Scantling

“ I have that to say to Captain Coppinger which may, and I trust will, lead him to withdraw that order."
"Rely on me. I am a rock on which you may build," said Scantlebray. "I will do my best to entertain your brother, though, alas! I have not the abilities of Obadiah, who is a genius, and can keep folks hour by hour going from one roar of laughter into another."
No sooner was Judith gone than Scantlebray put his tongue into one side of his cheek, clicked, pointed over his shoulder with his thumb, and seated himself opposite Jamie on the stool beside the fire which had been vacated by Judith. ”

“ I see the stupidity. The recklessness. The selfishness. It is murder."
"What is murder? Have you not killed? You are not one of the Others. You are a Scanner. You will be sorry for what you are about to do, if you do not watch out."
"But why did you vote against Vomact then? Didn't you too see what Adam Stone means to all of us? Scanners will live in vain. Thank God for that! Can't you see it?"
"No."
"But you talk to me, Chang. You are my friend?"
"I talk to you. I am your friend. Why not?"
"But what are you going to do?"
"Nothing, Martel. Nothing." ”

“ When that great shadow falls, it is not the fine, strange Cocks we trust to keep off the bird of prey!
Chantecler
[Suddenly grown great of size, his wounds forgotten, stands in the midst of them, and in an authoritative tone.] Yes, close around me, all of you, all! [All, huddled in their feathers, their heads drawn in between their wings, press against him.]
The Pheasant-hen
Dear, brave, and gentle heart!
Chantecler
[The shadow sweeps over the crowd a second time. The Game Cock makes himself small. Chantecler alone remains standing, in the midst of a heap of ruffled, trembling feathers.] ”

“ I’ll smoke and play the piano. I’ve no time to exchange a word with any one. Come, sit down. What’s the news?”
“It’s a bad world,” said Mr. Scantlebray, setting himself into a chair. “That’s to say, the world is well enough if it warn’t for there being too many rascals in it. I consider it’s a duty on all right-thinking men to clear them off.” ”

“ Scantlebray caught the boy by the feet and tried to drag him, but Jamie clung to the table-legs.
Scantlebray uttered an oath—"Stay, you fool, and be smothered! The world will get on very well without you." ”

“ He missed his way when he started in life; he would have made a comic actor. Bless your simple heart, had that man appeared on the boards, he would have brought the house down——"
"I have no doubt whatever he missed his way when he took to keeping an asylum," said Judith.
"We have all our gifts," said Scantlebray. "Mine is architecture, and 'pon my honor as a gentleman, I do admire the structure of Othello Cottage, uncommon. You won't object to my pulling out my tape and taking the plan of the edifice, will you?"
"The house belongs to Captain Coppinger; consult him." ”

“ What does it usually signify if there is a great variety of color in a board? How may decayed lumber be detected by its odor? How may incipient decay be stopped? How may decay be prevented or cured?
12. How is lumber less than 1” in thickness surveyed? Lumber over 1” in thickness? How are joists and scantlings measured? To what lengths are logs sawed in the forest? In surveying, where should a common board be measured? A quarter-sawed board? Demonstrate the use of the lumber scale.
13. What should be the qualities of a good framing timber? Of timber for outside finish? To be buried? ”

“ Scantlebray, inconsiderately thrusting the lamp close into the girl's face. "It can never be—yet—surely it is——"
"Judith!" exclaimed a deep voice, the sound of which sent a sudden flutter through the girl's nerves and pulses. "Judith!" and from out the darkness and falling rain plunged a man in full mantle wrapped about him and overhanging broad-brimmed hat. Without a word of excuse he snatched the light from Mrs. Scantlebray and raised it above Judith's head. ”

“ The Pheasant-hen
He is so beautiful that what he says almost seems possible!
Chantecler
[Talking toward the horizon.] Ha, Sun, I feel you just behind there, stirring—and I laugh with pride and joy amidst my scarlet wattles— [Rising on tiptoe suddenly, in a voice of startling loudness.] Cock-a-doodle-doo!
The Pheasant-hen
What great breath lifts his breast-feathers?
Chantecler
[Toward the east.] Obey!—I am the Earth, and I am Labour! My comb is the pattern of a forge fire, and the voice of the furrow rises to my throat! [Whispering mysteriously.] ”

“ Scanlon, “never admit, even to yourself, that the opposition is on top of you. It has a bad effect. Even the best of us has no real liking for a bruising battle, if we get the bruising; and we’re only looking for an excuse to side step. And thoughts like those provide the excuse.”
At the cellar door Campe stopped.
“We’ll not venture into the vaults,” said he, in a tired way. His face had the sagged look which hopelessness brings, and his eyes were dull and weary. “It may not be safe.” ”

“ With a pitiful moan the poor brute almost flung itself into the devotee's lap, and died there, its arms clasped around the lean waist of its master. All this happened so suddenly, so quickly, that Sangster had barely time to think of what he had done; but, as he raised his red spear, a horror came on him, so human was the cry of the dying ape, so like a child did it lie in its death-agony. ”

“ There's Scanlan sitting on a bench before the door. Call him up—tell him you accept his terms—let him start for London, post haste. With every speed he can master he 'll not be a minute too soon. Shall I call him? Shall I beckon to him?”
“Send a servant for him,” said Lady Dorothea, calmly, while she folded up the letter, and laid it on the table at her side. ”

“ It's not every day in the week one has the good luck to get a peep into the enemy's brief, and this is exactly what you 'll find here.”
Massingbred stretched out his hand to take the book, but Scanlan quietly replaced it in his pocket, and, with a dry and very peculiar smile, said,—“Have a little patience, sir. We must go regularly to work here. You shall see this book—you shall examine it—and even retain it—but it must be on conditions.” “Oh, you may confide in me, Scanlan. Even if Mr. Merl were my friend,—which I assure you he is not,—I could not venture to betray you.” ”

“ Scantlebray. It is true that we are not busy just now, but it does not follow that we are disposed for a talk. It is growing dark, and we shall lock up the cottage and go to bed.”
“Oh, I will not detain you long. Besides I’ll take the wish out of your heart for bed in one jiffy. Look here—read this. Do you know the handwriting?”
He held out a letter. Judith reluctantly took it. She had risen; she had not asked Scantlebray to take a seat.
“Yes,” she said, “that is the writing of Captain Coppinger.” ”

“ I must pray you to depart.”
“In half the twinkle of an eye,” said Scantlebray. Then he seated himself. “Come, you haven’t a superabundance of friends. Make me one and unburden your soul to me. What is it all about? Why are you here? What has caused this squabble? I have a brother a solicitor at Bodmin. Let me jot down the items, and we’ll get a case out of it. Trust me as a friend, and I’ll have you righted. I hear Miss Trevisa has come in for a fortune. Be a good girl, set your back against her and show fight.”
“I will thank you to leave the house,” said Judith, haughtily. ”

“ This was addressed to Jamie, as the white mare leisurely trotted up to where the boy stood. Then Scantlebray drew up, with his elbows at right angles to his trunk.
"Here's my brother thirsting, ravening to make your acquaintance—and, by George! you are in luck's way, young hopeful, to make his. Obadiah! this here infant is an orphing. Orphing! this is Obadiah Scantlebray, whom I call Scanty because he is fat. Jump up, will y', into the gig."
Jamie looked vacantly about him. He had an idea that he ought to wait for Judith or go directly home. ”

“ So—fill my glass again, old man, and we'll drink to a cold bed and an indigestible lump—somewhere—in his head or in his gizzard—to Cruel Coppinger, and the wiping off of old scores—always a satisfaction to honest men." Scantlebray rubbed his hands. "It is a satisfaction to the conscience—to ferret out the rats sometimes." ”

“ I have mastered the stars but they hate me. Ho, that sounds Ancient! Like a Book. Too much cranching.
The voice returned: "Sunward 4234 dash 182 rising Subchief Martel, enter the lawful gates of the city. Welcome. Do you desire food, raiment, money, or companionship?" The voice had no hospitality in it, just business. This was certainly different from entering a city in a Scanner's role! Then the petty officers came out, and threw their beltlights in their fretful faces, and mouthed their words with preposterous deference, shouting against the stone deafness of a Scanner's ears. ”

“ Coppinger back to the Glaze.”
“What, married in the morning and roving the downs at night?”
“I have been to Polzeath after my workbox—here it is,” said Judith.
“Oh, you are out of your road to Pentyre—I suppose you know that,” sneered Scantlebray.
“Naturally,” replied Mr. Menaida. “It is dark enough for any one to stray. Why! you don’t suspect me, do you, of showing false lights and endeavoring to wreck vessels! That would be too good a joke—and the offence, as I told you—capital.”
Scantlebray uttered an oath and turned to the men and said: “Captain Cruel is too deep for us this time. ”

“ Many men would have been struck by the changed aspect of the place,—silence and desolation where before there were movement and bustle; but Scanlan only read in the altered appearances around the encouragement of his own ambitious hopes. The easy swagger in which the attorney indulged while moving about the stable-yard declined into a more becoming gait as he traversed the long corridors, and finally became actually respectful as he drew nigh the library, where he was informed Miss Martin awaited him, so powerful was the influence of old habit over the more vulgar instincts of his nature. ”

“ Then again the boom of a gun.
"There is a wreck!" exclaimed Scantlebray. "I thought so—and you, Mistress Orphing, you're guilty." He turned to the men. "We can make nothing of this affair with the lantern. Let us catch the sea-wolves falling on their prey." ”

“ There are few forms upon which the mantle of mystery and romance could seem to hang more ungracefully than upon that of the uncouth and clownish Schalken—the Dutch boor—the rude and dogged, but most cunning worker in oils, whose pieces delight the initiated of the present day almost as much as his manners disgusted the refined of his own ”

“ What came into the little brain of the ape it is hard to say; but it was an instinct that told him his master was in danger, and with a dog-like fidelity he resolved to defend him. Springing forward the beast grasped the shaft of the lance, and, with chattering teeth, pushed it violently on one side. All the little temper Sangster had left went to shreds; with an oath he drew back his arm, the spear-head flashed, and the next moment passed clean through the shrieking animal, and was out again, no longer bright but dripping red. ”

“ Slavens and his backer arrived.
Shanklin was running off about the same old line of talk, for he was more voluble than inventive, and never varied it much. It served just as well as a new lecture for every occasion, for the memory of suckers is even shorter than their judgment.
Gents were invited to step up and weigh the honesty of those dice, and gaze on the folly of an old one-eyed feller who had no more sense than to take such long chances. If anybody doubted that he took long chances, let that man step up and put down his money. Could he throw twenty-seven, or couldn’t he? ”

“ Knowing so little about it, Chantecler is convinced that the magic of his cock-a-doodle-doo! makes the sun rise every morning! The pearl of the poem is the scene in the second act, where Chantecler confides this marvellous secret to the gloriosa donna delta sua mente, the Hen-Pheasant, who has taken refuge in the poultry-yard. A pheasant sees more of the world than a cock, flies and rockets up in the sky, dwells in the forest, and therefore, half-sceptical, half-scandalised, she listens while Chantecler, manlike, expatiates on the necessity of his existence. ”

“ And as to your flattering me about being practical, or whatever you call it, it's a clean waste of time, neither less nor more!”
“The agency and the niece!” said Massingbred, with a calm solemnity that this speech had never disconcerted.
“Them 's the conditions!” said Scanlan, reddening over face and forehead.
“You 're a plucky fellow, Scanlan, and by Jove I like you for it!” said Massingbred. And for once there was a hearty sincerity in the way he spoke. “If a man is to have a fall, let it be at least over a 'rasper,' not be thrown over a furrow in a ploughed field! ”

“ Sangster can see the foam on the boar's jowl, necked with bright spots of red; blood-marks from the hunted animal's lips, wounded by the sharp tushes as he ground them together in his wrath; already has he reached out his arm to deliver the spear, when, quick as lightning, the boar jinks to the right, and, dashing down a deep and narrow ravine, is lost to view. Sangster saw the bristles on his back as the beast vanished, and the speed of his horse bore him almost to the edge of the steep bank of the Deg before he could stop and turn him. ”