“Here she paused awhile at her first landing, ostensibly to permit minor repairs to be made on her hull. The duty sections were reduced to a minimum and full liberty was allowed, except for the guards and work-gangs, which were frequently relieved. At first, the men had poured out eagerly, tasting for the first time in months the air of a live world. They ran around and kicked up their heels as much as they liked, shouted “Get a lung of that!” and threw stones at the few wild awks unwary enough to come in range. Impromptu wrestling-matches and cook-outs were held, much greensleeve consumed — and slept off in the sun — and quite a number of the men, with many knowing looks and semisecretive gestures to their buddies, wandered off to engage in what soon became to their great annoyance a full-scale operation called “prospecting.” Exercise presently lost its novelty, greensleeve tasted the same ashore as aboard, cooked-out food not even as good. The awks soon fled the scene, and the minera...logists found nothing worth the finding.MoreLessShow More Show Less
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