Here are the quotations for this week (June 13th to 19th):
1. …The turbines whistle reflectively. From the low-arched expansion-tanks on either side, the valves descend pillar-wise to the turbine-chests, and thence the obedient gas whirls through the spirals of blades with a force that would whip the teeth out of a power saw. Behind, is its own pressure held in leash, or spurred on by the lift-shunts…
2. The forward engine had no more work to do. Its released piston-rod, therefore, drove up fiercely, with nothing to check it, and started most of the nuts of the cylinder-cover. It came down again, the full weight of the steam behind it, and the foot of the disconnected connecting rod, as useless as the leg of a man with a sprained ankle, flung out to the right and struck the starboard, or right-hand, cast-iron supporting column of the forward engine, cracking it clean through…
3. ..All three cylinders were white with the salt spray that had come down through the engine-room hatch; there was white fur on the canvas-bound steam-pipes, and even the bright-work deep below was speckled and soiled; but the cylinders had learned to make the most of steam that was half water, and were pounding along cheerfully…
The sources of lat week’s extracts (June 6th to 12th) are as follows:
1. (…They sat together and laughed, calling each other openly by every pet name that could move the wrath of the gods…) This is from This is from "Without Benefit of Clergy" in Life's Handicap.
2. (…’ I went, crying like a jackal, to the appointed place which was near the byre of the headman's house. But my love was already there, weeping…’) This is from "In Flood Time" in Soldiers Three and Other Stories.
3. (…Janki Meah took a second wife - a girl of the Jolaha main stock of the Meahs, and singularly beautiful…) This is from "At Twenty-two" in Soldiers Three and Other Stories.
Good wishes to all, John R
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