"Alarm bell" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... in armies against one another, but even on the march the armies would begin attacking each other, the ranks would be broken and the soldiers would fall on each other, stabbing and cutting, biting and devouring each other. The alarm bell was ringing all day long in the towns; men rushed together, but why they were summoned and who was summoning them no one knew. The most ordinary trades were abandoned, because everyone proposed his own ideas, his own improvements, ...
— Crime and Punishment • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... above everything; the plash of oars and the cleaving of hatchets, a crash as of the smashing of doors and chests, the grating of rigging and wheels, and the neighing of horses, and the clang of the alarm bell and the clink of chains, the roar and crackle of fire, drunken songs and quick, gnashing chatter, weeping inconsolable, plaintive despairing prayers, and shouts of command, the dying gasp and the reckless whistle, the guffaw and the thud of the dance.... 'Kill them! Hang them! Drown them! rip them ...
— Dream Tales and Prose Poems • Ivan Turgenev
... arms were taken to the Committee Rooms, and the building left under a strong guard. All the other Armories of the "law and order" party were taken about the same time by other detachments. In less than two hours after the sounding of the alarm bell, the "law and order" party had surrendered; all their arms were secured; the leaders of their troops dismissed on parole; and the rank and file placed in safe keeping; without the shedding of a drop of blood. The people looked on with astonishment ...
— A Sketch of the Causes, Operations and Results of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee of 1856 • Stephen Palfrey Webb
... An alarm bell rang and the port slammed shut, literally in Kerk's face. Only his Pyrran reflexes saved him from being ...
— Deathworld • Harry Harrison
... of danger.] Alarm — N. alarm; alarum, larum^, alarm bell, tocsin, alerts, beat of drum, sound of trumpet, note of alarm, hue and cry, fire cross, signal of distress; blue lights; war-cry, war- whoop; warning &c 668; fogsignal, foghorn; yellow flag; danger signal; red light, red ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... a Dr. Moffat called to ask for me, with a message about Jimmy. I was absent, but they saw Lilly. Jimmy, they said, was safe. Though sick in bed, he had sprung up and had rushed to the wharf at the first tap of the alarm bell in New Orleans. But as nothing could be done, he would probably be with us to-day, bringing mother and Miriam. I have neither heard nor seen more. The McRae, they said, went to the bottom with the others. ...
— A Confederate Girl's Diary • Sarah Morgan Dawson
... because the burglar-alarm had been in the habit of ringing even when the mahogany-room was closed. At length he thought that perhaps the burglar-alarm might be in order, and he decided to try and see; accordingly he put it on and then went down and opened the window; consequently the alarm bell rang, it would even if the alarm had been in order. Papa went despairingly upstairs and said to mamma, "Livy the mahogany-room won't go on. I have just opened ...
— Chapters from My Autobiography • Mark Twain
... for the ringing of the alarm bell, or the call to "fire quarters," but the minutes slipped by without the summons. Outside, the ruddy glare tinged the surface of the sea, sparkling from foam-crested waves, and forming a circle of dancing light through ...
— A Gunner Aboard the "Yankee" • Russell Doubleday
... drawn up, madam, five men could hold the chateau against a score, and the sound of the alarm bell would bring all the tenants and their men down to your assistance. I will answer for them all. There were great rejoicings last week when I sent round the news that you were expected. The memory of your mother, who once resided here for a year, is very ...
— Bonnie Prince Charlie - A Tale of Fontenoy and Culloden • G. A. Henty
... to see whence came this cry, which, twice again renewed, remained twice unanswered, and was immediately followed by a report and the flash of a firearm: at the same moment the sentinel on duty on the tower blew his bugle, another set going the alarm bell, and the cries, "To arms, to arms!" and "Treason, ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - MARY STUART—1587 • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE
... the pupils, whom the sisters had in vain tried to send away. Finally the sister who was door-keeper sounded the alarm bell, and five minutes later the soldiers from the Satory barracks arrived, thinking that a fire had broken out. When the officer in command was told what was the matter, he sent back his men and asked to see the Mother Superior. He was brought ...
— My Double Life - The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt • Sarah Bernhardt
... too well grounded, for during the "evening" of the following day, while he was carefully scanning the heavens for some sign of enemy craft, the alarm bell over his head burst into its brazen clamor. Instantly he shot out the detectors and ultra-lights and saw not one, but six of the deadly globes—almost upon them, at point-blank range! One was already playing a beam of force upon the Forlorn Hope, and the ...
— Spacehounds of IPC • Edward Elmer Smith |
