance to be a captain.
You're looking for him?” guessed the tramp,
shrewdly. “What for?”
“Suppose you tell me first
“Not-a word!” interrupted’ the tramp,
sharp and definitely. “See here, cadet! you're
a good sort, I see that, and I like good-sort
people. But I never split on anybody,”
“You mean, you won't get a friend into
trouble?”
“Grigsby is no friend of mine!” announced
the tramp, loftily. “I'nt above his class. But
we are in the same tramp-masonic category.
He’s busted jail.”
“Yes?”
“And my principle is to speed on the free
bird, I don’t care what he is. But if Grigshy
is up to some new v lark entirely too mean, an?
anybody is hurt——”
answered the
”