Explore "The Revenge of the Adolphus" by Stephen Crane on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"Stand by."
Shackles had come down from the bridge of the _Adolphus_ and flung this command at three fellow-correspondents who in the galley were busy with pencils trying to write something exciting and interesting from four days quiet cruising. They looked up casually. "What for? " They did not intend to arouse for nothing. Ever since Shackles had heard the men of the navy directing each other to stand by for this thing and that thing, he had used the two words as his pet phrase and was continually telling his friends to stand by. Sometimes its portentous and emphatic reiteration became highly exasperating and men were apt to retort sharply. "Well, I _am_ standing by, ain't I? " On this occasion they detected that he was serious. "Well, what for? " they repeated. In his answer Shackles was reproachful as well as impressive. "Stand by? Stand by for a Spanish gunboat. A Spanish gunboat in chase! Stand by for _two_ Spanish gunboats -- _both_ of them in chase!"