The man- creatures were wise and patient, and a third leg and a fourth leg were finally noosed, so that, with many men tailing on to
the ropes, he was dragged ignominiously on his side to the bars, and, ignominiously, through the bars were hauled his four legs, his chiefest weapons of offence after his terribly fanged jaws.
The ropes of varying length prevented the dogs attacking from the rear those that ran in front of them.
Even Rivera's own seconds warmed to something akin to cheerfulness when Danny ducked jauntily through
the ropes and entered the ring.
On coming within sight of it the cousin, Sancho, and Don Quixote dismounted, and the first two immediately tied the latter very firmly with
the ropes, and as they were girding and swathing him Sancho said to him, "Mind what you are about, master mine; don't go burying yourself alive, or putting yourself where you'll be like a bottle put to cool in a well; it's no affair or business of your worship's to become the explorer of this, which must be worse than a Moorish dungeon.
Now I'll chase ye around a piece, callin'
the ropes, an' you'll lay your hand on thim as I call.
He objected that the first two miles was a dead level, with plenty of room, and that
the rope was never used except in very dangerous places.
With a quick jerk Tarzan snapped the noose tight about the glossy throat, and then he dropped
the rope and clung to his support with both hands.
The line originally used in the fishery was of the best hemp, slightly vapored with tar, not impregnated with it, as in the case of ordinary ropes; for while tar, as ordinarily used, makes the hemp more pliable to
the rope-maker, and also renders
the rope itself more convenient to the sailor for common ship use; yet, not only would the ordinary quantity too much stiffen the whale-line for the close coiling to which it must be subjected; but as most seamen are beginning to learn, tar in general by no means adds to
the rope's durability or strength, however much it may give it compactness and gloss.
Then I made another discovery--there was a second message knotted in
the rope at about the height of my head.
If, for example, there should be a deposition of moisture upon the silk, and the machine begins to descend in consequence, there will be no necessity for discharging ballast to remedy the increase of weight, for it is remedied, or counteracted, in an exactly just proportion, by the deposit on the ground of just so much of the end of
the rope as is necessary.
But the youngest brother determined to explore the abyss, and letting himself down by
the rope he soon reached the bottom.
When he gets home, he has
the rope in his hand, and there is no longer anything hanging on to it.
The ape-man had acted so quickly that he had been unable to prepare himself to withstand the strain and shock of Numa's great weight upon
the rope, and so it was that though
the rope stopped the beast before his mighty talons could fasten themselves in the flesh of the black, the strain overbalanced Tarzan, who came tumbling to the ground not six paces from the infuriated animal.
Then
the rope was removed, and he was flung into a cagelike crate.
It appeared as if he had scarcely had a moment's time to touch
the rope or look over the stern, when he came scrambling back, as pale as the morning, and gasped out:
