The Adventures of Jones

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895. Excerpt: ... XX IN HIGH LATITUDES The conversation, gently but imperceptibly moulded by the crafty Jones, had drifted around to the subject of fear, and no sooner was it well grounded than he announced boldly that he felt impelled to confess that he was once genuinely and unmistakably scared. "On that occasion," he went on, "I knew what it was to be frightened, to feel an unutterable sense of terror, and to give way to it. Of course, in my life, which, as you know, has been an active one, and not without its stirring and even exciting incidents, I have often known what it is to be embarrassed, or even alarmed, but I never gave way to the blind animal instinct of fright but once; and the consequences might have been so disastrous that I have never allowed it to happen again. It is not flattering to one's self-esteem to fee that one was saved by chance." 10 "It seems to me," said Jackson Peters, "that you have been saved by chance a great many times, according to your own story. How about the time in Africa when you woke up and found the elephant preparing to lie down on you for the night?" "I rolled out of the way and went back to sleep," answered Jones. "No luck about it. He took up more than his share of the bed for the rest of the night, but I didn't make any objections. Being saved by mere chance is well illustrated by your own experience that night you saw a strange moon with a beard attack the regular moon, and whirl about it with frightful rapidity. It was simply good-luck that a policeman came along and told the strange and bellicose moon to go 'way, and took you home out of the danger. Or the night you--" "But, Jones," said Robinson, soothingly, "you started to tell us of your scare." "True; and I will. It was a number of years ago. I was following the sea at ...