Explore "An Awfully Big Adventure" by Bartimeus on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The late afternoon sunlight was slanting across the heather when the "Mantis" came puffing round a bend of the river.
Contrary to the established custom and traditions of British men-of-war, her crew maintained a breathless and high-spirited dialogue with the Captain, who seasoned it with shrill invective directed at a routed enemy, invisible and presumed to be in full flight amid the bracken.