"Tightening" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... ventured to touch the mystic heart, and ere his eyes could look into the face of the image its arms embraced him in a tightening grasp. ...
— Mr. World and Miss Church-Member • W. S. Harris
... at Weldon's heels and flew up to his hair. He had a sudden flashing sense of being in a net that was softly tightening. In an agony of regret he wished that he had not that sheaf of "memoranda, etc." It was suddenly clear to him that ...
— The Strange Cases of Dr. Stanchon • Josephine Daskam Bacon
... people of Germany might be eating poorly and tightening their belts, but Herr Domber's table gave no hint of lack of supplies. There was real coffee, strong and black, fruit, fish, fresh vegetables and a roast squab for each diner. Stan put aside all unpleasant thoughts and ...
— A Yankee Flier Over Berlin • Al Avery
... then will Springhaven rejoice, and every one that hath eyes clap a spy-glass to them! And what will old Twemlow say, and that frump of an Eliza, who condescends to give me little hints sometimes about tightening up SO, perhaps, and letting out so, and permitting a little air to ...
— Springhaven - A Tale of the Great War • R. D. Blackmore
... Amelia, tightening her lips. "I can't imagine what her Aunt Anne would have said. John, wasn't it wonderful her leaving you practically all her money? And just what might have been expected. She was ...
— Old Crow • Alice Brown
... slowly creeping But that he did not know, Underneath he found an opening He thought that he could go. He soon got tired and worried, He soon then had to rest, The boulder still was creeping, It was tightening on ...
— Blue Ridge Country • Jean Thomas
... had got back," she went on, her face uplifted, her friendly fingers tightening on his. "That old mischief-maker told me. I didn't come out here after the cow. That was just a dodge to keep anybody from talking about me being away from home after dark. I had to see you. I knew you ...
— Dixie Hart • Will N. Harben
... imagine with what courage I worked at the arsenal; nothing was too much for me. I would have passed night and day in mending the guns and adjusting the bayonets and tightening the screws. When the commandant, Mr. Montravel, came to see ...
— Waterloo - A sequel to The Conscript of 1813 • Emile Erckmann
... growing ever fainter, sweeter, wilder, sadder, as it came. He did not know why this sound of the boatman's horn always touched him so keenly and moved him so deeply. He could not have told why his eyes grew strangely dim as he heard it now, or why a strange tightening came around his heart. He was but an ignorant lad of the woods. It was not for him to know that these few notes—so few, so simple, so artlessly blown by a rude boatman—touched the deep fountain of the soul, loosing the mighty ...
— Round Anvil Rock - A Romance • Nancy Huston Banks
... Fig. 546. Blanket-stick for tightening strands of blankets during the process of weaving. After the thread is passed through from one side to the other this stick is placed over the thread and then firmly beaten down. The following numbers are implements of the same kind. ...
— Illustrated Catalogue Of The Collections Obtained From The Indians Of New Mexico And Arizona In 1879 • James Stevenson
... attention was needed by the automobile, it appeared—such as a tightening up of chains, and a couple of lost grease-cups to replace; therefore Mr. Barrymore's time would be filled up without any sight-seeing. But Sir Ralph offered to take Beechy and me anywhere we liked to go. I was very glad that the Prince said nothing about accompanying us, for ...
— My Friend the Chauffeur • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
... hall-mirror, carefully dusting, with her tiny handkerchief, the little pats of powder still left on her cheeks, and with her jewelled fingers smoothing the soft hair parted over her forehead, and tightening meanwhile the side- combs that kept in place the clusters of short curls which framed her face. Then, with head erect and a gracious recognition of the old servant's ministrations, she floated past Malachi, bent double ...
— The Fortunes of Oliver Horn • F. Hopkinson Smith
... civil war led to a 28% drop in GDP that year, with partial recovery in 1999-2002. Before the war, trade reform and price liberalization were the most successful part of the country's structural adjustment program under IMF sponsorship. The tightening of monetary policy and the development of the private sector had also begun to reinvigorate the economy. Because of high costs, the development of petroleum, phosphate, and other mineral resources is not ...
— The 2003 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency
... frequent and more laconic. Their wording was like some trembling, fateful needle of a barometer, pausing, reacting a little, but going down, down, down, indicator of the heart-pressure of Paris, shrivelling the flesh, tightening the nerves. Already Paris was in a state of siege, in one sense. Her exits were guarded against all who were not in uniform and going to fight; to all who had no purpose except to see what was passing where two hundred miles resounded with ...
— My Year of the War • Frederick Palmer
... pretty evident that a rigorous confinement would breed discontent; which in its turn would be bound to escape through the vent-hole which the power of appeal provided; thus bringing about a state of anarchy within the house, and the tightening of the hold of the civil authority upon ...
— The King's Achievement • Robert Hugh Benson
... that the end had come, he felt the creature wrench from him, and saw it slide in a tangle of arms and legs over the smooth metal pavement. He got shakily to his feet, to see Brand standing over him and flailing out with his fists at an ever tightening circle of ...
— The Red Hell of Jupiter • Paul Ernst
... said Alex, rising, filling his pipe and tightening his belt to begin the day's work. "It may not look so tame before we get through! But first," he added, "we'll have to see if we can get the boats to the open water of the lake. Come, it's time to break camp now for the first ...
— The Young Alaskans on the Trail • Emerson Hough
... Hermod dismounted on the smooth ice, and tightening the girths of his saddle, remounted, and burying his spurs deep into Sleipnir's sleek sides, he put him to a prodigious leap, which landed them safely on the other ...
— Myths of the Norsemen - From the Eddas and Sagas • H. A. Guerber
... from his chair with slow, lazy movements. Physically and morally he seemed to want tightening up. ...
— Roden's Corner • Henry Seton Merriman
... said she could attach a meaning to but one word: "desertion." Even in the technical marital sense she knew vaguely its significance. She thought of it with a tightening about the heart. Any desertion of him of which she would be capable would be like that of the little mermaid when she dived sorrowfully down to her father's palace, leaving him with those to whom he belonged. It was this thought which prompted a question flung in among ...
— The Dust Flower • Basil King
... his cord-trousers pulled up a few inches and tied under his knees with a string, which made little bags of them there. He had to think for a mile after they left the public-house before he discovered that it was to keep them from tightening on his knees when he stooped, and so ...
— A Rough Shaking • George MacDonald
... were tightening Their harness on their backs, The Consul was the foremost man To take in hand an axe: 60 And Fathers mixed with Commons Seized hatchet, bar, and crow, And smote upon the planks above, And loosed ...
— The Ontario High School Reader • A.E. Marty
... utmost care, some ground was necessarily lost, and this was shown by the slight subsidence of the wall-plates and a loosening up of the wedges in the supports bearing on the arch timbers. During this operation of "bottoming," two men on each side were constantly employed in tightening up wedges and shims above the arch timbers. It is impossible to explain the fact that these timbers slackened (without proportionate roof settlement) by any other theory than that the arching was so nearly ...
— Pressure, Resistance, and Stability of Earth • J. C. Meem
... same enthusiasm, the same constructive fever: in politics, where Socialists and Nationalists vie with one another in tightening up the wheels of slackened power; in art, which some wish to make into an old aristocratic mansion for the privileged few, and others a vast hall open to the people, a hall where the collective soul can sing; they are reconstructors of ...
— Jean-Christophe Journey's End • Romain Rolland
... military force in such expeditions. Nevertheless, the naval success of the North was so continuous and overwhelming that its history in detail need not be recounted in these pages. Almost from the first the ever-tightening grip of the blockade upon the Southern coasts made its power felt, and early in 1862 the inland waterways of the South were beginning to fall under the command of the Northern flotillas. Such a success needed, of course, the ...
— Abraham Lincoln • Lord Charnwood
... is said to have "amazed all Europe." We don't know whether Europe is harder to amaze than America. Certainly no one could be more admiringly astounded than the amateur clowns gazing entranced through the crack of the doorway. To that nerve-tightening roll of drums she spins deliriously high up in giddy air, floating, a tiny human pin-wheel, in a shining cone of light. One can hear the crowd catch its breath. She walks back, all smiles, while her maid trots ahead saying something unintelligible. Her tall husband is waiting for her at the ...
— Pipefuls • Christopher Morley
... resentful against Mrs. Gould, in whose care, tacitly it is true, he had left the safety of Antonia. Better perish a thousand times than owe your preservation to such people, he exclaimed mentally. The grip of Nostromo's fingers never removed from his shoulder, tightening ...
— Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard • Joseph Conrad
... necessary, in his opinion, to bring the business to a paying basis. All which information Gard accepted for testing purposes, but gathered from the total the fact that through ill health on the part of the departing captain, the ropes all round had got slack and that the tightening of them would be a matter of no little delicacy ...
— A Maid of the Silver Sea • John Oxenham
... Gaston his answer. By the magic of that name she had connected the Past and the Present. The shock was tremendous, but Gaston bore it with only a tightening of the lips to show ...
— Joyce of the North Woods • Harriet T. Comstock
... dirty scum!" roared the giant of a man tightening his grip. "I'll break your damned back for ye and heave ye ...
— Loot of the Void • Edwin K. Sloat
... had hitherto exercised prudence in his demands upon Gibbie—not that he desired anything less than unlimited authority with him, but, knowing it would be hard to enforce, he sought to establish it by a gradual tightening of the rein, a slow encroachment of law upon the realms of disordered license. He had never yet refused to do anything he required of him, had executed entirely the tasks he set him, was more than respectful, and always ready; yet somehow Mr. Sclater ...
— Sir Gibbie • George MacDonald
... to be in operation in the Midland counties. To give motion to the rope a single wheel is used, and friction for driving the rope is supplied either by clip pulleys or by taking the rope over several wheels. The diagram shows an arrangement for a tightening arrangement. One driving wheel is used, says The Colliery Guardian, and the rope is kept constantly tight by passing it round a pulley fixed upon a tram to which a heavy weight is attached. Either one or two lines of rails are used. When a single line is adopted the rope works backward ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 460, October 25, 1884 • Various
... prey he ran swiftly back across the flags and disappeared behind the mass of stones, and Cuxson, not daring to move for fear of tightening the thongs, sat almost numb with anxiety as he wondered if his luck would hold ...
— Leonie of the Jungle • Joan Conquest
... Here comes a man with a lamb to offer. He approaches solemnly, reverently, towards the altar of God. But as he is coming there flashes across his mind the face of that man, with whom he has had difficulty. And instantly he can feel his grip tightening on the offering, and his teeth shutting closer at the quick memory. Jesus says, "If that be so lay your lamb right down." What! go abruptly away! Why! how the folks around the temple will talk! "Lay the lamb right down, and go thy ...
— Quiet Talks on Prayer • S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon
... surely the coil was tightening which was destined to strangle the established church of Massachusetts; but the resistance of the ministers was desperate, and lent a tinge of theological hate to the outbreak of the Revolution. They believed it would be impossible for them to remain a dominant priesthood if Episcopalianism, ...
— The Emancipation of Massachusetts • Brooks Adams
... and Hobson in the tool-shed and went to see what they were doing. He found them busy about the mowing-machine—oiling it, tightening the screws ...
— Bobby of Cloverfield Farm • Helen Fuller Orton
... in making new demands at Peking and tightening her hold upon Manchuria has led the Imperial Government to believe that she must have abandoned her intention of retiring from that province. At the same time, her increased activity upon the Korean frontier is such as to raise doubts ...
— Russia • Donald Mackenzie Wallace
... was frightened of death. I've seen too much of that in many parts of the earth to dread it greatly. It was the thought of those fingers tightening on ...
— Uncanny Tales • Various
... weeks afterwards Millreagh lives in a fever of expectancy; for whatever else may be said about the Tunnel, this is certain to be said of it, that it will start, in Ireland, from Millreagh. On that brilliant hope, Millreagh, tightening its belt, lives in a fair degree of happiness, eking out its present poverty by fishing and by ...
— The Foolish Lovers • St. John G. Ervine
... times interrupted in our work by the ice coming with a tremendous strain on the north cables, the wind blowing strong from the N.N.W., and the whole 'pack' outside of us setting rapidly to the southward. Indeed, notwithstanding the recent tightening and re-adjustment of the cables, the bight was pressed in so much, as to force the Fury against the berg astern of her, twice in the course of the day. Mr. Waller, who was in the hold the second time that this occurred, reported ...
— Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy; between 1793 and 1849 • William O. S. Gilly
... among the buildings. They stared at her curiously, as if the sight of a white girl attended by a copper-hued giant were part of the picturesqueness they expected. As she drew near her own house, she saw a woman approaching, and while yet a stone's-throw distant she recognized her. A jealous tightening of her throat and a flutter at her breast told her ...
— The Silver Horde • Rex Beach
... when he sent his message to Congress, had been completed with entire success, with an eclat indeed which startled Europe as well as America. He had captured Savannah, and was marching North driving the army of General Joseph E. Johnston before him. General Grant meanwhile was tightening his hold on Richmond and on the army of General Lee. From his camp on the James he was directing military operations over an area of vast extent. The great victory which General Thomas had won over Hood's army ...
— Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. 1 (of 2) • James Gillespie Blaine
... angrily. Regis said, with a little tightening of his mouth, "That's it. You'll have to be Dr. Allison tomorrow when you tell the Old One about your mission. But you have to be the ...
— The Planet Savers • Marion Zimmer Bradley
... only just begun it myself," said Hilary, coolly tightening her hold upon it, "so I am afraid ...
— The Rebellion of Margaret • Geraldine Mockler
... tightening were tried, but none were very successful; and the wire hung in curves, some greater and ...
— What Might Have Been Expected • Frank R. Stockton
... Dr. Morgan went through his mind. He glanced at his guest, who was buttoning his coat and tightening a spur preparatory ...
— A Tar-Heel Baron • Mabell Shippie Clarke Pelton
... the bull felt the strange cravat around his neck, he began to plunge and 'rout' with violence, and at length ran furiously out from the tree. But he soon came to the end of his tether; and the quick jerk, which caused the tree itself to crack, brought him to his haunches, while the noose tightening on his throat was fast strangling him. But for the thick matted hair it would have done so, but this saved him, and he continued to sprawl and struggle at the end of the rope. The tree kept on cracking, and as I began to fear ...
— Popular Adventure Tales • Mayne Reid
... mentioning for miles. Among the cool-eyed five who prepared to make their stand, there was not one who hadn't faced death before and often. But never had the odds been more against them. They had slipped through the toils before, but now they were tightening again. ...
— Kid Wolf of Texas - A Western Story • Ward M. Stevens
... consisting of a belt applied around the thorax, and fixed to another around the upper arm by a band which passes above the axillary fold of the dress, useful in restraining these movements. If these measures fail, it may be advisable to have recourse to operation; this may consist in tightening up the capsule, the results of which are said to be uncertain, or in detaching a portion of the deltoid or subscapularis muscle and stitching it beneath the joint to cover and strengthen the weakened portion of the capsule. It ...
— Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. • Alexander Miles
... is all we have, and to destroy it and put in its place conventions and prejudices is to put man's work above God's. But Nora would not answer in these words till she had spoken with Mr. Walter Poole.' The name brought a tightening about his heart, and when Father Oliver stumbled to his feet—he had walked many miles, and was tired—he began to think he must tell Nora of the miracle that had happened about a mile—he thought it was just a mile—beyond Patsy Regan's public-house. The miracle would impress her, and he looked ...
— The Lake • George Moore
... paced with light, swift steps about the room; he sat in the various chairs, drawing them up and reconstructing their positions. He tested how much of the garden was visible; he examined the floor, the ceiling, and the fireplace; but never once did I see that sudden brightening of his eyes and tightening of his lips which would have told me that he saw some gleam of light in this ...
— The Adventure of the Devil's Foot • Arthur Conan Doyle
... With a certain tightening of the nerves, Peter followed his glance, but made out nothing through the fogging dust. When he looked around at Jim Pink again, the buffoon's face was a caricature of immense mirth. He shook it sober, abruptly, ...
— Birthright - A Novel • T.S. Stribling
... belt, being merely a strip of cane intertwined (not plaited) so as to form a band about half an inch wide, and left the natural colour of the cane. Both men and women, when short of food, use this belt to reduce the pain of hunger, by tightening it over the stomach. It is, therefore, much worn during a period of restricted diet prior to a feast. Women also use it, along with their other ordinary means, to bring about abortion, the belt being for this purpose drawn very tightly round the ...
— The Mafulu - Mountain People of British New Guinea • Robert W. Williamson
... Pegs from which the accused could be hung by the thumbs with weights attached to the feet, covered an entire wall; chains, shackling-irons, fetters, steel rings for compressing the throat, and belts for tightening the chest, all had their appointed places, while the Chair, the Boot, the Heavy Hat, and many other appliances quite unknown to our system of administering justice ...
— The Mirror of Kong Ho • Ernest Bramah
... found out what these three champions of the wilderness had been about, we resolved to encamp there for the night, that we might destroy as many as we could of these prairie sharks. Broken-down as they were, there was no danger attending the expedition, and, tightening on our belts, and securing our pistols, in case of an attack from a recovering panther, we started upon our butchering expedition. On our way we met with some fierce-looking jaguars, which we did not think it prudent to attack, so we let them alone, and soon found occupation enough ...
— Monsieur Violet • Frederick Marryat
... a steady strain until the long rise was topped, and then climbed down from his seat and let them breathe, tightening this and feeling that about their tackle, until each horse was tricked into believing itself the object of especial interest; a belief of which Amaryllis saw the effect in three pairs of swivelling ears. At last, having lighted a cigarette dug from a yellow packet which he must have bought, she ...
— Ambrotox and Limping Dick • Oliver Fleming
... fell on dim glazed eyes, A body shrunken from its garments' fold: An aged man whose bent knees could not rise, He tottered in the maiden's tightening hold. She shivered, but too slight was the disguise To hide from love what never yet was old; She held him fast, with open eyes did pray, Walked through the fear, and kept ...
— Poetical Works of George MacDonald, Vol. 2 • George MacDonald
... wonder at you, John," said the Cornal with a contempt in his utterance and a tightening of the corner of his lips. "I wonder at you changing words with him. What ...
— Gilian The Dreamer - His Fancy, His Love and Adventure • Neil Munro
... in quieting her, I dismounted, and, tightening the saddle-girths, which had become loosened during her struggles, got on again; still no one came. At length, just as I was beginning to ...
— Frank Fairlegh - Scenes From The Life Of A Private Pupil • Frank E. Smedley
... deliberately putting out of her mind something that obtruded now and then. It brought with it a return of the puzzled expression that I had surprised early in the day, before the wreck. I caught it once, when, breakfast over, she was tightening the sling that held the broken arm. I had prolonged the morning meal as much as I could, but when the wooden clock with the pink roses on the dial pointed to half after ten, and the mother with the duplicate youngsters ...
— The Man in Lower Ten • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... me—she does just that,' continued the child. 'I don't think she ever does anything that is wrong at all. But oh, Mr. Wynn,' and he felt a sudden tightening of her grasp on his hand, 'what big bird is that? look how frightened ...
— Cedar Creek - From the Shanty to the Settlement • Elizabeth Hely Walshe
... o'clock that night Glory was putting on her hat and cloak to return home when the call-boy came to the dressing-room door to say that the stage manager was waiting to see her. With a little catch, in her breath, and then with a tightening of the heart-strings, she followed him to the stage manager's office. It was a stuffy place over the porter's lodge, approached by a flight of circular iron stairs and lumbered with many kinds of ...
— The Christian - A Story • Hall Caine
... save himself from falling. Instantly all the war that was in his soul saw an outlet. He came back, swift as a panther and as powerful. In an instant his assailant was on his back on the pavement, the strong fingers tightening about the wretch's throat; Bolles was a powerful man, but he had not the slightest chance. Not a sound from either man. There were one or two pedestrians on the opposite side of the street, but either these did not ...
— Half a Rogue • Harold MacGrath
... chain tightening, and knew that she was to be bound, whether willing or unwilling. The consciousness of her impotence did not act kindly upon her temper, ...
— Sevenoaks • J. G. Holland
... was the astonishing reply; "it's Bascom. And this," indicating by a tightening of his arm the blushing person at his side, "is the lady I married over ...
— The Woman-Haters • Joseph C. Lincoln
... the marshal, his lips tightening. He had once tried to arrest the young man for "disturbing the peace," and had been obliged to call upon the crowd ...
— Anderson Crow, Detective • George Barr McCutcheon
... horse a little way, then launched him into a gallop, tearing on and on, sun, wind, trees swimming, whirling like a vision, hearing nothing, feeling nothing, save the leaden pounding of his pulse and the breathless, terrible tightening in his throat. ...
— The Tracer of Lost Persons • Robert W. Chambers
... cardboard, then through the loop and draw the thread tight; this will bind the threads securely at that point. They can then be cut exactly opposite this on the other side, which will release the cardboard. Give the binding thread another tightening pull, and then take the needle and thread straight through the centre, as shown in fig. 160, and fasten it off with a good knot. This knot will be in the ball part of the tassel and will help to make it round. Next, double the tassel into shape ready for the collar. Thread the ...
— Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving • Grace Christie
... improved in 1871 "new turbine" but a few years, for as long as he could detect a defect in the wheel, case or gate, he continued improving and simplifying them, and in 1873 he erected a very complete testing flume, also made a very sensitive dynamometer, it having a combination screw for tightening the friction band, which required 100 turns to make one inch, and commenced making and experimenting with different constructed turbines. He made five different wheels and made over a hundred tests before he was satisfied. Application was then made for a patent, which was ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 795, March 28, 1891 • Various
... tightening the grip on his revolver, he drew closer. Should he shoot without warning? No, he would lean over the sleeper, call his name, and let him waken and see his death before it came to him. Otherwise the triumph would be robbed of half of ...
— The Rangeland Avenger • Max Brand
... merely opened the door and stood aside for her visitor to pass. A curious tightening at her heart oppressed her as she thought that this elegant, self-possessed, exquisitely attired creature was actually her "mother!"—and she could have cried out with the pain which was so hard to bear. Suddenly Lady Blythe came ...
— Innocent - Her Fancy and His Fact • Marie Corelli
... monotone ceased, and for a moment there was silence in the squalid little room. The woman's face was as impassive as Morrow's, as she waited. Only the tightening of her hands upon her husband's shoulders, until her bony knuckles showed white through the drawn skin, betrayed the storm of emotion which swept over her, at the memories evoked by the ...
— The Crevice • William John Burns and Isabel Ostrander
... the whistle and the jerking of the car caused by the tightening of the air brake on the wheels, showed the train to be approaching ...
— Jim Cummings • Frank Pinkerton
... heading of furniture. These consist of devices for the attachment of the movable parts of the loom, which need not be described in this connection. In some of the Tusayan houses may be seen examples of posts sunk in the floor provided with holes for the insertion of cords for attaching and tightening the warp, similar to those built into the kiva floors, illustrated in Fig. 31. No device of this kind was seen in Zui. A more primitive appliance for such work is seen in both groups of pueblos in an occasional stump of a beam or short pole projecting from the wall ...
— A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola • Victor Mindeleff and Cosmos Mindeleff
... be the best course for them to pursue. They were now between "the devil and the deep sea," with the wide river and lake in front of them, and an avenging army of British and Canadian troops, well equipped with cavalry, artillery and trained infantry, gradually tightening the coils around their position from the rear, in which direction there was no avenue of escape. It was indeed a serious predicament, and the only hope of the Fenians rested in the possibility of being able to escape across the river and abandon their project to capture Canada, at this point ...
— Troublous Times in Canada - A History of the Fenian Raids of 1866 and 1870 • John A. Macdonald
... could feel her lips tightening. Futile to put in a word for Mrs. Haim! When he had described the swoon, Marguerite had shown neither concern nor curiosity. Not the slightest! Antipathy to her stepmother had radiated from her almost visibly in the night like the nimbus round a street lamp. Well, she ...
— The Roll-Call • Arnold Bennett
... made him unhappy was just the thing that made me happy, and gave me the pleasantest evening of my life," replied Fred, tightening the pressure slightly ...
— Under Fire - A Tale of New England Village Life • Frank A. Munsey
... The eleventh of June Sommers had gone to meet Alves at their usual rendezvous in the thicket at the rear of Blue Grass Avenue. The sultry afternoon had made him drowse, and when he awoke Alves was standing over him, her hands tightening nervously. ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick
... they could in putting up the tents. So did Mother Martin and Nora, who was large and strong. She could pull on a rope about as well as a man, and there were many ropes that needed tightening and fastening around pegs driven into the ground so the tents would not blow ...
— The Curlytops on Star Island - or Camping out with Grandpa • Howard R. Garis
... indeed it were he, seemed afflicted with a sudden shortsightedness. He met the incredulous gaze both of Lessingham and his wife without recognition or any sign of flinching. At that distance it was impossible to see the tightening of his lips and the steely flash ...
— The Zeppelin's Passenger • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... this world of men Bind them by ever-tightening bonds again. If ye knew well the teaching of the Tree, What its shape saith; and whence it ...
— The Bhagavad-Gita • Sir Edwin Arnold
... a slit enclosing her. In his imitation uniform, hand on empty carriage belt, Mr. Hal Sanderson stood there a moment, his face whitening, tightening. ...
— Defenders of Democracy • The Militia of Mercy
... slow with their "improvements" at Highcourt. The times were getting bad, he said, and the market looked as if they would get worse rather than better. Every one was talking of a dark future, unsettled conditions industrially in the country, and "tightening money," whatever that might mean. Adelle could not see why it should affect her solid fortune based upon Clark's Field. To be sure, men talked business more than usually, the ill treatment that capital was receiving, ...
— Clark's Field • Robert Herrick
... for his key-ring, chose from the many one particular key, inserted it, turned it, left it sticking in the hole, and then, with a curious breathless tightening of the lips, he raised the lid, put aside the knit wool shield of white and violet, and with the tender care which a mother bestows upon a very tiny baby lifted the violin from its resting-place. As he did so his eye travelled with a sudden keen anxiety over its ...
— A Woman's Will • Anne Warner
... Hanging.—Often accidentally caused in children or intoxicated persons. Waste no time in going for or shouting for assistance. At once cut the rope, necktie, or whatever else causes the tightening. Pull out the tongue and secure it, commence artificial respiration at once (see Drowning), open the windows, make ...
— Papers on Health • John Kirk
... defence. The situation of England bears a striking resemblance to the situation of Athens at the close of the Persian wars: a trading nation, a naval power, a governing race, a successful military people; the English completed the parallel by tightening the reins upon their colonies till they revolted. Of the other European powers, Portugal and Spain still preserved colonial empires in the West; but Spain was decaying. Great Britain had not only gained territory and prestige from the war, she had risen rich and prosperous, ...
— Formation of the Union • Albert Bushnell Hart
... and probably elsewhere, still have a fear and dread of the mechanism of the automobile. "C'est beau la mecanique, mais c'est tout de meme un peu complique," they say, as they regard your labours in posing a new valve or tightening up a ...
— The Automobilist Abroad • M. F. (Milburg Francisco) Mansfield
... sprang into the large cavern where he found Van der Kemp quietly tightening his belt and Moses hastily pulling ...
— Blown to Bits - or, The Lonely Man of Rakata • Robert Michael Ballantyne
... to believe that my friend inherited a constitutional weakness at this point. As flame to tinder, was the medicinal whisky to him. It grew upon him rapidly, and soon this cloud overshadowed all his life. He struggled hard to break the serpent-folds that were tightening around him; but the fire that had been kindled seemed to be quenchless. An uncontrolled evil passion is hellfire. He writhed in its burnings in an agony that could be understood only by such as knew how almost morbidly sensitive ...
— California Sketches, Second Series • O. P. Fitzgerald
... Dumps, tightening her hold on his neck; and Mr. Smith, in memory of the little arms that once clung round him, and the little fingers that in other days clasped ...
— Diddie, Dumps, and Tot • Louise-Clarke Pyrnelle
... themselves with firearms in hand, and thus did they remain all the night without giving any nourishment to the archbishop, except what a pious Franciscan religious could give him by applying to his lips a wet cloth, under pretext of tightening the strap with which the most holy sacrament was fastened to the afflicted prelate's breast. And he did not receive any other nourishment for a day and a half, until they took him to the island of Mariveles. Saturday, the second [sic; sc. tenth] of May dawned, the most fatal day ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXV, 1635-36 • Various
... Tightening the roof made a big difference inside, and when they had hung up a blanket behind the upright sleds, and placed some cedar brush on the floor, it was very cozy. They had brought along some candles, and one of these was lit and placed in a lantern which was ...
— The Rover Boys In The Mountains • Arthur M. Winfield
... was bad in the old system (one country even going so far as to re-establish torture), the steady attack on liberty and on all liberal ideas, Wurtemberg being practically the only State which grumbled at the tightening of the reins so dear to Metternich,—all formed a fitting commentary on the proclamations by which the Sovereigns had hounded on their people against the man they represented as the one obstacle to the freedom and peace of Europe. In gloom and disenchantment the nations sat down to lick their ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton
... without flinching, his hazel eyes full of an angry light and the sunburnt colour in his face paling a little. Then when she had finished, he turned slowly away and began tightening the ...
— The Miller Of Old Church • Ellen Glasgow
... who put the question. The Eastern lad looked rather white under his tan. Walt, however, seemed as imperturbable as ever, and gazed out at the approaching horsemen with no more sign of emotion than a tightening ...
— The Border Boys Across the Frontier • Fremont B. Deering
... been so absorbed as to forget himself, suddenly felt a cold tightening of the skin of his face, and a hard swell of his breast. The dance of Snap's eyes, the downward flit of his hand seemed instantaneous with a red flash and loud report. Instinctively Hare dodged, ...
— The Heritage of the Desert • Zane Grey
... intervening substance. Fill the boiler with cold water so as completely to cover the cans; place over the fire, bring gradually to a boil, and keep boiling steadily for four hours. Remove the boiler from the fire, and allow the cans to cool gradually, tightening the covers frequently as ...
— Science in the Kitchen. • Mrs. E. E. Kellogg
... of the dogs, he recoiled, clasping his hands upon his breast and boldly thrusting out his elbows to ward off their ferocious attacks. With a sudden tightening of the muscles he repulsed the Danish hounds, which rolled over writhing on the ground, and then, with formidable baying, returned more furiously still to ...
— Prince Zilah, Complete • Jules Claretie
... than they look; besides, there are the shops at Wenatchee!" As if this settled the matter she said: "But we must change places. Now." She slipped into his seat as he rose, and took the reins dexterously, with a tightening grip, in her hands. "Whoa, whoa, Nip!" Her voice deepened a little. "Steady, Tuck, steady! That's right; be a man." There was another silent interval while he watched her handling of the team, then, ...
— The Rim of the Desert • Ada Woodruff Anderson
... voices greeted her, as she descended the stairs, Mrs. West's asthmatic tones blending with the flutey treble of a young girl. "It's Diantha," thought Persis, her lips tightening. "I might have known that Annabel Sinclair would send for that waist two days before ...
— Other People's Business - The Romantic Career of the Practical Miss Dale • Harriet L. Smith
... and went to bed, and suddenly all the current of life in the Dabney House was changed. It was after five when Mr. V.V., returning from his rounds, heard the news, with a tightening feeling around his heart, and went down the long hall ...
— V. V.'s Eyes • Henry Sydnor Harrison
... legal standing. Peter seldom entered it without interest in its possibilities of entertainment, but to-day his father's strange and sudden preoccupation of manner ingulfed all the boy's thought. "What is it, dad?" he asked, a tightening fear screwing down upon his brain as he noted the change that had come over the mask that James Thorold's face held ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1915 - And the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... chimneys lies in the convenience of removal and erection. They should be made in sections of 20 feet long, three steel wire guy-ropes attached to a ring, riveted to a ring two-thirds of the height of the chimney, and attached to holdfasts driven into the ground; tightening couplings should be provided ...
— Getting Gold • J. C. F. Johnson
... o'clock a gale was blowing. By ten Babcock's men were bracing the outer sheathing of the coffer-dam, strengthening the derrick-guys, tightening the anchor-lines, and clearing the working-platforms of sand, cement, and other damageable property. The course-masonry, fortunately, was above the water-line, but the coping was still unset and ...
— Tom Grogan • F. Hopkinson Smith
... fingers, much astonishing Sabre by his marshalling of scattered incidents that had been merely rather pleasing newspaper sensations of a couple of days. He presented the ticked-off fingers bunched up together. "There, there's concrete facts for you, Sabre. Can you say things aren't tightening up? Why, if war—when war comes people will look back on this year, 1912, and wonder where in hell their eyes were that they didn't see it. What are they seeing?—" He threw his fingers apart. "None of these things. Not one. All this doctors and the Insurance Bill tripe, Marconi Inquiry, Titanic, ...
— If Winter Comes • A.S.M. Hutchinson
... the beauty. The load had been heavy before. Now to fear was added contumely, and to vague apprehensions the immediate prospect of discovery and peril. The grip of the big scholar, subtle, cruel, tightening day by day and hour by hour, was on her youth; slowly it paralysed in her all joy, all spirit, all the impulses of life and hope, that were natural ...
— The Long Night • Stanley Weyman
... of the people had feared in the tightening of the legal restrictions by the new laws and new officials, did actually take place. The French half-breeds were, as we have seen, chiefly given to hunting. In theory, the Hudson's Bay Company possessed all hunting rights under their charter. ...
— The Romantic Settlement of Lord Selkirk's Colonists - The Pioneers of Manitoba • George Bryce
... less than a second all that was to be seen was one small paw protruding from the coiled body which had brought it a quick and merciful death. The jaws of the serpent have seized it by the snout and thrown it back into its coils and the first pressure kills it, although the ever tightening embrace continues until the bones are crushed within the unbroken skin, so that it ...
— Side Show Studies • Francis Metcalfe
... the Government. It gathers up the national statistics into groups, shows how new meaning is reflected from them thus related, that all unite to illustrate the single fact of the South's steady increase of power, her tightening grasp about the throat of government, and her buffets of threat to the North when a weedling palm failed to palsy fast enough. It warns northern voters of the undertow that is drawing them, and adjures them, by every consideration of political common sense, not to cast their ...
— The Underground Railroad • William Still
... met him with a blow which landed between the eyes. It staggered him. Wilson closed with him, but he felt a pair of strong arms tightening about the small of his back. In spite of all he could do, he felt himself break. He fell. The fellow had his throat in a second. He twisted and squirmed but to no purpose. He tried a dozen old wrestling tricks, but the fingers only tightened the ...
— The Web of the Golden Spider • Frederick Orin Bartlett
... motionless, with her eyes open, seemed to await that death which was so near and which yet delayed its coming, with perfect indifference. Her short breath whistled in her tightening throat. It would stop altogether soon, and there would be one woman less in the world, ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 1 (of 8) - Boule de Suif and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant
... Douglas. It wasn't only for the sake of the money and the comfort. He was kind, and in his way he understood. And then, you know, misery didn't agree with you. You were often, even in those few hours we spent together, very hard and cold. Anyway," she added, with a little tightening of the lips, "I am going to get my money now. No one can stop that. You stay here and think it over. It would be better to marry me, Philip, and be safe, than to have the fear of that man Dane always before you. And wait—wait ...
— The Cinema Murder • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... angry with myself for being such a fool. With a stupendous effort I turned my attention to the most material of things. One of the skirt buttons on my hip—they were much in vogue then—being loose, I endeavoured to occupy myself in tightening it, and when I could no longer derive any employment from that, I set to work on my shoes, and tied knots in the laces, merely to enjoy the task of untying them. But this, too, ceasing at last to attract me, I was desperately racking my ...
— Scottish Ghost Stories • Elliott O'Donnell
... peculiarly feminine, with the unavoidable hysterical femininity engendered in women by their subjected environment. Are you quite sure you consider Dawn merely a passing stranger not worth consideration?" I asked, looking him fair in the eyes; and the quick lowering of them and the tightening of his mouth satisfied me that he could not ...
— Some Everyday Folk and Dawn • Miles Franklin
... Grant was slowly, but surely, tightening his grip upon Vicksburg, and that nothing but an accident could prevent its capture, was known to the whole country for fully a week before the surrender occurred, but it neither encouraged the North nor discouraged the South. To the minds of many people no victory in the ...
— On the Trail of Grant and Lee • Frederick Trevor Hill
... ter work off bad tempers wid," the old man began, tightening the strings as he spoke. "Now ef one o' deze mule tempers ever take a-holt of yer in de foot, dat foot 'll be mighty ap' ter do some kickin'; an' ef it seizes a-holt o' yo' han', dat little fis' 'll be purty ...
— Solomon Crow's Christmas Pockets and Other Tales • Ruth McEnery Stuart
... descended from moral heights into the grosser elements of the national life, men soon {3} began to fight for the new life with the old weapons, until France found, and others looking on saw, the beautiful dream of liberty tightening down into that hideous nightmare, and saddest of all tyrannies, the tyranny of the multitude! Into the great bank of cloud which had gathered across the horizon of Europe, towards the close of the 18th century, some of the boldest spirits of France madly rushed ...
— Fragments of Two Centuries - Glimpses of Country Life when George III. was King • Alfred Kingston
... up the uneven slope with a tightening at her heart which was not all exhaustion. For the first time she doubted herself, but it was too late. She could not turn back. Suddenly she felt that she was on a smoother, easier course. Not to strike a stone or ...
— The Last Trail • Zane Grey
... locomotives, the weight of rail required is somewhat less. The special trolley for erecting the wires along the railway line is shown in Fig. 3. This consists of an ordinary four wheeled platform wagon with ladder, and wire drum with tightening gear and clamps or grips for anchoring the trolley to the line. The wire is led over a sheave on top of the ladder and fixed to the picket post at the beginning of the line. When erecting the wire the trolley is pushed ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 1157, March 5, 1898 • Various
... was a tightening of the clasp of the little arms about his neck, and a half-suppressed sob; then two trembling lips touched his, a warm tear fell on his cheek, and she turned away and ran quickly ...
— Elsie Dinsmore • Martha Finley
... and many plans were devised to rescue him, but they all proved abortive until, at last, a Mexican approached him with a lasso, and after making several vain attempts, succeeded finally in encircling the dog's head with the slip noose. On tightening the rope he found that he had the animal firm, and soon dragged him from his ...
— The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson, the Nestor of the Rocky Mountains, from Facts Narrated by Himself • De Witt C. Peters
... saunter, Percy passed out of hearing. But his heart was beating a little quicker and he was conscious of a tightening of nerves and muscles. Weeks of secret, painstaking preparation were drawing ...
— Jim Spurling, Fisherman - or Making Good • Albert Walter Tolman
... concurrence of Parliament to an Act which would allow him "to exercise with a more universal satisfaction that power of dispensing which he conceived to be inherent in him." But the Declaration was careful to add that no tightening of the most severe of the penal laws was to be construed as an intention of permitting ...
— The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon V2 • Henry Craik
... answered the soldier, laying down his musket and tightening the straps of his cross-belts. "Captain, report Private Dubois for insubordination and breach of discipline. I'm going out to bring in ...
— Harper's Young People, April 27, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various
... the lines about his mouth tightening, "and we're going to take the claim for our own, as long as we have the legal right to do so. But I hope there won't have to be any gun-powder burned. Killing belongs only ...
— The Young Engineers in Nevada • H. Irving Hancock
... said in a low voice, while she pretended to be busy tightening up the mainsail sheet. "I should like to ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII. No. 30. September, 1873 • Various
... and creaking rumble. The shaft of the stamps turned half around, slipped and stopped with a rusty squeak. Then came further creaks, groans, and rumbles. McGinnis walked calmly from place to place, tightening, loosening, shaking, testing, shovelling, ...
— Heart's Desire • Emerson Hough
... composed spontaneously, but because they express spontaneities which are essentially external to themselves. In other words, the achievement of perfection, whether in prose or poetry, is comparable to the task of a piano tuner, who may spend a whole morning in tightening or relaxing the strings, but who knows at once, when he gets them, the minutely precise tones which the laws of ...
— Memoirs of Life and Literature • W. H. Mallock
... meant to say the moment that he entered the room, and the tightening of her features made it all the harder for Roger to think clearly, to remember the grave, kind, fatherly things which he had intended to ...
— His Family • Ernest Poole
... and awakening love Strove in the bosom of the Moorish Knight. Down from his soaring in the skies above He urged the tenor of his courser's flight. Fairer with every foot of lessening height Shone the sweet prisoner. With tightening reins He drew more nigh, and gently as he might: "O lady, worthy only of the chains With which his bounden slaves the God of ...
— Poems • Alan Seeger
... gently to the sofa, and sat down beside her on the hard old slippery horsehair. Then first he perceived what a change had passed upon her. Pale was she, and thin, and sad, with such big eyes, and the bone tightening the skin upon her forehead! He felt as if she were a spectre-Letty, not the Letty he had loved. Glancing up, ...
— Mary Marston • George MacDonald
... plays no small part in tightening the meshes of the net that keeps evil-doers within bounds. It does its duty with kindliness, but without fear or favour; but the difficulties of the work are so enormous that they ...
— Scotland Yard - The methods and organisation of the Metropolitan Police • George Dilnot
... between the wound and the heart (digital compression), but if from a vein, the pressure should be exerted on the other side of the wound. Tourniquet may also be used by passing a strap around the part and tightening after placing a pad over the hemorrhage. The rubber ligature has now replaced the tourniquet and is bound tightly around the limb to arrest the bleeding. Tampons, such as cotton, tow, or oakum, may be packed tightly in the wound and then sewed up. After remaining ...
— Special Report on Diseases of the Horse • United States Department of Agriculture
... cried, "if I remember right, you were for restoring the more rigorous and stringent forms of religion; drawing the rein and tightening the girth." ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I, No. 1, Nov. 1857 • Various
... across the bridge. Coleman and his dragoman followed the last troop. The horses scrambled up the muddy bank much as if they were merely breaking out of a pasture, but probably all the men felt a sudden tightening of their muscles. Coleman, in his excitement, felt, more than he saw, glossy horse flanks, green-clothed men chumping in their saddles, banging sabres and canteens, and carbines slanted ...
— Active Service • Stephen Crane
... flowing into town were eddying at the street corners. The balloon-vender wormed his way through the buzzing crowd, leaving his wares in a red and blue trail behind him. The bark of the fakir rasped the tightening nerves of the town. Everywhere was hubbub; everywhere was the dusty, heated air of the festival; everywhere were men and women ready for the marvel that had come out of the great world, bringing pomp and circumstance in its gilded train; everywhere in Willow Creek the spirit which put the ...
— The Court of Boyville • William Allen White
... Chinese commonwealth had been slowly built up, and which foreign dynasties such as the Mongol and the Manchu had never touched. The Government of the post- Taiping period still imagined that by making their hands lie more heavily than ever on the people and by tightening the taxation control—not by true creative ...
— The Fight For The Republic In China • B.L. Putnam Weale
... to get his planes adjusted and the tiny motor installed. Hugh, in a quiet and unostentatious way, often assisted him to overcome some difficulty that arose; so that Bud declared he did not know how he could have managed without the other's help in tightening wire stays and ...
— The Boy Scouts of the Flying Squadron • Robert Shaler
... with one of those powerful paws; and, for a dreadful moment, it appeared to Bud as if the huge beast might even overtake the speedy horse. Then he saw that Thure was slowly gaining, that the rope, which still clutched the hind leg of the grizzly, was slowly tightening; and, with breathless haste, he began reloading his rifle. He had had all the roping of El Feroz he wanted; and now his only desire was to get a bullet into the huge body, where it would kill quickly, as speedily ...
— The Cave of Gold - A Tale of California in '49 • Everett McNeil
... face, all red and swollen with the choked blood, made horrid with the starting eyes, its beauty ruined by the grasp of those two strangling hands. Simone was a madman at the moment, with a madman's single thought, to kill his victim, his fingers tightening and his blood-stained face twisted into a hideous grin. Before the ghastly sight men stood still, and knew not what to do—all but ...
— The God of Love • Justin Huntly McCarthy
... a moment that Tom stood appalled. He knew that, at any instant, by the tightening of its folds the great boa could crush every bone of Ned's body; while the very closeness of its embrace rendered it impossible for him to strike at it, for fear of injuring its captor. There was not an instant to be lost. Already the coils ...
— Under Drake's Flag - A Tale of the Spanish Main • G. A. Henty
... they said in her paper had always turned out true, like the taking of Gerhardt away, and the reduction of his food. And the face of the gentleman in the building at Whitehall came before her out of the long past, with his lips tightening, and his words: "We have to do very hard things, Mrs. Gerhardt." Why had they to do them? Her man had never done no harm to no one! A flood, bitter as sea water, surged in her, and seemed to choke her ...
— Tatterdemalion • John Galsworthy
... put up a hard game they can rescue her without his knowledge and spread a web for the fly to walk into later. But they must get a move on. This phone is nearly a mile from the farm, and Jackson is tightening nuts outside the villa I spoke of. Now, what's the next ...
— Number Seventeen • Louis Tracy
... a sudden tightening of her heart, of a creeping depression that weighed on her brain and worried it. She thought this was her ...
— Life and Death of Harriett Frean • May Sinclair
... quite still for a moment, vaguely conscious of impending evil. I could hear someone breathe in the darkness—stealthy steps—then a hand groping lightly about feeling for my throat. It rested there for a moment. There was a momentary tightening of the fingers. Should I keep still, or make an effort? I kept still, trying to breathe naturally. The fingers left my throat, and fumbled under the pillow as if searching for something, then gradually retreated, the breathing of the man became less distinct, and I was alone. With one bound ...
— The Idler Magazine, Volume III, April 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various
... heave, almost breathless between their doubts and hopes; for it was a matter of serious question whether there was sufficient force to lift so heavy a body at all. Turn after turn was made, the fall gradually tightening, until those at the bars felt the full ...
— Homeward Bound - or, The Chase • James Fenimore Cooper
... and again raised his hat. In the circle of light caused by the electric lamp near which they stood the blind man's face could be seen distinctly, and in it was that one sees but rarely in the faces of men, and in Van Landing's throat came sudden tightening. ...
— How It Happened • Kate Langley Bosher
... so," said Renmark hurriedly, now that the truth had to come out; he realized, by the nervous tightening of the girl's unconscious grasp, how clumsily he was telling it. "He was with the volunteers this morning. He is not with them now. They don't know where he is. No one saw him hurt, but it is feared he ...
— In the Midst of Alarms • Robert Barr
... this same end of the handkerchief. This end, being thus made straight, would naturally be left longer than the other, which is twisted round and round it. This tendency the performer counteracts by drawing it partially back through the slip-knot at each pretended tightening. When he finally covers over the knots, which he does with the left hand, he holds the straightened portion of the handkerchief, immediately behind the knots, between the first finger and thumb ...
— Healthful Sports for Boys • Alfred Rochefort
... I began to entertain serious fears as to whether it would hold together much longer. Most of the lashings had worked quite loose; but there were now only three of us, and our united strength was wholly inadequate to the tightening of them until the sea should ...
— Under the Meteor Flag - Log of a Midshipman during the French Revolutionary War • Harry Collingwood
... inclination to cry out, for the thing that had encircled his waist and raised him up seemed to be tightening ...
— The Circus Boys on the Flying Rings • Edgar B. P. Darlington
... once more tightening his grip on that war-club, while the light of battle glowed in his eyes; "I clean forgot that pilgrim in there. Oh! for one last good belt at a Slavin Tiger. Paul, get a lamp, won't you, and turn us loose in there. Oh ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts on a Tour - The Mystery of Rattlesnake Mountain • George A. Warren
... Music and dancing followed, among others an amazing performance by a sturdy youth, Zambao-Zambino (Young-Man-Proud-of-His-Waist-Line) who rendered a solo by striking his distended anatomy with his clenched fist, varying the tone by relaxing or tightening the abdominal muscles. Whinney sang a very dreary arrangement of "Mandalay"—his one parlor trick; Swank did an imitation of Elsie Janis's imitation of Ethel Barrymore and I sang "The Wreck of the Julie Plante," an amusing ballad describing the ...
— The Cruise of the Kawa • Walter E. Traprock
... noiselessly and swung west into the Otsego road, I was aware of a shadow on my right—soft hands outstretched—a faint whisper as I kissed her tightening fingers. Then I ran on to head that painted file once more, and for a time continued to lead at hazard, ...
— The Hidden Children • Robert W. Chambers
... nipped on to a couple of horses, pulled out our revolvers, and tooled after him. After a bit we overtook him, and that's when the trouble began. The johnny had dismounted when we arrived. I thought he was simply tightening his horse's girths. What he was really doing was getting a steady aim at us with his revolver. He fired as we came up, and dropped poor old Chester. I thought he was killed at first, but it turned out it was only ...
— Mike • P. G. Wodehouse
... was not difficult, for the foothold was easy to select, the rope tightening still, and giving him steady help, while the distance, long as it had taken him to descend, ...
— Cormorant Crag - A Tale of the Smuggling Days • George Manville Fenn
... sash winced primly at the word biological, and appealed to her escort to protect her somehow from the indecencies of life. The elderly youth answered her appeal with a tightening ...
— Erik Dorn • Ben Hecht
... stick between her open jaws, and when she crushed it to splinters he tried another, and yet another, until he found one that she could not break. Then while she bit on it, he placed a wire loop over her nose, slowly tightening it, leaving the stick ...
— Tales of lonely trails • Zane Grey
... Finsen was a sick man. A mysterious malady[1] with dropsical symptoms clutched him from the earliest days with ever tightening grip, and all his manhood's life he was a great but silent sufferer. Perhaps it was that; perhaps it was the bleak North in which his young years had been set that turned him to the light as the source of life and healing. He ...
— Hero Tales of the Far North • Jacob A. Riis
... that obstructed my path, and the occasional thickets—all made me halt with careful step and finger on the trigger. I followed the splashes on the stones, which told me that the bear had passed that way. As I went cautiously on I felt a tightening at my throat. The light above grew dimmer. When I stopped to listen it was so silent that I heard only the pounding of my heart and my own quick breathing. I pressed on and on, going faster all the time not that I felt braver, but ...
— The Young Forester • Zane Grey
... know. The moon and the water have affected me. Every time I see poetic things I have a tightening at the heart, and ...
— Une Vie, A Piece of String and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant
... prescience the sailor knew that he was yielding. Were the devil-fish a giant of its tribe he could not have held out so long. As it was, the creature could afford to wait, strengthening its grasp, tightening its coils, pulling and pumping at its prey ...
— The Wings of the Morning • Louis Tracy |
