|
|
|
The noises of a catastrophe suddenly began to come up from below - a garbled roar, falsetto shrieks, a clatter of pots and pans. The girls both sat up straight, and they looked at each other in a reflexive and intimate sharing of a preparation to laugh. And now in deed the racket below was capped by a long run of bass laughter of operatic villainy. One last pathetic falsetto outcry. The bass ho - he - ha of a desperado once again.
Rills of pretended fright and laughter poured from the girls.
John Richard Hersey, Under the Eye of the Storm, Knopf, Toronto, 1967, p. 69.
TIME: mid 20th c.
PLACE: at sea
CIRCUMSTANCE: on board a small sailing ship
The lanyard was still slapping at the spreader with an inopportune doggedness, like someone steadily knocking at an unanswered door ... Tom stood on the foredeck in a furious wind which drove raindrops hard against his waterproofs, making a sound of dried peas in a gourd.
John Richard Hersey, Under the Eye of the Storm, Knopf, Toronto, 1967, p. 96.
TIME: mid 20th c.
PLACE: at sea
CIRCUMSTANCE: a storm aboard a small sailing ship
A howl combed through the rigging of 'Harmony;' every spar and cable, every hard edge set up a knot of its own. Rain clattered on the sidewalk and washed with a deeper tone on the decks. From time to time the whole boat gave a rapid series of shudders, as if chilled by thoughts rather than by the wind. A constant rattling and slamming of lines and blocks underscored the whine of the whole instrument of the yawl.
John Richard Hersey, Under the Eye of the Storm, Knopf, Toronto, 1967, p.101.
TIME: mid 20th c.
PLACE: at sea
CIRCUMSTANCE: on board a small sailing ship during a storm
home
