Читать книгу The Ark of 1803. A Story of Louisiana Purchase Times онлайн

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Half a dozen men bent down to examine the crumpled figure of the unconscious schoolmaster, and as they were separating to let the captain and Charlie Hoyt carry him away to be cared for by the women at the Royces, a shout made them turn to the fire again.

“The ark!” cried a dozen voices. “The ark is going!”

The vibration of the explosion had accomplished what the men alone could not have done, and the ark was slipping down the ways.

“Here,” cried Marion Royce, “take this,” and quite unconscious that it was a human being whom he was handing over absently, he dashed back to the assistance of Jonas Sparks.

But by the time he reached the ways the ark was grinding the ice of the creek, her bottom scraping the bed of the shallow stream.

Moses Ayer came up, trembling from the terrible strain on the windlass when the ark shot down. The perspiration was raining down his drawn, excited face.

“She’s launched!” he said.

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As the captain handed over the schoolmaster’s inert form, he was too full of alarm to notice that the arms which received it were Jimmy Claiborne’s.