Post by cwm3 on Oct 25, 2003 6:35:29 GMT -5
Chapter One
If you have ever been on a sinking ship, and lived to tell the tale, then you will most probably know what it is like to be on a small, rickety wooden lifeboat. In this case, however, Violet, Klaus and Sunny Bauldelaire were in a lifeboat, but they had pulled a second, upside-down lifeboat over it, to make it appear to the evil Count Olaf, who was escaping in a gleaming white, expensive-looking motorboat with Esme Squalor, and his minions --- a word which here means 'a variety of cruel, twisted people who did as Count Olaf said' --- were following behind in a rubber dinghy, as though their lifeboat had sunk and that they were drowned.
"Do you think it's safe to start rowing now?" whispered Violet Bauldelaire. Violet was nearly fifteen years old, and was very clever when it came to inventing things.
Klaus Bauldelaire, the twelve-year-old brother of Violet, picked up his sister's home-made telescope, and peeked out a little with it.
"We should wait a couple of hours, maybe," he said. "That motorboat may look fast, but firstly, he needs to stop and refuel every half-hour, and every quarter of an hour he needs to stop so his comrades can catch up,"
"Impediment!" said Sunny Bauldelaire. Sunny was only a very young child, and had not yet learned very much proper English lingo. But "Impediment", it is safe to say, probably meant "He's very slow, isn't he?"
"Oh yes," said Klaus, "and I've noticed that the engine is cutting out every forty-five minutes or so, so he needs to replace the run-down battery with a new one --- he's got lots of them."
The S.S. Deadweight, the boat they had been stowing away on until Olaf had sunk it, and considering I had to explore it in a diver's suit recently, it is a miracle if this sodden manuscript makes it to my editor, was sinking fast --- and sadly, the lifeboat would soon sink a lot quicker than the Deadweight.
And so, many hours later, Olaf was out of sight, well away from the Bauldelaires.
"Now!" Klaus hissed. And with that, the Bauldelaires took their leave, a phrase which here means 'they started rowing towards an ominous-looking island, for all the world looking like an eye'.
What do you think?
If you have ever been on a sinking ship, and lived to tell the tale, then you will most probably know what it is like to be on a small, rickety wooden lifeboat. In this case, however, Violet, Klaus and Sunny Bauldelaire were in a lifeboat, but they had pulled a second, upside-down lifeboat over it, to make it appear to the evil Count Olaf, who was escaping in a gleaming white, expensive-looking motorboat with Esme Squalor, and his minions --- a word which here means 'a variety of cruel, twisted people who did as Count Olaf said' --- were following behind in a rubber dinghy, as though their lifeboat had sunk and that they were drowned.
"Do you think it's safe to start rowing now?" whispered Violet Bauldelaire. Violet was nearly fifteen years old, and was very clever when it came to inventing things.
Klaus Bauldelaire, the twelve-year-old brother of Violet, picked up his sister's home-made telescope, and peeked out a little with it.
"We should wait a couple of hours, maybe," he said. "That motorboat may look fast, but firstly, he needs to stop and refuel every half-hour, and every quarter of an hour he needs to stop so his comrades can catch up,"
"Impediment!" said Sunny Bauldelaire. Sunny was only a very young child, and had not yet learned very much proper English lingo. But "Impediment", it is safe to say, probably meant "He's very slow, isn't he?"
"Oh yes," said Klaus, "and I've noticed that the engine is cutting out every forty-five minutes or so, so he needs to replace the run-down battery with a new one --- he's got lots of them."
The S.S. Deadweight, the boat they had been stowing away on until Olaf had sunk it, and considering I had to explore it in a diver's suit recently, it is a miracle if this sodden manuscript makes it to my editor, was sinking fast --- and sadly, the lifeboat would soon sink a lot quicker than the Deadweight.
And so, many hours later, Olaf was out of sight, well away from the Bauldelaires.
"Now!" Klaus hissed. And with that, the Bauldelaires took their leave, a phrase which here means 'they started rowing towards an ominous-looking island, for all the world looking like an eye'.
What do you think?