shootingstar
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- Joined
- Nov 17, 2022
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(Talk in the South Sea at the club Cercle International in the Marquesas)
Among other matter of interest, like other arrivals in the South Sea, he had a wreck to announce. The John T. Richards, it appeared, had met the fate of other island schooners.
"Dickinson piled her up on Palmerston Island," Dodd (= Loudon Dodd, the protagonist of the book) announced.
"Who were the owners?" inquired one of the club men.
"Oh, the usual parties!" returned Loudon," Capsicum and Co."
A smile and glance of intelligence went round the group; and perhaps Loudon gave voice to the general sentiment by remarking -
"Talk of good business! I know nothing better than a schooner, a competent captain, and a sound reliable reef."
"Good business! There's no such a thing!" said the Glasgow man. "Nobody makes anything but the missionaries - dash it!"
"I don't know," said another; "there's a good deal in opium."
"It's a good job to strike a tabooed pearl-island - say about the fourth year," remarked a third, "skim the whole lagoon on the sly, and up stick and away before the French get wind of you."
(From The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne; Prologue, In The Marquesas)
I'm not sure about the meaning of "strike" in this sentence. What do you take "strike" to mean in this context"?
Among other matter of interest, like other arrivals in the South Sea, he had a wreck to announce. The John T. Richards, it appeared, had met the fate of other island schooners.
"Dickinson piled her up on Palmerston Island," Dodd (= Loudon Dodd, the protagonist of the book) announced.
"Who were the owners?" inquired one of the club men.
"Oh, the usual parties!" returned Loudon," Capsicum and Co."
A smile and glance of intelligence went round the group; and perhaps Loudon gave voice to the general sentiment by remarking -
"Talk of good business! I know nothing better than a schooner, a competent captain, and a sound reliable reef."
"Good business! There's no such a thing!" said the Glasgow man. "Nobody makes anything but the missionaries - dash it!"
"I don't know," said another; "there's a good deal in opium."
"It's a good job to strike a tabooed pearl-island - say about the fourth year," remarked a third, "skim the whole lagoon on the sly, and up stick and away before the French get wind of you."
(From The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne; Prologue, In The Marquesas)
I'm not sure about the meaning of "strike" in this sentence. What do you take "strike" to mean in this context"?
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