[Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad]@TWC D-Link book
Within the Tides

CHAPTER II
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Not hearing the sounds he expected to hear, he felt uncertain whether they all were on board yet.
"While he listened, the Frenchman, whose immobility might have but cloaked an internal struggle; moved forward a pace, then another.
Davidson, entranced, watched him advance one leg, withdraw his right stump, the armed one, out of his pocket, and swinging his body to put greater force into the blow, bring the seven-pound weight down on the hammock where the head of the sleeper ought to have been.
"Davidson admitted to me that his hair stirred at the roots then.

But for Anne, his unsuspecting head would have been there.

The Frenchman's surprise must have been simply overwhelming.

He staggered away from the lightly swinging hammock, and before Davidson could make a movement he had vanished, bounding down the ladder to warn and alarm the other fellows.
"Davidson sprang instantly out of the boat, threw up the skylight flap, and had a glimpse of the men down there crouching round the hatch.

They looked up scared, and at that moment the Frenchman outside the door bellowed out '_Trahison_--_trahison_!' They bolted out of the cabin, falling over each other and swearing awfully.


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