"Tapped" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... for Mr Preddle," he said, and after listening at the door, where nothing was to be heard but the creaking of the ship's timbers as she laboured on, sounding to me as if at any moment she might come to pieces, my fellow-prisoner tapped softly at the partition, and placing his lips to the opening, ...
— Sail Ho! - A Boy at Sea • George Manville Fenn
... she said, pleasantly enough; and walked back to the desk. She eyed the clerk, a half-smile on her lips, one arm, in its neat tailored sleeve, resting on the marble, while her right forefinger, trimly gloved, tapped an imperative little tattoo. (Perhaps you think that last descriptive sentence is as unnecessary as it is garbled. But don't you get a little picture of her—trim, taut, tailored, mannish-booted, flat-heeled, ...
— Roast Beef, Medium • Edna Ferber
... pleased to call serious matters this lady understood her so easily and quickly. Emotion, it is true, had become with her rather historic; she made no secret of the fact that the fount of passion, thanks to having been rather violently tapped at one period, didn't flow quite so freely as of yore. She proposed moreover, as well as expected, to cease feeling; she freely admitted that of old she had been a little mad, and now she ...
— The Portrait of a Lady - Volume 1 (of 2) • Henry James
... treat when Marie tapped at the door just before tea. It would be nice to have Marie there all winter. Beth looked around the tea-table at the new faces: Mrs. Owen, at one end of the table, decidedly stout; Mr. Owen, at the other end, decidedly lean. There were two sweet-faced children, a handsome, gloomy-browed lawyer, ...
— Beth Woodburn • Maud Petitt
... the genie had set down the nuptial bed in its proper place, the sultan tapped at the door to wish her good morning. The grand vizier's son, who was almost perished with cold, by standing in his thin under garment all night, and had not had time to warm himself in bed, had no sooner heard the knocking at the door than he got out of ...
— Types of Children's Literature • Edited by Walter Barnes
... morning, the morning of the day on which the race was to be run, the Major tapped at his patron's door about seven o'clock. Of course there was no answer, though the knock was repeated. When young men overnight drink as much brandy-and-water as Silverbridge had done, and smoke as many cigars, ...
— The Duke's Children • Anthony Trollope
... tapped a stack of papers that lay before him on the long table at which they were all seated. "I have Major Grodski's report on the remaining food. There is not enough for all of us to live, even on the most extended rations. Only the strongest ...
— Cum Grano Salis • Gordon Randall Garrett
... on his hand and plunged further into the flowery thickets of sentiment. But at this sweet moment of his dream Rodolphe was suddenly awakened by a park keeper, who came up and tapped him on ...
— Bohemians of the Latin Quarter • Henry Murger
... migwol, which is taken from a tree of the palm tribe, very numerous in this country, somewhat like the date tree, but not the same, and which furnishes this liquor the whole year round. The trees are tapped in two or three places near the root, and from these wounds a brown juice runs out, as thin as skimmed milk, into calabasses that are placed to receive the liquor, which drops but slowly, as one tree will only fill two calabasses from morning till night. This migwol, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. II • Robert Kerr
... the group a boy of fourteen or fifteen years stood talking excitedly. He was tall, dark as an Italian, and dressed with the greatest richness. Two rings set with great jewels flashed on his hand and while he spoke, he tapped his polished boot with a small cane in the end of which was set a huge, sparkling red stone. He spoke with great rapidity, in the pure Russian of the Court, and addressed himself to an elderly man who sat drooping in an attitude of ...
— The Boy Scouts in Front of Warsaw • Colonel George Durston
... my nuts to burn," said Ethel Blue, putting two chestnuts side by side on the hearth. "One is Della and the other is Ethel Blue," and she tapped them in turn as she gave ...
— Ethel Morton's Holidays • Mabell S. C. Smith
... It might tempt me to satisfy your curiosity less speedily, but, after the delightful entertainment you gave us, my Lord Burgrave, one becomes merciful. So you shall hear how I, as wise as the serpent, craftily forced this haughty knight"—she tapped Heinz Schorlin's arm with her riding whip—"and you, too, Jungfrau Ortlieb, whose pardon I now entreat, to help me win the bet. No offence, noble sirs! But this bet was what compelled me to drag you all from Kadolzburg and its charms so early, and induce ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... and once she had scratched with her diamond ring upon the window pane in her dressing-room, where it now stood in legible characters, "Genevra Cameron!" There should be no middle name to take from the sweetness of the first—only Genevra—that was sufficient; and the little lady tapped her foot impatiently upon the carpet, wishing Wilford and father ...
— Family Pride - Or, Purified by Suffering • Mary J. Holmes
... He tapped at the window, and waved his hand in affectionate greeting to his friend, who looked up with his most amiable smile, as he brushed aside the servants who had hurried out to ...
— Adrien Leroy • Charles Garvice
... Everything became instinct with life: a creature sighed in every tree, a voice spoke from every stone, something gasped for air under every clod of earth, something lurked in every pool. The branches that tapped against the window-panes were the fingers of the dead, the stars that shot across the heavens were wandering souls, and the clouds and ...
— Absolution • Clara Viebig
... to the Lanes' house. Isabelle had returned that day from California, and her husband was away on business. Vickers, who had a latch-key, let himself into the house and tapped at his sister's door. When she saw him, she cried out, ...
— Together • Robert Herrick (1868-1938)
... without was nearer now, was close at hand. The horse's hoofs had ceased to sound. There came the ring of spurred heels without, a man's hand tapped upon the doorpost, a man's figure showed ...
— The Safety Curtain, and Other Stories • Ethel M. Dell
... Mr. Oliver tapped his snuff-box and grinned all over his big smooth face. 'When you do your courting fair and honest, young man, you should be careful not to do it in the library with the window open. I was in the verandah, and I heard you threaten that ...
— In Homespun • Edith Nesbit
... and others in Berlin are excellent hotels as such, but mixed up with spying upon strangers; Herr Adlon, senior, a friend of the Kaiser's, assists the Government spies when any important or suspicious visitor registers. The hotel telephones or any other telephones are systematically tapped. German soldiers are granted special leave for hotel service—that is to ...
— The Land of Deepening Shadow - Germany-at-War • D. Thomas Curtin
... the invitation, and when the raucous noise subsided Philomel Whiffet tapped the tuning fork briskly on the edge of the stand, put it to his ear, and listened as ...
— Blue Ridge Country • Jean Thomas
... the miller. "It's a sign o' plenty when the likes of you run about the country-side with none to look after you. But come in by. I like bannock and cheese for supper, so I'll give ye a night's quarters." And with that he tapped his ...
— English Fairy Tales • Flora Annie Steel
... an American, sah," he replied. "Some have called me a soldier of misfohtune. Anyway, I try and do good. What good I have done fo' the weak and oppressed, sah, I've done with these." The Kid tapped his twin Colts and went on: "I've twelve lead aces heah, sah, and I'm not in the ...
— Kid Wolf of Texas - A Western Story • Ward M. Stevens
... a year and a half, his dropsy returned, but the Digitalis did not then succeed to our wishes. In August, 1779, he was tapped, and lived afterwards ...
— An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses - With Practical Remarks on Dropsy and Other Diseases • William Withering
... father stood on the quay watching the men as they passed him, someone tapped him on the shoulder, and turning he saw a ...
— Susan - A Story for Children • Amy Walton
... as well learn at the start that we mean business," Smoke stated to the first obdurate, who lay on his back, groaning through set teeth. "Stand by, Shorty." Smoke caught the patient by the nose and tapped the solar-plexus section so as to make the mouth gasp open. ...
— Smoke Bellew • Jack London
... for some minutes. "Here, give me the jug," I said, and out I went. After looking carefully round to see that I was not observed, I quietly tapped one of ...
— Fanny Goes to War • Pat Beauchamp
... another constable comes up - supposes that we want 'to see the school.' Detective Sergeant meanwhile has got over a rail, opened a gate, dropped down an area, overcome some other little obstacles, and tapped at a window. Now returns. The landlord ...
— Reprinted Pieces • Charles Dickens
... church on a certain Sunday morning, he tapped my shoulder as we entered the little gate, and called my attention to a lithe young Indian girl, who had strolled down from the campment on the plains, and was standing proudly erect upon the church-porch, with finger to her ...
— Dream Life - A Fable Of The Seasons • Donald G. Mitchell
... melodrama, John." Irving tapped the table impatiently. "We've dealt with that. Let's get ...
— The Man Who Staked the Stars • Charles Dye
... going to talk to me like that?' asked the father of himself; and the minutes went slowly by until Colonel Stacey's batman tapped respectfully at the door, ...
— VC — A Chronicle of Castle Barfield and of the Crimea • David Christie Murray
... builds up to a very respectable speed. Nor was there any question of power, for the Procyon's atomics did not drive the ship, but merely energized the "Chaytors"—the Chaytor Effect engines that tapped the energy of the ...
— Subspace Survivors • E. E. Smith
... the Marquis, helping himself to a pinch of snuff from a jeweled box, quite after the fashion of the old regime. He shut the box and tapped it gently. "There is, I believe, a vacancy in the regiment, a Captaincy. My gracious King, whom God and the saints preserve, leaves the appointment to me. It is at your service. I regret that I can offer you ...
— The Eagle of the Empire - A Story of Waterloo • Cyrus Townsend Brady
... seemed on the brink of a smile; then his dark face hardened, and he tapped the long barrel ...
— Stingaree • E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung
... dozen of her comrades were lounging upon the sand when we reached the via puna. Here an iron pipe in the mountain-side tapped subterranean waters, and a hollowed cocoanut-tree gave them exit upon the sand where salt waves flowed up to meet them. Long lean curving cocoanuts arched above, and beneath their ribbons of shade lay an old canoe, upon which sat those who waited their turn to bathe, ...
— White Shadows in the South Seas • Frederick O'Brien
... desolate Letty couldn't bear that. She hid her little face in her hands, and began to sob pitifully; but Mr. Skinflint tapped her on the shoulder with his cane, and told her that nobody would hire a cry-baby; so Letty sat up straight, and choked her tears down, and at a signal from Mr. Skinflint took up her little bundle ...
— Little Ferns For Fanny's Little Friends • Fanny Fern
... tragedy, and hoping in an agonized way that she could slip out of it peacefully, started upstairs at once with Alderson and his assistants who were close at his heels. Reaching the door of the room occupied by Cowperwood and Aileen, she tapped lightly. At the time Aileen and Cowperwood were sitting in a big arm-chair. At the first knock Aileen blanched and leaped to her feet. Usually not nervous, to-day, for some reason, she anticipated ...
— The Financier • Theodore Dreiser
... the silver cap the rest of your life," she said, and before the Goblin could jump away the Queen tapped him on the head, and in place of the tell-tale Goblin there stood a silver thistle, all prickly and shining ...
— Sandman's Goodnight Stories • Abbie Phillips Walker
... which he himself ordered on his death-bed as his last contribution to medical knowledge, showed it to be a slow ossification of the membrane of the heart, involving the liver and all the vital organs. He was "tapped" for ...
— Hero Tales of the Far North • Jacob A. Riis
... these agreeable reveries, an unexpected event intervened, in which she and her brother were deeply interested. The uncle was tapped for the dropsy, and died in a few days after the operation, having bequeathed, in his will, five thousand pounds to his nephew, and twice that sum to his niece, who had always enjoyed the greatest ...
— The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I • Tobias Smollett
... singularly wise and witty person. In the circus of to-day the melancholy ghost of the court fool effects the dejection of humbler audiences with the same jests wherewith in life he gloomed the marble hall, panged the patrician sense of humor and tapped the tank ...
— The Devil's Dictionary • Ambrose Bierce
... Hill tapped at the bolted door, but his master replied that he did not wish to be disturbed. "Yes," the Frenchman said at last, "the copy they have in Athens is ...
— The House of Whispers • William Le Queux
... between himself and the icy water into which he was to plunge. Within a few paces of the great glass door marked "MR. MCLAUGHLIN," Skinner hesitated and listened, hoping to hear voices, which would give him an excuse to retreat. But there was no sound. Skinner tapped at the door, turned the knob, and took the plunge into the ...
— Skinner's Dress Suit • Henry Irving Dodge
... her catechism? And she curtsey'd and looked at me; for I do ask the children questions, when I come, to know how they improve; "'Tis as I thought," said my lady; "my sister provides for both parts. God bless you, my dear!" said she, and tapped ...
— Pamela (Vol. II.) • Samuel Richardson
... he began tapping out a message in Morse code on an exposed wire from the scanner. He looked at the radar scanner and watched it flash white static lines each time he touched the wires. Carefully he tapped out ...
— On the Trail of the Space Pirates • Carey Rockwell
... chopped round to the south-east, and by eleven blew a gale; the sea ran high, the steamer laboured and shipped several heavy seas, much water entered the cabin, the captain came below every half-hour, tapped the barometer, sipped some tea, offered me a lump of sugar, and made a face and gesture indicative of bad weather, and we were buffeted about mercilessly till 4 a.m., when heavy rain came on, and the gale ...
— Unbeaten Tracks in Japan • Isabella L. Bird
... o'clock in the morning, he tapped at the back door of the cottage. Jane opened it, and the spoils of the night having been put away in a secret place, they were all soon in bed ...
— The Poacher - Joseph Rushbrook • Frederick Marryat
... a lull in the thundering reverberations, and tapped smartly. The door was almost at once opened by an aged woman, who stared in some amazement at the young ...
— Tom Swift among the Fire Fighters - or, Battling with Flames from the Air • Victor Appleton
... And she read him twelve lines about a lover who rowed to a beach in the dusk, crossed a field, tapped at ...
— The Virginian - A Horseman Of The Plains • Owen Wister
... his room, put on a riding suit, came down and walked out across the esplanade and into the street where Hagar's rooms were. They were lighted. He went to the hall door, opened it quietly and entered the hall. He tapped at the door of Hagar's sitting room. As he did so a servant came out, and, in reply to a question, said that Mr. Hagar had gone to the Tempe hotel and would be back directly. He went in and sat down. The curtains were drawn ...
— An Unpardonable Liar • Gilbert Parker
... had just eaten a bug, and the parent-birds were chirping and flying around, when, with the hope of helping them in their labors, I stepped forward, and tapped him on the bill with a flower-stem. The blow was so sudden and unexpected, that, before he had time to think, he lifted his wings and flew to a neighboring twig, where he clung, frightened and delighted at what ...
— The Nursery, February 1878, Vol. XXIII, No. 2 - A Monthly Magazine for Youngest Readers • Various
... She began to find sides to her own nature the very existence of which she had never suspected. She tapped her little shoe upon the ground, and she sat with a pale face, and compressed lips, and bright eyes, quite prepared to be very rude indeed to this eccentric woman who ventured to criticise her Frank in so free and easy a style. Her visitor watched her, and a change had come over her expression. ...
— A Duet • A. Conan Doyle
... well everywhere in other countries, but there are vast tracts here in Central South America that have never been tapped as yet by explorers. Who ...
— Old Gold - The Cruise of the "Jason" Brig • George Manville Fenn
... while I was busy with such preparations, growing more and more nervous every moment, Price came on tip-toe and tapped softly ...
— The Woman Thou Gavest Me - Being the Story of Mary O'Neill • Hall Caine
... dissolve four pounds of coarse sugar in ten gallons of water. Then put in three ounces of hops, boil the whole for three quarters of an hour, and let it work as usual. It should be kept a week or ten days before it is tapped, and it will improve daily afterwards, if not kept too long. Or for a still smaller quantity, put a pound of treacle to eight quarts of boiling water: add two bay leaves, and a quarter of an ounce of powdered ginger. Boil the whole ...
— The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, • Mary Eaton
... doing?" my chief whispered to me. "For God's sake leave me alone!" I answered. He gave a moan and went to work feverishly at a supplementary note. The orator sat down amidst a great burst of cheers, just as my relief tapped me on the shoulder, and I walked away to committee room No. 18, which was then used by the gallery reporters as a transcribing room, feeling assured as I walked along the corridor that my career as a parliamentary reporter had reached an ...
— Recollections • David Christie Murray
... happy inspiration, one that could hardly fail to beget stories in the mind of anybody prone to narrative—the return of a man to his native land, to its people, to memories hidden for years, forgotten, but which rose suddenly out of the darkness, like water out of the earth when a spring is tapped. ...
— The Lake • George Moore
... a superbly disdainful look toward the Rev. McCaleb. The recording secretary tapped reprovingly with her pencil, ...
— The Spinner's Book of Fiction • Various
... tapped the arm of his chair with his pencil. The taps could be heard all over the room. Most men kept quiet in Bowker's presence, even men like Rowan. For some moments his Honor bent over the desk and carefully examined the signed ...
— Tom Grogan • F. Hopkinson Smith
... sending for our army home; but as we always do half of a thing, when even the whole would scarce signify, they seem determined to send for ten thousand—the other ten will remain in Flanders, to keep up the bad figure that we have been making there all this summer. Count Saxe has been three times tapped since the of Fontenoy: but if we get rid of his enmity, there is Belleisle gone, amply to supply and succeed to his hatred! Van Hoey, the ingenious Dutchman at Paris, wrote to the States to know if he should make new liveries against ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1 • Horace Walpole
... brought over. When the whole family came to inspect them, they found those for the sides and the bottom to be all eight inches thick, the grain like betel-nut, the smell like sandal-wood or musk, while, when tapped with the hand, the sound emitted was like that of precious stones; so that one and all agreed in praising the timber ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin
... moment in an accident, only debts were left for John. I was suddenly important, I, the gray satellite of the rainbow prince, for I had a moderate fortune. The two of us were just graduated from Yale; John with honors and prizes and hosts of friends, I with some prizes and honors. Yet I had not been "tapped" for "Bones" or "Scroll and Key"[49-1] and I was a solitary pilgrim ever, with no intimates. We stood so together, ...
— Short Stories of Various Types • Various
... stood in that street at mid-day and heard a watch tick in my pocket. Think of it, Mr. de Windt. I myself arrived here only a few months ago, but even I shall soon have to get away for a change, or——" and he tapped his forehead significantly. ...
— From Paris to New York by Land • Harry de Windt
... He tapped his sword-hilt significantly as he spoke, and that argument proved irresistible. Grumbling, in low tones, the anatomy stalked up-stairs; and the other followed, with very different feelings from those with which he had mounted ...
— The Midnight Queen • May Agnes Fleming
... as he moved away. Lorry feverishly tapped his knuckles on the panel of the door and waited with motionless heart for the response. It came not and he rapped harder, a strange ...
— Graustark • George Barr McCutcheon
... over her ears and tapped for silence with her foot. "One at a time, please, ladies, and I will endeavor to answer any questions that may come into your minds," she said ...
— The Camp Fire Girls in the Maine Woods - Or, The Winnebagos Go Camping • Hildegard G. Frey
... up the lamp, and proceeded to set whisky, soda-water, and a tumbler among his master's scattered papers. Brutus, at the sound of a remembered voice, tapped the cane chair vigorously with his stump of a tail, without offering to relinquish the one comfortable seat in the room. Richardson sat down beside him, caressed the strong ugly head, ...
— The Great Amulet • Maud Diver
... forth the porcelain marvel, even the bones of Pu had ceased to be; but lo! the Vase lived as they looked upon it: seeming to be flesh moved by the utterance of a Word, creeping to the titillation of a Thought. And whenever tapped by the finger it uttered a voice and a name,—the voice of its maker, the name of its ...
— Some Chinese Ghosts • Lafcadio Hearn
... find you!" cackled the old woman. "You are Belle, my great-granddaughter, and you are touched here—eh?" and she tapped her own wrinkled forehead ...
— Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies - The Missing Pearl Necklace • Alice B. Emerson
... so strange a subject for his lecture. "That is the point, and I will tell you; for a stranger is never to blame for doing wrong when he thinks he is doing right!" said he, with great earnestness of manner. And he drew his chair closer, and tapped me impressively on the arm with the fore finger of his right hand. "And you read my name, Giles Sheridan, on the pink poster. I am well known in some parts of the world, and not so well known in others. Thanks to a merciful God, I am ...
— The Life and Adventures of Maj. Roger Sherman Potter • "Pheleg Van Trusedale"
... as incensed by her usurpation of the knot-hole as he would have been, at ordinary times, by theft of watch or pocket-book, and tapped her lightly ...
— In Old Kentucky • Edward Marshall and Charles T. Dazey
... The Duchess impatiently tapped her knee with a fan. "Be thankful you haven't got him on your conscience," she rejoined. "I call Eglington unscrupulous and unreliable. He has but one god—getting on; and he has got on, with a vengeance. ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... west-central postal district of London. He was a round ball of a man, who wheezed when he walked upstairs, which was seldom, and shook like jelly if some tactless friend, wishing to attract his attention, tapped him unexpectedly on the shoulder. But this occurred still less frequently than his walking upstairs; for in R. Jones' circle it was recognized that nothing is a greater breach of etiquette and worse form than to tap people ...
— Something New • Pelham Grenville Wodehouse
... the linoleum sandy from the boys' boots. A daddy-long- legs shot from corner to corner and hit the lamp globe. The wind blew straight dashes of rain across the window, which flashed silver as they passed through the light. A single leaf tapped hurriedly, persistently, upon the glass. There was ...
— Jacob's Room • Virginia Woolf
... continued, turning gravely to Lady Cantourne, by whose side he had been standing; and, strange to say, her ladyship made a reproving little movement of the lips, and tapped his elbow surreptitiously, as ...
— With Edged Tools • Henry Seton Merriman
... suddenly very still again. Some one had closed the window. The twig no longer tapped. The game was over. Uncle Felix collected them, an exhausted crew, upon the ...
— The Extra Day • Algernon Blackwood
... little later, tapped at his door, doubting if all was well with him, no answer came. Looking in and seeing him motionless, she advanced to the bed, and touched his hand. It never moved, and she listened for a breath, but in ...
— When Ghost Meets Ghost • William Frend De Morgan
... said they were hunting cattle, but I knew better—they were after Egrets and came to see if I was on guard. I told them if they saw any one after plumes to pass {211} the word that I would shoot on sight any man with a gun who attempted to enter the Corkscrew. I would do it, too," he added as he tapped the barrel of his Winchester. "It is terrible to hear the young birds calling for food after the old ones have been killed to get the feathers for rich women to wear. I am not going to have my ...
— The Bird Study Book • Thomas Gilbert Pearson
... excellent tree to plant in among coffee, for it is very clean and tidy, and seems as if it would take to West Africa like a duck to water, but it is not a quick cropper, and I am informed must be left at least three or four years before it is tapped at all, so, as the gardening books would say, ...
— Travels in West Africa • Mary H. Kingsley
... I? I must take care of my poor dear father, and he isn't pleasant in the least, you know, but would wear my life out in a week. I really pitied him, however, when I refused him, with a napkin round his neck, and he tapped his waistcoat with a spoon so comically, when he offered me his heart, as if it were ...
— Moods • Louisa May Alcott
... knew about as much of the running gear of a motor boat as did Jimmie, but he at once oiled up his hands and his face and tugged and pulled at the wheel, tapped on the supply pipes, investigated the electric appliance, and finally announced that the boat was not in ...
— Boy Scouts in the Philippines - Or, The Key to the Treaty Box • G. Harvey Ralphson
... The man tapped the edge of the bill he held against the desk thoughtfully. Paul waited for him to speak; but when after an interval he still remained silent the lad shifted uneasily from one foot to the other ...
— Paul and the Printing Press • Sara Ware Bassett
... strike "three causeless blows." Of course he disobeys. According to the "Cambro-Briton" version it happened that one day, preparing for a fair, he desired his wife to go to the field for his horse. Finding her dilatory in doing so, he tapped her arm thrice with his glove, saying, half in jest: "Go, go, go!" The blows were slight, but they were blows; and, the terms of the marriage contract being broken, the dame departed—she and her cattle with her—back into the lake. The other two accounts agree in ...
— The Science of Fairy Tales - An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology • Edwin Sidney Hartland
... ground, and pulled at something. The wooden shaft of Shann's spear was wanly visible. And the form on the ground did not stir as that was jerked loose. The Throg leader dead? Shann hoped so. He slid his knife back into the sheath, tapped the hilt to make sure it was firmly in place, and crawled on. The river, twisting here and there, was a promising pool of dusky shadow ahead. The bank of willow-things was coming to an end, and none too soon. For when he glanced back again he saw another Throg run across the ...
— Storm Over Warlock • Andre Norton
... excellent, the company delightful, and I am just revelling in that beatific state of mind born of a sufficiency of the good things of this earth, when nothing seems to me more pleasant than a City dinner, when I am tapped upon the shoulder by the Toastmaster, who bears a warrant to consign me to misery. I have to make a speech. I have passed through the ordeal before, but I find that familiarity, as far as speech-making ...
— The Confessions of a Caricaturist, Vol 2 (of 2) • Harry Furniss
... and stretched. Wayne bent and, for good measure, took off the man's helmet and tapped him none too gently on ...
— The Judas Valley • Gerald Vance
... Murray was seated on the beach, nearer the town than his house stood, watching the groups of busy children, digging and playing in the sand, now helping them in their play, and now giving his hint to the nurses around him, when Edith tapped him on the shoulder. There was something so unusually serious, not cross, in Edith's countenance, that Joe looked at her inquiringly. "There, set down the basket, Nockells, and run back quick, tell papa I kept you; I am afraid ...
— Emilie the Peacemaker • Mrs. Thomas Geldart
... which to bore holes in the trees. "I tapped 'em last year, as old Mr. Jamison didn't care about doin' it," said the boy, "an' I b'iled the pot of sap down in the grove; but that was slow, cold work. I saved the little wooden troughs I used ...
— Driven Back to Eden • E. P. Roe
... about and tap the trees, drive in the spouts, and hang the buckets under. The boy watches all these operations with the greatest interest. He wishes that sometime, when a hole is bored in a tree, the sap would spout out in a stream as it does when a cider-barrel is tapped; but it never does, it only drops, sometimes almost in a stream, but on the whole slowly, and the boy learns that the sweet things of the world have to be patiently waited for, and do not usually come ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... particular about her giving her full name and address. Of course he took note. So did the sheriff's officer! That evening they both arrived at the young lady's door simultaneously, whereupon Sir Alexander tapped the officer on the shoulder, remarking, 'No, no, no, Mr. Sheriff's ...
— Law and Laughter • George Alexander Morton
... tapped his rifle barrel. "Anyone that tries to dispossess us'll soon find out," he returned gruffly, and, turning his back on the visitors, he ...
— Port O' Gold • Louis John Stellman
... pipe to carry off the gas. In the box there is placed horizontally a turbine, the hollow axis of which serves for the conveyance of the gas into the vessel. For this purpose the axis is perforated with a number of small holes, some of which are tapped, so as to allow of there being screwed on to the axis, and perpendicularly thereto, a series of brooms made of dog grass, and having their handles threaded for the purpose. These brooms are arranged in such a way as not to encounter too great resistance from contact with the water ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 446, July 19, 1884 • Various
... the man's account, given in a disjointed manner under severe cross-questioning, he had gone to bed on Monday last, when somebody tapped at his door and called to him to open. Thinking the visit was from the police, who occasionally looked in upon him, he got up, and huddling on some clothes as he went, made for the door. As he was on the point of opening it, a voice called out to him to "make haste," for the speaker ...
— Disturbed Ireland - Being the Letters Written During the Winter of 1880-81. • Bernard H. Becker
... he; "don't get excited. There's nothing out of the way. My name is Beam—Lanigan Beam. I tapped because I thought if I spoke first you might jump out of the window, being turned in that direction. May I ...
— The Squirrel Inn • Frank R. Stockton
... already extinguished, but that in the king's chamber was still burning. They made their way quietly until they stood beneath this window, and waited until the light here was also put out. Then Harry climbed on to the shoulders of his companions, which brought his face on a level with the window. He tapped at it. The king, who had been warned that his friends would attempt to open a means of escape, at once came to the window, and threw ...
— Friends, though divided - A Tale of the Civil War • G. A. Henty
... evident, as the hours passed, that Mrs. Amherst was deliberately postponing the moment when they should find themselves alone. But the Lynbrook party was to disperse on the Monday; and Bessy, who hated early rising, and all the details of housekeeping, tapped at Justine's door late on Sunday night to ask her to ...
— The Fruit of the Tree • Edith Wharton
... which had up to that moment worn an anxious expression, beamed with joy. He felt the natural pride of a captain who has succeeded in his plans for the enemy's destruction. He tapped the old justice of the peace familiarly on the shoulder, ...
— The Mystery of Orcival • Emile Gaboriau
... those who need it. To her, then, Marie had come, as had so many others before her, in her hour of trial and distress. Hastening along the street, Jane smiles as she recalls the day Marie had first tapped upon her office door and, entering timidly, waited for permission to speak. Jane had been unusually busy and frowned impatiently at the interruption. The eyes, so like to Richard's, had quelled her anger and she listened ...
— The Alchemist's Secret • Isabel Cecilia Williams
... Mr. Rogers tapped the desk with his ruler, like one considering. "Why have they turned you out?" he ...
— The White Wolf and Other Fireside Tales • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... river, which he declared to be "ravishing," and the excellence of a certain kind of chocolate which he carried in his pocket, and shared generously with his "dogs." As he parted with his friends the Count tapped his nose and winked at them—"Tournament—great, magnificent, you will see, ha, ha! you will see;" and Speug went home in a state of utter confusion, coming finally to the conclusion that the Count intended to introduce some ...
— Young Barbarians • Ian Maclaren
... through a fence bank into a running stream in a road below it; the discharge therefore was distinctly observable. Two or three of the pipes had now ceased running; and, with the exception of one which tapped a small spring and gave a stream about the size of a tobacco pipe, the run from the others did not exceed the size of a wheat straw. The greatest flow had been observed by Mr. Hammond at no time to exceed half the bore of the pipes. The fall in this field is very ...
— Draining for Profit, and Draining for Health • George E. Waring
... Miss Arthuret tapped at the door. 'Sister, sister Angelica.' 'Who is there?' was answered from within; 'is it ...
— Redgauntlet • Sir Walter Scott
... floor echoed under the dancers' feet—up and down, swing in the centre, hands across; the pace was always a good one when Andy Ferguson played the "Royal Irish." One foot tapped out the time, and his grey head nodded in sympathy with it. They called to him now and again, "Bravo, Andy! Good man, Andy! Keep it going!" and he smiled at the friendly voices, watching them with the keenness of the Irishman for a light foot ...
— Mates at Billabong • Mary Grant Bruce
... General Taylor's army, who had secured a barrel of cider, erected a tent, and commenced selling it to the thirsty soldiers at twenty-five cents a drink, but he had sold but little before another sharp one set up a tent at his back, and tapped the barrel so as to flow on his side, and peddled out No. 1 cider at five cents a drink, of course, getting the latter's entire trade ...
— Lincoln's Yarns and Stories • Alexander K. McClure
... importance to many of the bordering countries as a source of both food and exports. Fishing fleets from the USSR, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan also exploit the Indian Ocean for mostly shrimp and tuna. Large reserves of hydrocarbons are being tapped in the offshore areas of Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, and Western Australia. An estimated 40% of the world's offshore oil production comes from the Indian Ocean. Beach sands rich in heavy minerals and ...
— The 1991 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.
... coal-black Celt with the second-sight did not see fit to reply till he had tapped Dan on the shoulder, and for the twentieth time croaked the old, old ...
— "Captains Courageous" • Rudyard Kipling
... a confession out of the substitute. He's a poor, sorrowful creature, named Timson. Two weeks ago he was down and out, broke, jobless, starving. He was shuffling dejectedly along Broadway when a man tapped him on the shoulder and asked a few minutes' conversation with him. As Timson had nothing to lose but time, he offered no resistance when the stranger led him in ...
— The Substitute Prisoner • Max Marcin
... reached out across the wide desk toward the small, plastic box hanging on the Old Man's chest. The Old Man glanced up as Ben tapped the plastic lightly with ...
— The Real Hard Sell • William W Stuart
... Dilke, rising hastily and dressing, when the servant had tapped upon the door and announced that visitors ...
— Golden Days for Boys and Girls, Vol. XIII, Nov. 28, 1891 • Various
... looking at the dark passage, that was illuminated by a gas lamp, at the "actors' entrance," through which men were continually hurrying, who talked in a loud voice, and chewed the end of a cigar which had gone out. She remained as if she were glued to the cushions, and tapped impatiently on the bottom of the ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume II (of 8) • Guy de Maupassant
... were accustomed to this spectacle, so he walked coolly through the galleries heedless of the tumult around him and paused only when he met a group of acquaintances who were discussing the news of the day. Suddenly some one tapped him on the shoulder. ...
— Which? - or, Between Two Women • Ernest Daudet
... the room. Philippe was taking down the receiver, when some one tapped him on the shoulder. It was Victor, whose excitement was increasing every moment and who asked ...
— The Frontier • Maurice LeBlanc
... those things," Buck broke in with a hardly restrained passion. "It hurts to hear 'em. Kindest? Best? Say, when a man feels same as me, words like them hurt, hurt right in through here," he tapped his chest with an awkward gesture. "They drive a man nigh crazy. A man don't want to hear them from the woman he loves. ...
— The Golden Woman - A Story of the Montana Hills • Ridgwell Cullum
... said, and tapped him with her fan. 'But do you know, my Prince, you are an egoist - your handy trysting-place is miles from me. You must give me ample time; I cannot, I think, possibly be there before two. But as the bell beats two, your helper shall ...
— Prince Otto • Robert Louis Stevenson
... one when someone tapped on the window. The professor took alarm and looked at Mr. Gardener a warning to take no notice. But the tapping grew louder. The professor got up and ...
— The Continental Classics, Volume XVIII., Mystery Tales • Various
... Valentina's foot tapped the ground impatiently, and into her eyes there came a look of anger that heightened her likeness to her martial uncle. But ...
— Love-at-Arms • Raphael Sabatini
... returning footsteps without, and rushed to the gate. But it was only a creaking of the trees. Another time I seemed to hear a calling from within, and sprang wildly to the door. But it was only a hoot-owl. And when the leaves tapped on the window above, I looked up expecting a face to appear there. And when a horse in the stable whinnied, I imagined it the mocking laughter of a troop of traitors left behind to rob me ...
— Sir Ludar - A Story of the Days of the Great Queen Bess • Talbot Baines Reed
... your million in a year, and return scandalously independent. It's in your American blood." Frail white fingers tapped an arm of the chair as their owner stared gravely into the fire. "I confess I ...
— The Black Bag • Louis Joseph Vance
... standing in front of a handsome show window on Broadway, gazing at the wares it contained, when he felt himself tapped on the shoulder. Looking around, he saw a well-dressed man standing by him, holding in his ...
— The Secrets Of The Great City • Edward Winslow Martin
... a little in advance, and tapped him on the shoulder. Down came the pipe, up went the hand in a respectful military salute, but before it was finished he saw ...
— What Answer? • Anna E. Dickinson
... for Ben laughed out so infectiously that both the others joined him; and somehow that jolly laugh seemed to settle matters than words. As they stopped, the Squire tapped on the window behind him, saying, with an attempt at the ...
— Under the Lilacs • Louisa May Alcott
... hung apart as before, and I could see the fireplace with the lights and shadows travelling fantastically along the polished floor and wall. The white irradiated figure was no longer visible, but undiscouraged by this fact I gently tapped, trusting that Karine might be in another part of the room to which my ...
— The House by the Lock • C. N. Williamson
... He tapped Archie's head smartly with his knuckles, and passed on, the smile still wrinkling his pale eyes and the forehead above them from which the hair was steadily receding towards ...
— The Swindler and Other Stories • Ethel M. Dell
... is called for, the cysts may be tapped and injected with iodine, or excised; the operation for removal may entail a considerable dissection amongst the deeper structures at the root of the neck, and should not be lightly undertaken; parts left behind may be induced to cicatrise ...
— Manual of Surgery - Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition. • Alexis Thomson and Alexander Miles
... new American way. Everything I have left from this flood will be yours and the children's, anyhow. But while there is game in the woods, or bacon in the cellar, or flour in the bin, or wine to be tapped, or a cup of milk left, not a child or woman or man shall go hungry. I was not unprepared for this. My fur storehouse there on the bank of the Okaw is empty. At the first rumor of high water I had the skins carried to the strong-house ...
— Old Kaskaskia • Mary Hartwell Catherwood
... to that of the troops. Sometimes she opened of her own accord to ask some question of him, but generally it was he who, without waiting for her, stooped down to instruct her of what was passing; and sometimes, if she did not notice him, he tapped at the glass to make her open it. He never spoke, save to her, except when he gave a few brief orders, or just answered Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne, who wanted to make him speak, and with whom Madame de Maintenon carried on a conversation by signs, ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre
... window in the other wing of the Residency, when the girl, who had been up and dressed for a quarter of an hour, came softly behind him and tapped ...
— The Keepers of the King's Peace • Edgar Wallace
... my servant laying my evening meal in the houseplace. In a few minutes she tapped to tell me it was ready, and I rose mechanically to obey the summons. And then, to my horror, I found I was still in morning dress. For the first time for years I had not dressed for dinner. What ...
— The Lowest Rung - Together with The Hand on the Latch, St. Luke's Summer and The Understudy • Mary Cholmondeley
... to be, I still had my reward. People who had read the book wrote to me in enthusiastic terms, and they were not all Americans who did so. I speedily became aware that I had, almost by accident, tapped a vein of pure and rich sentiment. Best of all was the fact that my kind friend, Lord Houghton, forwarded to me a letter he had received from Mr. Swinburne which contained the following passage: "Has anyone told you I am just about ...
— Memoirs of Sir Wemyss Reid 1842-1885 • Stuart J. Reid, ed.
... stock, I therefore bored a hole about three inches deep up the centre of either piece, so that it was hollowed like a marrow-bone; in one of them I inserted a piece of an iron ramrod, red-hot, I then drew the other piece over the iron in a similar manner, and gently tapped the shoulder-plate until I had driven the broken joint firmly together. I then took off from a couple of old boxes two strong brass hasps; these I let neatly into the wood on each side of the broken stock, ...
— The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia • Samuel W. Baker
... protested. I sharply tapped the printed verses and the photograph reading from left to right. Now she became animated, speaking as she ...
— Somewhere in Red Gap • Harry Leon Wilson
... the girl. "One of the Germans tapped me playfully on the head, and his ring caught in my hair. The next thing I ...
— The Boy Allies with Haig in Flanders • Clair W. Hayes
... is a residuum of knowledge displayed that can only be called supernormal: the medium taps some source of information not open to ordinary people. Myers used the word "telepathy" to indicate that the sitter's own thoughts or feelings may be thus directly tapped. Mrs. Sidgwick has suggested that if living minds can be thus tapped telepathically, so possibly may the minds of spirits be similarly tapped—if spirits there be. On this view we should have one distinct theory of the performances of a typical test-medium. They would be all originally ...
— Memories and Studies • William James
... honey-combed with a labyrinth of subterranean passages which found vent in an opening midway between the pit and where the trench tapped the wall. Thither, and with many exclamations, the tribesmen followed Aab-Waak, and, arrived, they saw plainly where the Sunlanders had climbed to the mouth, twenty and ...
— Children of the Frost • Jack London
... damned particular," answered Rand. "I've wanted wealth and I've wanted power ever since I went barefoot and suckered tobacco—as you know who know me better than almost any one else! But this"—he tapped the papers on the table ...
— Lewis Rand • Mary Johnston
... place in Husky. He grunted and blinked. Suddenly he threw back his head and roared with laughter. Big Jack steeled himself, shrugged, and rose. Going to the fire-place, he tapped the ashes out of his pipe and prepared to ...
— The Huntress • Hulbert Footner
... burdened with savory odors suggestive of feastings to come. Mrs. McAlister came back from a final survey of the corner house, made her eleventh tour of the parlor, dining-room and kitchen at The Savins, and then took her stand at the front window where she tapped restlessly on the glass and swayed the curtain to and fro impatiently. She was not a nervous woman; but to-night her mood demanded constant action. Moreover, it was only an hour and a quarter before the train was due. If she were ...
— Phebe, Her Profession - A Sequel to Teddy: Her Book • Anna Chapin Ray
... shell as we might have done, and we view it as a matter of course. Yet we do not say here that the bird may not have come down the conjuror's sleeve, or the hen may not have brought it from under her wing. It was really in the egg, and its own beak tapped against the shell from ...
— The History of a Mouthful of Bread - And its effect on the organization of men and animals • Jean Mace
... get to know them, there is usually very little worth knowing. But there are so many lonely men and women wandering through this sad old world of ours who are lonely, not because there is not plenty of sympathy and understanding ready, as it were, to be tapped by the rod of friendship and love, but because they are too shy to make friends, too reserved to show the genius of friendship which burns within them. So they go through the world with open arms ...
— Over the Fireside with Silent Friends • Richard King
... to the fair inmates of the room. His coolness was partly due to the contempt he felt for the human race in general, and also to his colored glasses, which hid the expression of his countenance. When he saw that Paul still kept his eyes on the ground, he tapped him ...
— Caught In The Net • Emile Gaboriau
... (A.D. 1125,) he was well acquainted with the venerable gentleman; and the very beautiful pair of shoes which Mr. P. wears when in full costume, (vide his portrait on the title page,) were heeled and tapped for him by the hands of CRISPIN himself. They are still in excellent order, although, in these very shoes, Mr. P. walked his celebrated match against Time, beating that swift old party and doing his 1000 miles in 24 h., 12 m., 30 s. Between Mr. P. and shoes there is a well-marked resemblance. ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 17, July 23, 1870 • Various
... Beltane, and turning, forthwith set out upon his way, and his staff tapped loud upon the forest-road. Right joyfully Beltane strode on again, his mind ever busied with thought of his father; but Roger's step was listless and heavy, so that Beltane must needs turn to look on him, and straightway marvelled ...
— Beltane The Smith • Jeffery Farnol
... note first, and smiled at the request that he should come to Rome for Christmas-day. Then he leaned his head on his hand, and tapped his desk with his penknife, absently. How the years slipped away! What had he to anticipate in the clouded future? Would these children, now receiving a foreign education, ever return contentedly ...
— Stories by American Authors, Volume 7 • Various
... their heads at sight of the unmown grass, and predicting a bad hay-harvest, are beginning to brighten up with the weather, and to consult upon the propriety of mowing to-morrow. The barometer is gently tapped by many a sturdy hand, and the result is favourable; so that there are good prospects of a few weeks' sunshine to atone for ...
— Gladys, the Reaper • Anne Beale
... the meter. Then he began to follow the electric wires along. At last he discovered a place where they had been tampered with and tapped by other wires. ...
— The Exploits of Elaine • Arthur B. Reeve
... noise that Mrs. Littell tapped on the door to ask why they were not in bed, and when Bobby told her the joke, she had to sit down and ...
— Betty Gordon in Washington • Alice B. Emerson
... he would keep his word. She had a horror of scenes, and, worst of all, she feared the meeting of the two men under these circumstances. Suddenly she leaned forward and tapped the window, and the ...
— The Man Who Knew • Edgar Wallace |
