Explore "Flemington" by Violet Jacob on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
ARCHIE sprang up, unable, for a moment, to remember where he was. He was almost in darkness, for the port looked northward, and the pale light barely glimmered through it, but he could just see a spurt of white leap into the air midway across the channel, where a second shot had struck the water. As he rushed on deck a puff of smoke was dispersing above Dial Hill. Then another cloud rolled from the bushes on the nearest point of Inchbrayock Island, and he felt the _Venture_ shiver and move in her moorings. Captain Hall's voice was rising above the scuffling and running that was going on all over the ship, and the dragging about of heavy objects was making the decks shake.
He went below and begun to hustle on his clothes, for the morning air struck chill and he felt the need of being ready for action of some kind. In a few minutes he came up warily and crept round to the port side, taking what cover he could. Then a roar burst from the side of the _Venture_ as she opened fire.