"Risky" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... shoulders. "I suppose you know your own policies best," he said, "though to me it seems but risky for a man who has attained to a position like yours and mine not to have provided himself with a stout navy of his own. One never knows when a recall may be sent, and, through lack of these precautions, a life's earnings may very well be lost in ...
— The Lost Continent • C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne
... hadn't been so quick about it, child. I felt from the commencement that it was a risky thing, your knowing so very little ...
— Dwell Deep - or Hilda Thorn's Life Story • Amy Le Feuvre
... Once out of this forest, he was within an hour's run of the Zulu border, and once over the Zulu border, he would feel a happier man than he did at that moment. As has been said, he had intended to attempt to escape in the darkness, but the plan was risky. All the Zulus might not over-eat themselves and go to sleep, especially after the death of their comrade; Nahoon, who watched him day and night, certainly would not. This was his opportunity—there ...
— Black Heart and White Heart • H. Rider Haggard
... hold the position I do hold, be trusted as I am trusted? Ah! you don't know much about that. Should I have money placed in my hands, do you think—and it's thousands at a time, gold, and notes, and cheques—if I was a risky chap? I'm known to be thoroughly respectable. Five and forty years I've been in Boyne's Bank, and thank ye, ma'am, grog don't do no harm down here. And I will take another glass. 'When the heart of a man!'—but I'm ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... be much amusement in it . . . more worry and bother than anything else, I should say. It wouldn't be so risky if they were even as old as you were when I took you. I wouldn't mind Dora so much . . . she seems good and quiet. But that Davy ...
— Anne Of Avonlea • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... his mind that there was a risky resource for him—to flee and take his chances alone in the woods; he had decided to put his own personal interpretation on ...
— When Egypt Went Broke • Holman Day
... appears to me to have been stronger still. Who would be the very person to help Miss Verinder in raising money privately on the Diamond? Rosanna Spearman. No young lady in Miss Verinder's position could manage such a risky matter as that by herself. A go-between she must have, and who so fit, I ask again, as Rosanna Spearman? Your ladyship's deceased housemaid was at the top of her profession when she was a thief. She had relations, to my certain knowledge, with one of the few men ...
— The Moonstone • Wilkie Collins
... looks too risky," said Drew, while the two sailors glanced at each other and scratched their heads as they wondered whether one of them would be sent forward to try the ...
— Fire Island - Being the Adventures of Uncertain Naturalists in an Unknown Track • G. Manville Fenn
... come down, Sir Giles?' I interposed. 'I think it would be risky. No one knows how long it has been there, and though it might hang where it is for a century yet, and look nothing the worse, it can't be strong, and at best we could not get it down without some injury, while ...
— Wilfrid Cumbermede • George MacDonald
... supernatural gift, practical cricketers consider the stroke bad form. "That leg stroke of yours," said an old player to him in the pavilion at Lord's, "is all very well now and then, but it's not cricket; it's far too risky. If you miss the ball, you're bound to be out leg before." "Quite so," replied Ranji; "but one would be out pretty frequently, clean bowled, if one missed the ball—every time a ...
— The Harmsworth Magazine, v. 1, 1898-1899, No. 2 • Various
... wishes to please him. The little play had all the modern loveliness and grace which Octave Feuillet alone can give, and it contained a lesson from which any one might profit; which was by no means always the case with Madame d'Avrigny's plays, which too often were full of risky allusions, of critical situations, and the like; likely, in short, to "sail too close to the wind," as Fred had once described them. But Madame d'Avrigny's prime object was the amusement of society, and society finds pleasure in things which, if ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet
... "Masque of the Marble Harp," as it was called—were now no longer honored, save in the breach. The initiations of the Sweetbriars were novel inventions—usually of Ruth's active brain; but they never put the candidate to unpleasant or risky tasks. ...
— Ruth Fielding in Moving Pictures - Or Helping The Dormitory Fund • Alice Emerson
... of the stream, O'Mara stood scowling at the eight foot high grass. Usually about a foot high, the hardy and ubiquitous purple grass of Naraka grew far more lushly around the edges of the swamps. He felt that it would be a risky business at best to plunge into it after an unknown number of enemy. At the same time he had an illogical determination not to leave the bodies of his men in the hands of the Rumi. He looked at the ...
— Narakan Rifles, About Face! • Jan Smith
... would be pretty risky," said Cummings. "If he keeps it planted around here what would hinder some one from finding the cache and ...
— Jim Cummings • Frank Pinkerton
... the plains might not manage it. He would know the sort of place Harry and his mates would be likely to be prospecting, he would know the ways of the red-skins and how to travel among them without ever leaving a trail or making a smoke, but even for him it would be risky work, and not many fellows would care to take the chances even if they knew the country well. But for a tenderfoot to start out on such a job would be downright foolishness. There are about six points wanted in a man for such a journey. He has got to be as hard and tough as leather, to be able ...
— In The Heart Of The Rockies • G. A. Henty
... the Company mines, and we've put Ben in this year. He is twelve—though, for Heaven's sake, don't go blabbing it; he's supposed to be fourteen. And little Betty, she's in school yet. I don't know how she'll turn out. No, George," he went on, "children for us poor, children's a mighty risky, uncertain crop. But," he smiled reflectively, "I'm right here to tell you they're lots of fun as little shavers—growing up. Why, George, you ought to hear Benny sing. Them Copinis of the Hot Dog ...
— In the Heart of a Fool • William Allen White
... there was no chance of escape, a double ring enclosed him. To accept or refuse seemed about equally risky; he ran a good chance of a thrashing whichever way he decided. Although his heart beat loudly, no trace of emotion appeared on his pallid cheek; an unforeseen danger would have made him shriek, but he had had time to collect himself, time to shelter behind hypocrisy. As soon as he could ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - DERUES • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE
... "It's just as risky outside as in," said Paul. "Here goes! Off with you, now, and find a good place to hide! We haven't any time to lose, I can tell you. If there's no one inside now, they won't leave a place like this deserted very ...
— The Belgians to the Front • Colonel James Fiske
... goes off and disappears in celestial distance. Often it has a hyperbolic orbit, which would make it impossible to come back. Yet it may return—apparently contradicting the geometry of conic sections. This only goes to prove once more that it is risky to say anything is impossible—even that our hero of this story manages beautifully, with the aid of Cantrell's Comet, to avoid complete annihilation while stranded ...
— Spacehounds of IPC • Edward Elmer Smith
... was silent. Anthony was the last man to condemn conventionally any human being, to scorn and despise even deserved misfortune. He was ready to take old de Barral—the convict—on his daughter's valuation without the slightest reserve. But love like his, though it may drive one into risky folly by the proud consciousness of its own strength, has a sagacity of its own. And now, as if lifted up into a higher and serene region by its purpose of renunciation, it gave him leisure to reflect ...
— Chance • Joseph Conrad
... "the raspberries are ripe. When you were a very small person—say seven—did you ever mash them between raspberry leaves, with 'sugar in,' and call them pies,—and eat them? They are really palatable. Of course it is a little risky on account of possible bugs. I don't remember that you were a remarkable little boy. Were you? Did you ever play you were a highwayman, or an elephant, or anything of that sort? Queer I ...
— The Very Small Person • Annie Hamilton Donnell
... I agreed that he should push east at the best possible speed, it was well enough understood that I should give him no more than a day or so start. I did not purpose to allow so risky a journey as this to be undertaken by any woman in so small a party, and made no doubt that I would overtake them at least at Fort Hall, perhaps five hundred miles east of the Missions, or at farthest at Fort Bridger, some seven hundred miles from ...
— 54-40 or Fight • Emerson Hough
... that he was going to get in the morning. I wasn’t any means comfortable, for I knew that dealings with a woman in foreign parts, though you was a crowned King twenty times over, could not but be risky. I got up very early in the morning while Dravot was asleep, and I saw the priests talking together in whispers, and the Chiefs talking together too, and they looked at me out of the corners of ...
— The Man Who Would Be King • Rudyard Kipling
... to rest content. In fact, he had another little plan of his own in mind, which he meant to work out on the following day. Frank suspected as much, though he really hoped it would not be of the same risky nature as getting the ...
— The Outdoor Chums at Cabin Point - or The Golden Cup Mystery • Quincy Allen
... not avow that she had started out upon that risky trip to sea with the intention of simulating the peril which afterwards became too real, and so decoying the two boys as she ...
— Jack Harkaway and his son's Escape From the Brigand's of Greece • Bracebridge Hemyng
... considered justification by statistics alone a risky business. Reviewing the support for segregation revealed in the surveys, for example, the Special Services Division commented: "Many of the Negroes and some of the whites who favor separation in the Army indicate by their comments that they are opposed to segregation in principle. They favor separation ...
— Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965 • Morris J. MacGregor Jr.
... It was risky—but Bessie was not timid. If Jake Hoover caught her—well, she knew what that would mean. He would not spare her, as his father had done, and there would be trouble for her, and for Zara and, worst of all, ...
— A Campfire Girl's First Council Fire - The Camp Fire Girls In the Woods • Jane L. Stewart
... and held him until the hunter, placing two fingers of each hand over the four nail-points, seizing with his teeth the animal's tail, and throwing back his head, would draw his victim out. But such work is rather risky, as the hunter may be bitten before he has a chance to ...
— The Drama of the Forests - Romance and Adventure • Arthur Heming
... all right, Gabe," said Old Man Curry, who was counting money in his tackle-room. "It was sort o' risky. When a man can't tell his own hoss when he sees him, anything is liable to happen to him on a bush track. I've just cut this bank roll in two, Gabe, and here's your bit. Shanghai's a good ...
— Old Man Curry - Race Track Stories • Charles E. (Charles Emmett) Van Loan
... that 'begins to molest him.' He merely says:—'Like those ancients who sacrificed their lives for the welfare of their country, so they (the guardians of the State) must be ready to sacrifice their honour and their conscience. We who are weaker, take easier, less risky parts.' [19] ...
— Shakspere And Montaigne • Jacob Feis
... he knew to two clever and attractive girls, and they helped him with tactful questions. Indeed, he was surprised to find they knew something about the rugged country in which he wandered. He told them about risky journeys up lonely rivers in the spring, adventurous thrusts into the wilderness where hardship was oftener to be found than valuable minerals, and retreats with provisions running out ...
— The Girl From Keller's - Sadie's Conquest • Harold Bindloss
... Rod changed his plan. What he had contemplated trying seemed too risky; for if the man learned that his plot was discovered he might touch the key and explode the mine before the boys could master him, even though all the staff including the general himself had not gathered as yet ...
— The Big Five Motorcycle Boys on the Battle Line - Or, With the Allies in France • Ralph Marlow
... development; and instead of paying off old loans, he contracted new ones. As he had pyramided in Dawson City, he now pyramided in Oakland; but he did it with the knowledge that it was a stable enterprise rather than a risky ...
— Burning Daylight • Jack London
... vicious habit formed when he was a soldier. The master of a small trading vessel, a great friend of his, had picked up a cargo for Majorca, and had invited him just for a joke to come along. But it was risky to joke with him. As soon as the idea was suggested he accepted. The youngsters had never been in Majorca; in the entire parish of San Jose, in which he lived, there were not a dozen persons who had seen the capital. Many of them had visited America; one had been to Australia; some neighbor ...
— The Dead Command - From the Spanish Los Muertos Mandan • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... have to pay for them. Sergt. Harris was appointed Wiring Sergt. He had charge of all the wiring in front of our trench and craters. There were two craters quite close to each other, one occupied by us, the other by Fritz. The Brigade Major asked Harris if he could wire this crater as it was a very risky job. Harris promptly replied that "if Kaizer Bill himself were there in the crater opposite, he would wire it." He did and had the job finished when he saw a couple of Huns stick their heads out of their crater. With that he ...
— Over the top with the 25th - Chronicle of events at Vimy Ridge and Courcellette • R. Lewis
... expensive wine without stint. People used to tell, laughing at Mitya, how he had given champagne to grimy-handed peasants, and feasted the village women and girls on sweets and Strasburg pies. Though to laugh at Mitya to his face was rather a risky proceeding, there was much laughter behind his back, especially in the tavern, at his own ingenuous public avowal that all he had got out of Grushenka by this "escapade" was "permission to kiss her foot, and that was the utmost she had ...
— The Brothers Karamazov • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... market for, but men. Well then, with most all of them, when one comes to discuss matters, one finds one's had such an awful lot of predecessors. At best one comes in a bad third—more often a bad three-and-twentieth—I mean nothing risky. Don't be nervous. But they have romantic memories of half-a-dozen women. And so, though they are no end nice and kind to one, play up and give one a good time and have a jolly good one themselves—trust 'em to take care of that—one ...
— The Far Horizon • Lucas Malet
... growl, but he did not stop to argue, and they ran on and on, getting out of breath but lighter hearted, as they both felt that every minute carried them nearer to safety, for the risky part where the slope was all stone and low bush was nearly passed, the dense patch of forest nearer at hand offering to them shelter so thick that, once there, their enemies would have hard work to judge which direction had been taken; and then ...
— !Tention - A Story of Boy-Life during the Peninsular War • George Manville Fenn
... given about the same experience as Bud. Another little volplane act was carried out for his especial benefit, so that he might be able to boast of having experienced such a "stunt," a favorite one among all aviators and not one-tenth as risky as it ...
— The Boy Scouts of the Flying Squadron • Robert Shaler
... considerations prompted the commander to plan his strategy carefully, but they did not deter him in the least. If he had been able to bring aircraft and perhaps a thermonuclear bomb or two for demonstration purposes, the attack might have been less risky, but neither had been available to a man of his limited means, so he had to work ...
— Despoilers of the Golden Empire • Gordon Randall Garrett
... a Visitors' Book, in which we wrote our names, and then ascended to the top of the monument by a rather dangerous staircase of over a hundred steps. As the well of the tower was open from top to bottom the ascent and descent were very risky for nervous people, and we felt thankful when we reached the foot of the staircase safely, though disappointed because the weather had prevented our enjoying the splendid view from the top that we had anticipated. As we were leaving the ...
— From John O'Groats to Land's End • Robert Naylor and John Naylor
... trade deficit of $3.3 billion in 1997. While disbursements of aid and foreign direct investment have risen, they are not large enough to finance the rapid increase in imports; and it is widely believed that Vietnam may be using short-term trade credits to bridge the gap—a risky strategy that could result in a foreign exchange crunch. Meanwhile, Vietnamese authorities continue to move slowly toward implementing the structural reforms needed to revitalize the economy and produce more competitive, export-driven industries. Privatization ...
— The 1999 CIA Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.
... of leaving an angry and overmastered villain bound to a tree to await death or rescue? The result is rescue every time, and one way and another a mort of trouble for the good characters. Still it may be argued that if the protagonist of The Fortunes of Garin (CONSTABLE) had not followed this risky precedent those fortunes would not have led him where they eventually did, and we should have missed one of the best costume novels of the year. Miss MARY JOHNSTON is among the very few waiters whom I can follow without weariness through the mazes of mediaevalism. ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, January 12, 1916 • Various
... be too risky a proceeding to cross the river, for the Boers were certain to be only a short distance away, sheltered in some advantageous position, waiting to try and retrieve their dead and wounded; so a small ...
— The Kopje Garrison - A Story of the Boer War • George Manville Fenn
... this enterprise—indeed, there is no necessity for anything else—but we must not put the bank or ourselves in such a place that either or both of us can be held legally responsible for anything that happens in connection with this company. You must keep in mind Sterling's words, that the thing is risky enough anyway, and that even under the best circumstances and conditions we may find ourselves in a hole. Exactly how to do it I have not figured out, but the City Bank must appear as offering the subscriptions, and the Amalgamated Company as owning the stock, ...
— Frenzied Finance - Vol. 1: The Crime of Amalgamated • Thomas W. Lawson
... what you want me to do," Benson said. "You want this Guide bumped off. But why can't any of you do it? Or, if it's too risky, at least somebody from your own ...
— Hunter Patrol • Henry Beam Piper and John J. McGuire
... next morning we were passing through bergs of every size, big and little, although none were so large as the one which had been so risky to us—bergs that in their splendid architecture and magnificence, with fantastic peaks and fine pinnacles, that glittered in the rising sun with all the colours of the rainbow, flashing out rays and lights of violet and purple, topaz blue and emerald green, ...
— Tom Finch's Monkey - and How he Dined with the Admiral • John C. Hutcheson
... of events, or had she not seen how much I was pained and disturbed by her teasing insistency, she would never have thought it worthwhile to soothe me with this frankness—even though, since she not infrequently used me to execute commissions that were not only troublesome, but risky, she ought, in my opinion, to have been frank in ANY case. But, forsooth, it was not worth her while to trouble about MY feelings—about the fact that I was uneasy, and, perhaps, thrice as put about by her cares and ...
— The Gambler • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... to Zurich was a risky one. Wagner, the composer of what is now the most popular of all operas, Lohengrin, might indeed pass unnoticed, for the work had not been heard; but the composer of the Dutchman and of Rienzi, and perhaps of Tannhaeuser, and above ...
— Richard Wagner - Composer of Operas • John F. Runciman
... of Judge Beeswinger's soundness?" said a lazy Southern voice at the conclusion of Colonel Starbottle's periods. "Nobody here seems to know him by sight: is it not risky to admit a man to our meeting whom ...
— Clarence • Bret Harte
... Risky; but never mind. There is always the sea. It is something to have the certainty of a bed at the end of a long day's tramp. Besides, I want to see Tony, and George too, if by chance he is at home. And there may be a little ...
— A Poor Man's House • Stephen Sydney Reynolds
... fellow he had known at "the shop," or played polo with in India, or hunted with in Ireland, but a scamp of a telephonist, who had stolen his whisky and owned up; who had risked his life for him, who had been a fellow-sportsman who could be relied on in a tight corner in the most risky of ...
— A Student in Arms - Second Series • Donald Hankey
... capabilities alone which influenced that opinion he did not attempt to analyze. He enjoyed being with her and working with her, that he knew. That the constant companionship might be, for him, a risky and perhaps dangerous experience, he did not as yet realize. When he was with her, and busy with Fair Harbor affairs, he could forget the slowness with which his crippled legs were mending, and the increasing longing—sometimes approaching desperation—for ...
— Fair Harbor • Joseph Crosby Lincoln
... ter de Yankees. But she ain' been dar mo'n er week when one night she went a-traipsin' out on de street en lef er principles behint 'er, en, bless yo' life, oner dem ar Yankees breck right in en stole 'em smack 'way f'om 'er. Yo' trunk is a moughty risky place ter kyar yo' principles, but Viney, she wuz ...
— The Voice of the People • Ellen Glasgow
... that, Raffles," said I, tiring a little of his kaleidoscopic metaphors. Let him be as allusive as he liked when there was no risky work on hand, and I was his lucky and delighted audience till all hours of the night or morning. But for a deed of darkness I wanted fewer fireworks, a steadier light from his intellectual lantern. And yet these were the very moments that inspired ...
— Mr. Justice Raffles • E. W. Hornung
... disease organisms that infect humans. Though municipal composting systems can safely eliminate such diseases, home composting of dog and cat manure may be risky if the compost is ...
— Organic Gardener's Composting • Steve Solomon
... results of my studies of instinct cost me? Nothing but time and, above all, patience. My extravagant expenditure of twenty francs, therefore, will be a risky speculation if devoted to the purchase of an apparatus of study. It will bring me in nothing in the way of fresh views, of that I am ...
— The Life of the Fly - With Which are Interspersed Some Chapters of Autobiography • J. Henri Fabre
... incurable cadger that he was, was bound to feel the family reverses acutely. When he had married Miss Pennycuick for her good, in that risky manner, he had naturally expected to be rewarded for the deed. If ever it be safe to trust to appearances, it had seemed safe then, so far as the solidity of the Pennycuicks' position was concerned. They had imposed ...
— Sisters • Ada Cambridge
... risky crossing the Hansag at night," observed Jocrisse, "and no amount of money would induce one of these natives about here to act as guide. They are a ...
— The Nameless Castle • Maurus Jokai
... rushed at him, firing shot after shot. I heard his snow-shoes plodding across the crust, and yells from the others indicated that Philippe's adventure had been a risky one. ...
— Jacqueline of Golden River • H. M. Egbert
... causes which remain obscure but with consequences which are disagreeably plain. But while risk is always present in some degree, the degree varies enormously from one industry to another. Now, it is obvious enough that in an exceptionally risky industry, where there is a considerable possibility that the capital invested will yield no return at all, the profits of those concerns which succeed are likely to exceed the rate of interest on gilt-edged securities. But what ...
— Supply and Demand • Hubert D. Henderson
... like this plan; it might offer amusement and instruction to the police, but seemed to involve himself in an excessive amount of responsibility. "Will it not be far too risky to let him take my Notes even if you do shadow him closely afterwards? He will get them copied and scattered amongst a score of agents, one of whom may get the information through to Germany. You know your job, of course, but the risk seems too big for me. After all, they ...
— The Lost Naval Papers • Bennet Copplestone
... "Is it not rather risky going down there?" asked Alfred as he noticed the swift current and the numerous boulders poking treacherous ...
— Betty Zane • Zane Grey
... "Sight—seeing with people you don't really know is too trying to the temper. Even with one's best friend it's risky." ...
— The Marriage of William Ashe • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... long blast keen and clear, telling us above that he had started a bear. That made us hurry. We arrived at the head of an incline leading down to R.C.'s stand. As luck would have it the place was ideal for a bear, but risky for a hunter. A bear could come four ways without being seen until he was close enough to kill a man. We hurried on. At the saddle there was a broad bear trail with several other trails leading into it. Suddenly R.C. halted me with a ...
— Tales of lonely trails • Zane Grey
... "It's mighty risky for you to be crossing the swamp alone," he said. "I'm surprised that the Bird Woman would be letting you try it. I know it's a little farther, but it's begging you I am to be going back by the trail. That's bad enough, but it's far safer than ...
— Freckles • Gene Stratton-Porter
... It was so risky a thing to do that he shrank back directly with a shudder, and closed his eyes for a moment or two, seeming to realise for the first time the terrible danger ...
— Menhardoc • George Manville Fenn
... pressed she was, and forgive her for resorting to an excusable fiction. It was risky, but what could she do? "I knew your wife," said she briefly. ...
— When Ghost Meets Ghost • William Frend De Morgan
... now to relieve the predominant white and red, [123] and thereby double the brilliancy, of a gay picture. Yet a less than Machiavellian cunning might perhaps have detected, amid all this sudden fraternity—as in some unseasonably fine weather signs of coming distress—a risky element of exaggeration in those precipitately patched-up amities, a certain hollow ring in those improbable religious conversions, those unlikely reconciliations in what was after all an age of treachery as a fine art. With Gaston, however, the merely receptive and ...
— Gaston de Latour: an unfinished romance • Walter Horatio Pater
... wretch was thoroughly courageous in the face of some physical and external dangers. The puniest man in camp could cow him with a look, yet none was prompter than he to face the grave perils of breaking a log-jam, and there was no cooler hand than his in the risky labors of stream-driving. Altogether he was a disagreeable problem to the lumbermen,—who resented any element of pluck in one so unmanly and ...
— Earth's Enigmas - A Volume of Stories • Charles G. D. Roberts
... boldness. I was on the best of terms with him and he was the most kind and friendly of publishers. It often happened, however, in going over my plans for the new Cornhill, he thought this or that proposal on my part might prove too expensive, too risky, too radical, or too unconventional. In such cases he always said that we had better take the decision to Mr. George Smith. On the first occasion I was a little alarmed as to what the result might be. I felt that Mr. ...
— The Adventure of Living • John St. Loe Strachey
... right in the road now," declared Jerry. "The storehouse is on the other side of it. We can't get through, and it will be a risky thing to try ...
— The Camp in the Snow - Besiedged by Danger • William Murray Graydon
... It was risky work, but he did not shrink, although he knew that he was lessening his chances of escape. Still, if he could only bring the Kestrel's boats down upon the scoundrels it would be so grand a coup that his hesitation was always mastered, and he stood firm, gazing ...
— In the King's Name - The Cruise of the "Kestrel" • George Manville Fenn
... some time to reach the ground. Although it moves your opponent out of her dangerous position right up at the net, there is time for her to run back and return it. (2) The low lob, which only just passes over your opponent's racket—a much more risky shot than the high lob, but with the advantage of falling much quicker. If you succeed in getting the ball out of her reach, it is almost certain to be a winning shot, because she will not have time to turn and go after ...
— Lawn Tennis for Ladies • Mrs. Lambert Chambers
... profession of his old abandoned one. We should have thought better of Naaman's monotheism, if he had not coupled his avowal of it, where it was safe to be honest, with the announcement that he did not intend to stand by his avowal when it was risky. It would have required huge courage to have gone back to Damascus and denied Rimmon; and our censure must be lenient, ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren
... twanged, heavy wheels rumbled, steaming teams were led away, with drooping heads, into the spacious inn yard, and fresh horses stepped out cheerily to take their place between the traces. The next stage across Spendle Flats was known as a risky one. Legends of Claude Duval and his fellow-highwaymen still haunt the woods and moors that top the long hill going northward. And the passengers by those sixty coaches were wont to recover themselves from terrors escaped, or fortify themselves against terrors to come, by plentiful ...
— The History of Sir Richard Calmady - A Romance • Lucas Malet
... "This is a risky sort of business," so his friend had written him. "I succeeded in getting your letter into the young lady's hands, but not without danger of discovery. For whole hours I loitered in the grounds of Mr. Markland, and was going to leave for the city without accomplishing my ...
— The Good Time Coming • T. S. Arthur
... well on the way toward home, he meant to hail Percy to propose that they combine to cut that risky part of the performance out. A joint agreement would settle it; and doubtless the judges would hail that decision as the part of prudence. Human lives were worth more than empty honors; and while the gathered thousands might be cheated out of a thrilling sight as they stood ...
— The Airplane Boys among the Clouds - or, Young Aviators in a Wreck • John Luther Langworthy
... traders received for their goods horses held a high place. [Footnote: Do. Girault to Clark July 9, 1784.] The horse trade was risky, as in driving them up to Kentucky many were drowned, or played out, or were stolen by the Indians; but as picked horses and mares cost but twenty dollars a head in Louisiana and were sold at a hundred dollars a head in the United States, the losses had to ...
— The Winning of the West, Volume Three - The Founding of the Trans-Alleghany Commonwealths, 1784-1790 • Theodore Roosevelt
... her no encouragement to do this. He decided that it was too risky a bit of amusement; but one day when he had gone hunting with the king and court the princess was overjoyed to find that the magic key had been left behind. She at once picked it up and opened the forbidden door. The beast gave a great leap, roaring out at her, "You are the very ...
— Tales of Giants from Brazil • Elsie Spicer Eells
... imperative for the safety, as well as the efficiency, of a squadron that vessels of the same class should all have a certain minimum speed. The same cause—the danger of a separated ship—led the unwilling De Grasse, the same day, in another scene, to a risky manoeuvre and a great mishap. Hughes, with better reason, resolved to fight; and at nine A.M. formed his line on the starboard tack, standing in-shore (Plate XV., A), the squadron in good order, with intervals of two cables between the ships.[176] ...
— The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 • A. T. Mahan
... profits after the others have been satisfied, and at present three-fourths of the companies now doing business have their deferred shares at a discount. The financial collapse in Argentine, some years since, very seriously affected most of these concerns, and it is doubtful, in view of the risky nature of the business, whether they will ever ...
— Everybody's Guide to Money Matters • William Cotton, F.S.A.
... that he had something to tell which was of practical importance. "I may relieve your mind about Nell's money," he said, "for I believe my company is going to be wound up. We'll look out for another investment which will pay as well and be less risky. It has been found not to be doing quite so well as was thought, so we're going ...
— The Marriage of Elinor • Margaret Oliphant
... ground floor: there was company to dinner last night, and all the rooms were used more or less; the Marquise, or some one of the guests, would certainly have discovered him. So he would have had to be upstairs, either on the first or second floor: that is most unlikely: it would have been very risky; besides, the big house-dog is fastened up at the foot of the staircase during the day, and he would not have let any stranger pass him: either the dog must have known the man, or at all events some meat must have been thrown to him; but there are no traces to show that anything ...
— Fantomas • Pierre Souvestre
... "Oh!" replied Pietro, dancing till his boat rocked; "see you, Signor Antonio, I am going to earn my three sequins to-day; for I'm going to make the journey up to St. Mark's Tower and then down again, to take this nosegay to the beautiful Dogess." "But isn't that a risky and break-neck adventure, Pietro, my friend?" asked Antonio. "Well," he replied, "there is some little chance of breaking one's neck, especially as we go to-day right through the middle of the artificial fire. The Greek ...
— Weird Tales, Vol. II. • E. T. A. Hoffmann
... uncontemplated, never thought of. random, indiscriminate, promiscuous; undirected; aimless, driftless^, designless^, purposeless, causeless; without purpose. possible &c 470. unforeseeable, unpredictable, chancy, risky, speculative, dicey. Adv. randomly, by chance, fortuitously; unpredictably, unforeseeably; casually &c 156; unintentionally &c adj.; unwittingly. en passant [Fr.], by the way, incidentally; as ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... Uncle Phineas left me that money folks have called me foolish or crazy, and I always was reckoned sensible before, if I was homely. Abijah's folks warn me against lettin' John's folks have it, and John's folks against Abijah's, and they say that banks burst up and railroad stocks are risky, and I'll end by bein' on the town. I never heard anything about my bein' in danger of comin' on to the town before. I put my savin's in an old stockin' between my beds, and wa'n't beholden to anybody for advice ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, October 1885 • Various
... little while at a time. Awakening with the cold, I would get up and revive my fire, and then lie down to sleep. The next day a severe storm came on, and I was compelled to huddle by my fire all day, for the wind was so fierce and the snow so blinding that it would have been extremely risky to try to cross the craggy and slippery mountain-summits. All that day I stayed by the fire, but that night, instead of trying to get a little sleep there, I crawled into a newly formed snowdrift, and in it slept ...
— Wild Life on the Rockies • Enos A. Mills
... pronounced "fine" by the trainer, dosed by the doctor, and disregarded by the coaches. Mills, having finally concluded that he was too risky a person for the line-up on Saturday, figuratively labeled him "declined" and passed him over to Tassel, head coach of the second eleven. Tassel displayed no enthusiasm, for a good player gone "fine" is at best a poor acquisition, ...
— Behind the Line • Ralph Henry Barbour
... in the Romagna is risky for you; but just at this moment Brisighella is safer for you ...
— The Gadfly • E. L. Voynich
... sacrifice his blanket in the cause of hospitality; and armed with that and several pounds of tallow candles, "Gibs," upon whom the lot had fallen, set forth to run the blockade to Benny's. This was a risky business, for the vigilance of Lieutenant Joseph Locke, one of the instructors in tactics who was also a sort of supervisor of the morals and conduct of cadets, was hard to elude. As one of the ...
— The Dreamer - A Romantic Rendering of the Life-Story of Edgar Allan Poe • Mary Newton Stanard
... you're goin' to mak' de marry, kip a look out on de eye, But no matter how you're careful, it was risky anyhow— An' if you're too unlucky, jus' remember how you try For gettin' dat poor woman, dough she may have got you now— All de sam', it sometam happen dat your wife will pass away— No use cryin', you can't help it—dere's your duty to you'se'f— You don't need to ax de neighbor, dey will tell ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume IX (of X) • Various
... of the evidence (las pruebas) you have collected (recogido), it would be very risky to proceed against him from ...
— Pitman's Commercial Spanish Grammar (2nd ed.) • C. A. Toledano
... the stream. Others trusted themselves to single planks upon which to gain support while they endeavored to swim across the current. The covering of one of the docks afforded the means for this purpose. It was a very risky method of navigation, and it is generally supposed that several of the Fenian "Leanders" who attempted the passage of the Niagara "Hellespont" in this way lost their lives in doing so, as ...
— Troublous Times in Canada - A History of the Fenian Raids of 1866 and 1870 • John A. Macdonald
... down the receiver, and left me, vibrating with the excitement of anticipation, to do my packing. For the honour of accompanying Dr. John Silence on one of his big cases was what many would have considered an empty honour—and risky. Certainly the adventure held all manner of possibilities, and I arrived at Waterloo with the feelings of a man who is about to embark on some dangerous and peculiar mission in which the dangers he expects to run will not be the ordinary dangers to life and limb, but ...
— Three John Silence Stories • Algernon Blackwood
... perpendicularly to the boom and intersecting the yard a little above its center. We had had some trouble with the first sails we made in keeping the base of the sail against the body, and to overcome this difficulty Bill proposed tying the bottom of the mast to the leg. This was a rather risky thing to do, as we learned later, for in case of accident it would be difficult to get clear of the sail. It was Reddy who finally solved the problem by rigging up a step for the mast. It consisted of a ...
— The Scientific American Boy - The Camp at Willow Clump Island • A. Russell Bond
... cautiously, changing his ground a little, 'I should have said—only, of course, you must know much better—that it is a little risky to give the British public such very serious fare as this, and immediately after the White Lady. The English theatre-goer never seems to me to take kindly to medievalism—kings and knights and nobles and the fifteenth century are very likely to bore him. ...
— Miss Bretherton • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... fired, that they just barely keep out of range. The instant they see the fire flash—down they go, and then as the shot or bullet strikes the place where they were they bob up again serenely in the same spot, or in one not very far distant. This risky sport some of them will keep up for hours, or until the disheartened hunters have wasted nearly all ...
— Algonquin Indian Tales • Egerton R. Young
... Tanno cried, "and I trust you will never try it again. It's disgraceful! And it's too risky. If you keep it up some fine day she'll slash the face off you or bite your whole ...
— Andivius Hedulio • Edward Lucas White
... the whole affair as too risky to be gone into without unlimited cash; but now he had a chance of making money, he determined to try his hand at the business. True, he knew that he was in for a swindle, but then he was behind the scenes, and would ...
— Madame Midas • Fergus Hume
... of a risky business I have let myself in for!... To take Vinson's place, and set off for Verdun, where his regiment is doing garrison duty, the regiment to which he has just been attached!... It would run as smooth as oil if I had done my ...
— A Nest of Spies • Pierre Souvestre
... the result of Commendoni's plea. But when he came back to the Cardinal, he found only another disappointment. The Provincial not merely was as stubborn as ever, he had even won the Cardinal to his way of thinking. It was too risky to admit him, it ...
— For Greater Things: The story of Saint Stanislaus Kostka • William T. Kane, S.J.
... his face was that of the confident man confirmed in a risky guess in the crisis of ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... were always so solemn, so tensifyingly solemn, these risky journeys up and down. The niece, Irma, carried the hot-water bottles, the extra blankets and the fan. The nurse had the medicine-box and a small tray with water-glasses—for when things went wrong, the cavalcade must stop ...
— Our Nervous Friends - Illustrating the Mastery of Nervousness • Robert S. Carroll
... carrying away and undermining the houses there. The third was the great fire in San Francisco, destroying one-third of the main business portion of the city, upon which there was no insurance. There were no companies organized or agents there to insure property then, as it was too risky. There was one four-story fire-proof building that was stored full of the most valuable goods, at a large price for storage, for it was considered absolutely fire-proof, but when the fire came the heat of the ...
— The Adventures of a Forty-niner • Daniel Knower
... sighed. "Well, it was good while it lasted. I suspected things were getting risky when those two kids charged into the mist, but I hoped maybe the cold spray had cooled them down a little. When it didn't, I tried to scare them off by trapping them in the mine. No intent to harm, either. I knew they'd be dug out ...
— The Blue Ghost Mystery • Harold Leland Goodwin
... costs to know who they were, so I was obliged to disclose myself by going into their camp. The number of saddle horses they had with them led me to think that they were not real professional cattle thieves. Had they been indeed rustlers it would have been a risky thing to do, as they would have had to dispose of me in some way or other. By my horse brand they at once knew what "outfit" I belonged to. Their brands, however, were strange to me. They asked me to eat, of course; and I soon found out that their party was headed by one Pete——, whose reputation ...
— Ranching, Sport and Travel • Thomas Carson
... she was fifty? And if she didn't begin now to put money by, who would do it for her later? Not that worthless husband, surely! He, who, that very morning, had dared, the loafer, to tell her of a scheme—a sort of a risky trick which she was to perform, a thing calculated to break your head or make a millionaire of you—for him, of course, just as for Pa! It had come to this, that her turn wasn't good enough, that it had to be more sensational; and she was ...
— The Bill-Toppers • Andre Castaigne
... them that I had met many brigands before, and was well acquainted with their ways. I hoped they would not compel me to shoot, which I would most certainly do if they attempted any tricks. They well understood that it was risky to try their luck, so they changed tactics altogether. The ...
— Across Coveted Lands - or a Journey from Flushing (Holland) to Calcutta Overland • Arnold Henry Savage Landor
... his affectionate Godmother and Aunt Anna Worsley, September 13th, 1836." So that he was not christened till he was more than nine months old, and he used to say that this delay was a risky business, because during all those months the devil had the run of him. He imitated the inscription in this Bible for the inscription in the christening Bible which Ernest spurns from him when he is about to undertake the conversion of Miss Maitland in chapter lx. of The Way of All Flesh. ...
— The Samuel Butler Collection - at Saint John's College Cambridge • Henry Festing Jones
... of the piece exaggerated virtues, and it is a commonplace observation that an assembly, even though composed of inferior elements, shows itself as a rule very prudish. The debauchee, the souteneur, the rough often break out into murmurs at a slightly risky scene or expression, though they be very harmless in comparison with their ...
— The Crowd • Gustave le Bon
... was rather anxious lest the bank should suddenly give way. The instinct of an elephant is extraordinary in the selection of firm ground. Although it appeared dangerous to me, Moolah Bux was perfectly satisfied that the ground would bear his weight, and he continued his risky march, both up and down a number of those monotonous ravines which scored the slopes in ...
— Wild Beasts and their Ways • Sir Samuel W. Baker
... eating-places in the plaza. Comitan is the last town of consequence in Mexico, and has wide fame on account of its spirits, known at comiteco. This drink, of enormous strength, distilled from coarse, brown sugar (panela,) is a favorite in Guatemala, and its smuggling across the border, though risky, is a lucrative business. There are scores of little distilleries in the town, many of them belonging to and ...
— In Indian Mexico (1908) • Frederick Starr
... up the balance of the night in the bargain, for they felt as though the illumination helped to guard them. Complete darkness might have tempted a raiding thief to try again, while he would be afraid to attempt such a risky move while the flames crackled and ...
— Afloat - or, Adventures on Watery Trails • Alan Douglas
... would hook one of its front legs behind its horns and hold it there till the brand was applied. Sometimes four calves were being scruffed at the same time, and the work went on very quickly. Blacks always work well in a yard. Not only is there the personal and sometimes risky struggle with the animals, which appeals strongly to their savage minds, but the emulation amongst themselves, each being very anxious to do better than his fellows. There is usually a good deal of laughter and joking talk ...
— In the Musgrave Ranges • Jim Bushman
... to them, later in the afternoon of the arrival, as a group of curious ones stood about the roped-in enclosure where the Nelson lay, "I guess you don't know much about the navigation of the air. It used to be risky; now it is no more so than riding on a ...
— Boy Scouts in an Airship • G. Harvey Ralphson
... mate, and I believe that thinking in company is a lot more healthy and more comfortable, as well as less risky, than ...
— Children of the Bush • Henry Lawson
... them Public Conscience stood, 30 And without wincing made their mandates good. But now that 'Statesmanship' is just a way To dodge the primal curse and make it pay, Since office means a kind of patent drill To force an entrance to the Nation's till, And peculation something rather less Risky than if you spelt it with an s; Now that to steal by law is grown an art, Whom rogues the sires, their milder sons call smart, And 'slightly irregular' dilutes the shame 40 Of what had once a somewhat blunter name. ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell
... we'll do what we can," hailed Rob, starting to carry out the risky maneuver of getting alongside the plunging ...
— The Boy Scouts of the Eagle Patrol • Howard Payson
... brilliant expedition that Fernando Cortes intended to join when he was prevented by injuries incurred while engaged in an amorous adventure which led him over garden walls into risky situations where he ended with broken bones, and was consequently left behind. The fleet sailed from San Lucar de Barrameda on February 13, 1502, which according to Las Casas was the first Sunday in lent of ...
— Bartholomew de Las Casas; his life, apostolate, and writings • Francis Augustus MacNutt |
