"Chance on" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... through such niggard opening as they will allow her. To the man of war, a veritable Gibraltar; a maze of possibilities in defence; a stupendous undertaking in attack, an undertaking which will brook neither error nor miscalculation, and from which nature has eliminated much of the element of chance on the one side to place it to the credit of the other. Of such a kind were our Colenso, Magersfontein, Stormberg, and Spion Kop heights. You at home at your ease, taking in from the map in a second a perfunctory impression of the topography, which it would ...
— On the Heels of De Wet • The Intelligence Officer
... can't tell when he first decided to go one better and drown me. He couldn't count for certain on bad weather, though he held my nose to it when it came. But, granted that he wanted to get rid of me altogether, he got a magnificent chance on that trip ...
— Riddle of the Sands • Erskine Childers
... said his wife, with authority. "We'll take a chance on it. If it isn't the right thing, we can sell it to the ...
— A Fool and His Money • George Barr McCutcheon
... Paris boast of boulevards where one can sit and drink There is no such chance on Broadway, at the Brower House, 'I don't think.' And where else are there fair soubrettes in pipe clayed tennis shoes, And boys in silken sashes promenading by in twos Oh you can boast of any street of which you're proud to know But ...
— Adventures and Letters • Richard Harding Davis
... for some reason which I do not know and which you will not tell me, there is such bad blood between you and my father that you can't—you won't—won't even take a chance on me?" ...
— Poor Man's Rock • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... I've already said, let's look this thing fairly and squarely in the face. We've taken a gambler's chance on a big thing, and we've lost. We've lost our pile, as they phrase it out here, but if what you say is true, we haven't lost our home, and what is still more important, we haven't lost ...
— The Prairie Mother • Arthur Stringer
... sometimes then cold.... Once for all, as "that which is in our power" is a part of the contingent, so Fortune is a part of chance or casual adventure; and both the two events are conjoined and dependent on the one and the other, to wit, chance on contingent, and Fortune on "that which is in our choice,"—and yet not on all, but on what is in our election, as we have already said. Wherefore chance is common to things inanimate, as well as to those which are animated; whereas ...
— Essays and Miscellanies - The Complete Works Volume 3 • Plutarch
... piloted by "Antoun." And concerning this entertainment, I had an idea. Those who choose to dig among these desert-like sandhills, between the Coptic churches of Babylon and the tombs of the Mamelukes, may chance on something of value, especially after a windstorm or a landslip: bits of Persian pottery, fragments of iridescent glass, broken bracelets of enamel, opaline beads, or tiny gods and goddesses. Why should I not (thought I) apportion off to each member of the band ...
— It Happened in Egypt • C. N. Williamson & A. M. Williamson
... day was fine and hot. Leighton decided to take a chance on innovation, and revisit a quiet stretch on the Marne. It was rather a journey to get there, but from the moment the three were settled in their third-class carriage time took to wing. As he listened to Lewis's and Cellette's chatter, the years ...
— Through stained glass • George Agnew Chamberlain
... place? The manager did not put out some cheap fellow, but he went to another man who, although he was unfamiliar with the territory, was a good shoe man, and guaranteed him that he would make four thousand dollars a year net, and gave him a good chance on a percentage basis of making six thousand. The experienced man in a line, although he has never traveled over the territory for which the wholesaler wishes a man, stands next in line for an open position. Houses know that a man who has done well on one territory in a very little while will ...
— Tales of the Road • Charles N. Crewdson
... forced to admit that everything you said about Pyrrus is true. It is the most deadly spot in the system. And only native-born Pyrrans could possibly survive here. I can manage to fumble along a bit after my training, but I know I would never stand a chance on my own. You probably know I have an eight-year-old as a bodyguard. Gives a good idea of ...
— Deathworld • Harry Harrison
... jail-bird at whom everybody except other jail-birds looks askance. To think what I was once, and what I am now! It's enough to drive a man mad! As for repenting, bah! Who'd believe that I really repented, who'd give me a second chance on the faith of it? Not a soul. Repentance won't blot out the past. It won't give me back my wife whom I loved above everything on earth and whose heart I broke. It won't restore me my unstained name and my right to a place among honourable men. There's no chance for a man ...
— Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1905 to 1906 • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... all about what's going to happen to Anton, when he grows up? His father hasn't money enough to send him to college, or anything like that, especially since he lost so much by the flood, and, being a cripple, Anton's not going to have much of a chance on ...
— The Boy with the U. S. Weather Men • Francis William Rolt-Wheeler
... has promised to give me a chance on his coffee plantations in Brazil this autumn, and I wish to show him that I know how to grind. Plug, isn't that the American for it?" He smiled across the desk. "I wish to prove to you all that I am grateful. Your father, who knows something ...
— The Voice in the Fog • Harold MacGrath
... in these gloomy thoughts; but at length the delection which they produced became insupportably painful. I endeavored to dissipate it with music. I had all my grandfather's melody as well as poetry by rote. I now lighted by chance on a ballad which commemorated the fate of a German cavalier who fell at the siege of Nice under Godfrey of Bouillon. My choice was unfortunate; for the scenes of violence and carnage which were here wildly but forcibly portrayed only suggested to my ...
— Stories by Modern American Authors • Julian Hawthorne
... Benjamin Dorn and Philippina went to the church fair, and naturally took Agnes along. Benjamin Dorn knew what was expected of him. He had Philippina take two rides on the merry-go-round, paid her way into the cabinet of wax figures, and took a chance on the lottery. It was a blank. He then explained to Philippina that it was immoral to have anything to do with lotteries, and bought her a bag of ginger snaps; and ...
— The Goose Man • Jacob Wassermann
... at rest for the night, in Mrs Strong's south chamber. Then John told all that was necessary for them to know about the lad,—how, though he had known friends of his at home, he had never seen the lad himself until he had met him by chance on the lake shore. Finding him alone and ill, he had taken him home and cared for him. Bain was better now, and would soon be well. Yes, he meant to stay in the country. As to himself, John could not say whether he would ...
— Allison Bain - By a Way she knew not • Margaret Murray Robertson
... gestures or monosyllables; but imperceptibly he arrogated the privilege of saying nothing, and gave himself up without hindrance to his closing meditations, which were appalling. He had a poet's temperament, his mind had entered by chance on a vast field; and he must see perforce the dry ...
— The Magic Skin • Honore de Balzac
... in Florida I would want to take a chance on for a long trip. I only know two fellows I would like to have along, and we can't get them. One is Walter Hazard, the Ohio boy who chummed with us down here for so long. The other is that little Bahama darky, Chris, whom Walter insisted on taking back north with him and ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely
... drove by the buildings of Pisa's famous university, which we afterward fancied rather pervaded the city with the young and ardent life of its students. It is no great architectural presence, but there are churches and palaces to make up for that. Everywhere you chance on them in the narrow streets and the ample piazzas, but the palaces follow mostly the stately curve of the Arno, where some of them have condescended to the office of hotels, and where, I believe, one might live in economy and comfort; or, at any rate, I should like to try. It would ...
— Roman Holidays and Others • W. D. Howells
... first place as America's greatest pulpit orator. These men were always fast friends, yet when they met at convention or conference folks came for miles to see the fire fly. "Where are you going?" once asked Beecher of Chapin when they met by chance on Broadway. "Where am I going?" repeated Chapin. "Why, if you are right in what you preach, you know where I am going." But only a few years were to pass before Chapin said in public in Beecher's presence, ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 7 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Orators • Elbert Hubbard
... eyes. Moreover, the coquettish gown she wore was entrancing; it was a light blue, tunic affair with wide baby collar and cuffs, and a Roman girdle; and she had found stockings to match, with white buckskin pumps. It had been blind chance on her part—this making of a toilet, but the effect was none the less adorable—and ...
— Seven Miles to Arden • Ruth Sawyer
... sorry to say, however, that none of the audience, even with the plenary absolution in advance, were inclined to take a chance on it. ...
— My Discovery of England • Stephen Leacock
... east. Train can be blocked. General Lodge with his staff and party—and his soldiers—would be massacred without a chance to fight. That pass always bothered us for fear of ambush. Now the Sioux have come west far enough to find it.... No chance on earth for a train there—not if it ...
— The U.P. Trail • Zane Grey
... showed a mighty respect, and stood still till he passed by, Noureddin stopping among the rest. This was the grand vizier to the sultan of Balsora, who walked through the city, to see that the inhabitants kept good order and discipline. This minister, casting his eye by chance on Noureddin, and finding something extraordinary in his aspect, looked very attentively upon him, and as he came near him, and saw him in a traveller's habit, he stood still, asked him who he was, and from whence he came? Sir, said Noureddin, I am ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Volume 1 • Anonymous
... read a line of the works of Jerome or Augustine. Fortunately for him, neither had Blanche,—a chance on which he safely calculated. Blanche was completely puzzled. She sat looking out of the window, and thinking with little power, and to small purpose. She had not an idea when Augustine lived, nor whether he read the ...
— Clare Avery - A Story of the Spanish Armada • Emily Sarah Holt
... gamble on anything, even to insure a ship that is to run a blockade, if the premium is right—so will a certain element of trade take a chance on shipping such horses, until the majority of people are awake and responsive to the impulses of humanity. It isn't being sanctified to be above cruelty; it is only the ...
— Child and Country - A Book of the Younger Generation • Will Levington Comfort
... Buckingham, or any of these rude fellows that now are uppermost, to make packed Courts, by Captains made on purpose to serve their turns. The other cause was of the loss of "The Providence" at Tangier, where the Captain's being by chance on shore may prove very inconvenient to him, for example's sake, though the man be a good man, and one whom, for Norwood's sake, I would be kind to; but I will not offer any thing to the excusing such a miscarriage. He ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys
... raises Durhams. At any rate he knows what he wants and breeds that kind. Similarly the horse-raiser will breed for race horses or dray horses as the case may be, and the system works with almost mechanical certainty. He gets what he wants and would never think of raising scrubs and taking a chance on results. The effect of selective breeding and culture is beyond dispute, and to many it seems obvious that all that is needed to perfect the human race and wipe out misery and crime is to supervise human breeding in the same way, so that the ...
— Crime: Its Cause and Treatment • Clarence Darrow
... rained | |again. The good old golosh was brought out of the | |spare bedroom closet and placed upon even the | |fairest of feet. The old brown raincoat was dragged | |forth into the light of day and placed above the | |gayest of garments. | | | |No girl was so foolish as to take a chance on the | |ruin of her apparel by doing without a moisture | |shedder of some sort. And not a general or admiral | |or member of a governor's staff or other person | |holding the right to wear a uniform was so | |intensely proud as to expose his ornamentation | |uncovered ...
— News Writing - The Gathering , Handling and Writing of News Stories • M. Lyle Spencer
... the salient if I take that one," he said more to himself than to them, but one little fellow, catching the word salient took a chance on nose and jumped up and down in joyous abandon, calling, "Bump le nez—le salient!" apparently in keen appreciation of the absurdity ...
— Tom Slade Motorcycle Dispatch Bearer • Percy Keese Fitzhugh
... not have found a circumstance to help him farther on the road. I make no pretence to be what folks call a religious man, doing my duty without the hymn-books; but I believe, and always shall believe, that there was something more than mere chance on our way in all that venture, and so I set it down here once and for all. The fingers of the white man's God pointed the road for us; and we took it, fair or crooked let ...
— The House Under the Sea - A Romance • Sir Max Pemberton
... to leave everything they've ever known for thirty generations and take a chance on what to them must be the wildest and most hare-brained adventure possible to imagine. To risk homes, families, lives, everything, just on my unsupported word. Jove! Columbus's proposal to his men was a mere afternoon jaunt ...
— Darkness and Dawn • George Allan England
... trouble with a house in Dallas, Texas, which they claim the young feller stole from them a hundred dollars, Mawruss. But Linkheimer says how if you would give a dawg a bad name, Mawruss, you might just as well give him to the dawgcatcher. So Linkheimer is willing to take a chance on this here feller Schenkmann, and he gives him a ...
— Abe and Mawruss - Being Further Adventures of Potash and Perlmutter • Montague Glass
... began with blaming him for being frightened and alarmed at what had happened, since I had always professed myself his friend, and I was not angry with him or any of his people, but with those of Tiarabou, who were the thieves. I was then asked, how I came to fire at the canoes? Chance on this occasion furnished me with a good excuse. I told them, that they belonged to Maritata, a Tiarabou man, one of whose people had stolen the musket, and occasioned all this disturbance; and if I had them in my power I would destroy them, or any other ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 14 • Robert Kerr
... hand playing with the hilt of his midshipman's dirk, which he had managed to retain all through his various struggles, from the habit of thrusting it into its sheath the moment opportunity served; and as he sat he glared up at the skylight feeling as if he would give anything to have a fair chance on deck, his men against the American skipper's, and the victory to the bravest and most strong. He was ready, boy as he was, to lead them on, being wound up to ...
— The Black Bar • George Manville Fenn
... that I have spoken are no mere quibbles, and I have tried to make you understand that they have not fallen into my head for ostentation or by mere chance on the present occasion: on the contrary, from the outset I realized that this course was both suitable and advantageous for me; that is why I both think and speak thus. Consequently you may be not only of good courage ...
— Dio's Rome • Cassius Dio
... to proceed, the leader of the expedition laid the matter before his companions, and he writes as follows: "I should be doing an injustice to Mr. Stuart and my men, if I did not here mention that I told them the position we were placed in, and the chance on which our safety would depend if we went on. They might well have been excused if they expressed an opinion contrary to such a course; but the only reply they made me was to assure me that they were ready and willing to follow me ...
— Explorations in Australia, The Journals of John McDouall Stuart • John McDouall Stuart
... a big chance when she decided for Betty Jo to come to help Brian with his book. But Auntie Sue had taken no chance on Betty Jo herself. Perhaps it was, in fact, the dear old teacher's certainty about Betty Jo herself that had led her to accept the risk of sending for the niece of her friend and pupil under such a ...
— The Re-Creation of Brian Kent • Harold Bell Wright
... around the woods tryin to find somebody till he saw me duck behind a bush. Hed been layin there ever since tryin to decide wether to shoot me an take a chance on missin or lay there till I died a natshural death. It was easy to see tho that we wouldnt win anything but a wooden cross hangin round there so we walked thru the woods till we ran into about twenty doboys. One of them said they was after a machine ...
— "Same old Bill, eh Mable!" • Edward Streeter
... your horses, or fed like your dogs. They would think themselves lucky; that's how the world jogs! But three weeks in the country! Why, that would mean joy, And new life for the girl, and fresh strength for the boy. The meadow would heal them, the mountain might save, Won't you give them a chance on the moor, by the wave? Why, of course! You have only to know, Punch to ask, And you'll jump at the job as a joy, not a task! Come, delicate dame, City CROESUS rotund, And assist Mrs. JEUNE'S "Country Holiday Fund!" Mr. Punch asks, for her, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 99, August 16, 1890 • Various
... chance on it, anyway, and watch it for a few days," Jim declared. "Are you through with ...
— The Young Engineers in Nevada • H. Irving Hancock
... looked back and saw Schillingschen where his great tent had stood, cavorting on hands and feet like an enormous dog-baboon, searching every inch of the ground for anything we might have left. We three stood and watched him for half an hour, sweating with fear lest he chance on the place where his diary lay buried in the tin box. We began to wish we had brought it with us. I said we had done foolishly to leave it, although I had approved of Fred's burying it at ...
— The Ivory Trail • Talbot Mundy
... most obstinate little customer that ever drew the breath of life," answered Will. "You took a chance on being eaten alive by a bear rather than ...
— The Call of the Beaver Patrol - or, A Break in the Glacier • V. T. Sherman
... indefatigable sportsman? Lucky cure! He was not a prisoner, neither had he been pressed into the customs patrol like a hired assassin. At that moment I knew Monsieur le Cure was snug in his duck-blind for the night, a long two miles from where I lay; warm, and comfortable, with every chance on such a night to kill a dozen fat mallards before his daylight mass. What would my friend Madame Alice de Breville, and that whole-souled fellow Tanrade, think when I did not appear as I had promised, at madame's chateau, to dine at eight? Cold as I was, I could ...
— A Village of Vagabonds • F. Berkeley Smith
... single spot at Annapolis where a fellow can take a chance on being funny!" muttered ...
— Dave Darrin's First Year at Annapolis • H. Irving Hancock
... We might get capsized! Is there a chance on earth that we might not get capsized? We'll leave everything in camp excepting the paddles and that lasso of yours which did you so ...
— Dick in the Everglades • A. W. Dimock
... Knight in arms, Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize, If deed of honour did thee ever please; Guard them, and him within protect ...
— The Golden Treasury - Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language • Various
... the wire saying he might lose his chance on the Stuart Ranch, if he didn't close before the Calgary interests got hold of it. And Dinky-Dunk wanted that ranch. So we talked it over and in five minutes had given up the idea of going down to Aiken and were telephoning ...
— The Prairie Wife • Arthur Stringer
... Haven for the "bathymetric survey of Lake Parinacochas," suggested by Sir Clements Markham, we found it impossible to discover any indication in geographical literature as to whether the depth of the lake might be ten feet or ten thousand feet. We decided to take a chance on its not being more than ten hundred feet. With the kind assistance of Mr. George Bassett, I secured a thousand feet of stout fish line, known to anglers as "24 thread," wound on a large wooden reel for convenience in handling. While we were at Chuquibamba Mr. Watkins ...
— Inca Land - Explorations in the Highlands of Peru • Hiram Bingham
... that she could speak English and every time she came to serve me, I took the opportunity of talking with her; taking a chance on whether it was diplomatic for me to do so or ...
— Flash-lights from the Seven Seas • William L. Stidger
... been calling faithfully on the Wayne Hall girls, you wouldn't need to be told the names of the new ones," flung back Grace. Then, allowing her gaze to slowly travel about the room, her eyes rested as though by chance on the girl designated by Arline. An instant later she had bowed to the newcomer ...
— Grace Harlowe's Third Year at Overton College • Jessie Graham Flower
... upon a filthy canal, you chance on a house, the curiously frescoed front of which tempts you within. A building which has a lady and gentleman painted in fresco, and making love from balcony to balcony, on the facade, as well as Arlecchino depicted in the act of leaping from the second ...
— Venetian Life • W. D. Howells
... say something, dear Ruskin; it shall be only the best of wishes for this and all other years; go on again like the noble and dear man you are to us all, and especially to us two out of them all. Whenever I chance on an extract, a report, it lights up the dull newspaper stuff wrapt round it and makes me glad at heart and clearer in head. We, for our part, have just sent off a corrected 'Aurora Leigh,' which is the ...
— The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Volume II • Elizabeth Barrett Browning
... should not trust every boy with such a plaything," continued the magnate, "but you seem to have a good head on your shoulders and I guess we can take a chance on you." He moved silently across the room but on the threshold he turned and added with self-conscious hesitancy, "By the way my—my—son, Mr. Laurie, chances to be interested in electricity, too. Perhaps some day he ...
— Ted and the Telephone • Sara Ware Bassett
... his sister Gertrude by chance on Broadway—as it proved, a most propitious yet disconcerting chance. Waiting on the corner for a car, she had seen him first, and noted the eager, hungry lines of his face and the desperate, worried look of his eyes. In truth, he was desperate and worried. He had ...
— Martin Eden • Jack London
... her husband, "but one who is not afraid to get out and work with his two hands—and work hard—and who has never learned the meaning of fear. I took a chance on him, and he ...
— The Promise - A Tale of the Great Northwest • James B. Hendryx
... before dawn. This was probably some round-up. If he could drift around close to the camp and find a saddle, there would likely be a rope attached to it. He might, of course, be seen, but he would have to take a chance on that. ...
— The Fighting Edge • William MacLeod Raine
... no chance on the way to mass. Madame Saugrain seemed to take it for granted that Captain Clarke and the doctor would walk with mademoiselle, and I was her peculiar property; and I suppose I had given her the right to think so by always pointedly ...
— The Rose of Old St. Louis • Mary Dillon
... his cool determination, his indomitable hope. La None too was there, and was wounded in the leg—an accident the results of which were soon to cause much weeping through Christendom. Had one of those garlands of blazing tar which all night had been fluttering from the walls of Paris alighted by chance on the king's head there might have been another history of France. The ladders, too, proved several feet too short, and there were too few, of them. Had they been more numerous and longer, the tale might have been a different ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... proof still that everything is safe within it," chuckled Mr. Ackerman. "No, sonny, I am not worrying. I should not worry even if you had ransacked the bill book from one end to the other. I'd take a chance on the honesty ...
— Steve and the Steam Engine • Sara Ware Bassett
... McMillan's claims to fame, or shall we say notoriety," observed "Scotty," with a twinkle in his eye. "Then," he resumed, "there were Morte Atkinson's Blue Leaders, that Percy Blatchford drove in the second big race. When we met at Last Chance on the way back, Blatchford nearly cried when he told me how those setters had saved his hands from freezing. He had turned them loose to rest and run behind at will, knowing they would catch up at the next stop. In some way he had dropped the fur gloves he wore over ...
— Baldy of Nome • Esther Birdsall Darling
... his heart, In all the trusting helplessness of love; If in such joy sorrow can find a part, Oh, give one sigh unto a doom like mine! Which I would have thee pity, but not prove. One cold, calm, careless, wintry look, that fell Haply by chance on me, is all that he E'er gave my love; round that, my wild thoughts dwell In ...
— Poems • Frances Anne Butler
... no better than another's, but I have been lucky enough to chance on certain ways, which have led me to a certain method by means of which it seems to me that I may by degrees augment my knowledge to the modest measure of my intellect and my length of days. I shall be very glad to make plain ...
— The Worlds Greatest Books, Volume XIII. - Religion and Philosophy • Various
... impatiently, but without raising his voice. "Come, come!" He caught Lyttleton's wrists and forced them down. "Don't be an idiot—as well as a cad. Do you want to rouse the household? If you do, and get kicked out, you'll never get another chance on this island, ...
— Nobody • Louis Joseph Vance
... If water run, 'tis sweet, but else grows quickly putrefied. If the full moon were always high and never waned nor set, Men would not strain their watchful eyes for it at every tide. Except the arrow leave the bow, 'twill never hit the mark, Nor will the lion chance on prey, if in the copse he bide. The aloes in its native land a kind of firewood is, And precious metals are but dust whilst in the mine they hide. The one is sent abroad and grows more precious straight than gold; The other's brought to light ...
— The Book Of The Thousand Nights And One Night, Volume I • Anonymous
... of decency and civilization and ideals; it was a weight in the balances on the side of right and good living; the clubs kept men from the public-house to some extent, and made it possible for boys to grow up with some chance on their side. Yet he wondered, in fits of despondency, whether there were not something wrong somewhere.... But he accepted it: it was the approved method, and he himself was a learner, not ...
— None Other Gods • Robert Hugh Benson
... head for the hotel on a beeline," Scotty suggested. "No sense in taking a chance on getting roughed up ...
— The Egyptian Cat Mystery • Harold Leland Goodwin
... these rude fellows that now are uppermost, to make packed Courts by captains made on purpose to serve their turns. The other cause was of the loss of the Providence at Tangier, where the captain's being by chance on shore may prove very inconvenient to him, for example's sake, though the man be a good man, and one whom for Norwood's sake I would be kind to; but I will not offer any thing to the excusing such a miscarriage. He is at present confined till he can bring better ...
— The Diary of Samuel Pepys • Samuel Pepys
... When she was about twelve years old she and Robin Clifford, playing about together in this room, happened to knock against one panel that gave forth a hollow reverberant sound, and moved by curiosity they tried whether they could open it. After some abortive efforts Robin's fingers closed by chance on a hidden spring, which being thus pressed caused the panel to fly open, disclosing a narrow secret stair. Full of burning excitement the two children ran up it, and to their delight found themselves in a small square ...
— Innocent - Her Fancy and His Fact • Marie Corelli
... it was the finest thing in the world," says I. "Them grangers ain't got a chance on earth. It takes a long course for to learn how to understand a cow's mind," ...
— The Man Next Door • Emerson Hough
... with music. One of these, striking by chance on the roof of the limbo with his flute, brought out a hollow sound, upon which the elders of the tribe determined to bore in the direction whence the sound came. The flute was then set up against the roof, and the Raccoon sent up the tube to dig a way out, ...
— Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel • Ignatius Donnelly
... growl Driggs started in to shake the lad once more. Just at this moment, however, Dick found a chance on which he had been doing ...
— The Grammar School Boys of Gridley - or, Dick & Co. Start Things Moving • H. Irving Hancock
... the idea made him laugh at himself. "What nonsense to think of taking advantage of an accident—Where was it they said they were stopping for the night? Oh, yes, Bensington. Well, he might go there and take a chance on seeing them—her. Fate might even be kind to him and burst some more tires!" Then he laughed at himself again and ...
— The Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point - Or a Wreck and a Rescue • Laura Lee Hope
... mountains and be Billy Barnard for a while? Why can't I lie low there till I can plan what to do next? That's what I said, Slady. Wouldn't a place like that be better than New York? Maybe you'll say I took a long chance—reckless. That's the way it is with red hair, Slady. I took a chance on you being easy and it worked out, that's all. Or rather, I mean it didn't, for I feel like a murderer, and it's all on ...
— Tom Slade at Black Lake • Percy Keese Fitzhugh
... dynamite!" said Tommy desperately, "we could take a chance on blowing ourselves to bits and try to fling it through and into the middle of ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science January 1931 • Various
... get you. You wouldn't have a chance on earth. If there is a window upstairs over that one, you might drop something out on him, or borrow Parks's pistol and ...
— The Mystery Of The Boule Cabinet - A Detective Story • Burton Egbert Stevenson
... sunshine, and the wide world; and, as for men, there were plenty to be had. Her mother would grieve. Well, that was her own affair. Lida had never known what her mother's youth had been, and after her death there would be no further supervision. They had met by chance on life's road, and had gone part of the way together. Was that any reason why they should mutually ...
— Sanine • Michael Artzibashef
... at James Macauley once more. "You old pirate!" he growled. "How dared you take such a chance on me? And when you know I'm death on that gambling ...
— Red Pepper's Patients - With an Account of Anne Linton's Case in Particular • Grace S. Richmond
... paper a hundred miles from New York that took a chance on publishing this report from the International Press, in spite of frantic efforts on the parts of the head office to recall it after it had been transmitted. This paper published the account as an April Fool's Day joke, though later it took to itself the credit ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science February 1930 • Various
... a trick there, and they don't know what the law is really about. You're stealing my water. By the gods! there's no law that allows a thief to operate. And if you've got a law that helps you steal I'll take my chance on keeping my own in spite of your pet and ...
— Joan of Arc of the North Woods • Holman Day
... I can remember to have written, in the fly-leaf of more than one book, the date and the place where I then was—if, for instance, I was ill in bed or sitting in a certain garden; these were jottings for my future self; if I should chance on such a note in after years, I thought it would cause me a particular thrill to recognise myself across the intervening distance. Indeed, I might come upon them now, and not be moved one tittle—which shows that I have comparatively failed in life, and grown older than Samuel Pepys. ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 3 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... united? It is curious to see, in his own intense antipathy to a slaveholding aristocracy, how purely American he is in spite of his theories; and, bitterly hostile as he is to the Davis administration, he may chance on the reflection that a majority is pretty much the same thing in one parallel of latitude as another. Of one thing he may be assured,—that we of the North do not understand by republic a government of the better and more intelligent ...
— The Writings of James Russell Lowell in Prose and Poetry, Volume V - Political Essays • James Russell Lowell
... breeze on the way," he said, casting his weather eye aloft. "And, from the looks of things, it's more than possible that we may run into a storm somewhere up the river. However, we'll have to take a chance on that." ...
— Lucile Triumphant • Elizabeth M. Duffield
... was bluffing. But he kept going from room to room with a pocketful of chemicals, making some kind of tests. I couldn't take a chance on his being able to spot chromazone. So I had Grundy give him my keys and tell him to ...
— Let'em Breathe Space • Lester del Rey
... urge Life's dragon-hunt!" —So cries the sportsman brisk at break of day. "The sound of hound and horn is well for thee," Thus I reply, "but I have other prey; And friendly is my quest as you may see. Though slow my pace, full surely in the dark I'll chance on it at last, though ...
— Songs, Sonnets & Miscellaneous Poems • Thomas Runciman
... The Indian I also thought nothing of. If the proofs were in a roll, he could not possibly know what they were. On the other hand, it seemed an unthinkable coincidence that a man should dare to enter the room, and that by chance on that very day the papers were on the table. I dismissed that. The man who entered knew that the papers were there. ...
— The Return of Sherlock Holmes • Arthur Conan Doyle
... not see myself how you can possibly succeed in either case, but assuredly there must be more chance on the side of the town. I have been thinking it over, and will order a troop of cavalry to ride with you to Chivasso, for the Spanish horse from time to time make forays from Turin, carry off prisoners, and burn villages. Until we are in a position ...
— Won by the Sword - A Story of the Thirty Years' War • G.A. Henty
... being the wife of a common cow hand. This was the inference from the conversation which passed between us at the gate. But when Esther thanked me for the Christmas remembrance I had brought her, I felt that I would take a chance on her, win or lose. Assuring her that I would make it a point to call on my return, I gave the black a free rein and galloped ...
— A Texas Matchmaker • Andy Adams
... time it returned to home station. Skinner, promoted to lieutenant commander and made captain of the Sea Cloud on his second patrol, later decided that the commandant had "figured he could take a chance on ...
— Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965 • Morris J. MacGregor Jr.
... hostelry of the Mulinillo, which is situate on the confines of the renowned plain of Alcudia, and on the road from Castile to Andalusia, two striplings met by chance on one of the hottest days of summer. One of them was about fourteen or fifteen years of age; the other could not have passed his seventeenth year. Both were well formed, and of comely features, but ...
— The Exemplary Novels of Cervantes • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
... be old women, but I'll take a chance on a guess that they are not. The millinery I caught a peep at looked too chic for a grandmother. I've got pretty good long-distance eyes, I'll have you know," ...
— Campfire Girls at Twin Lakes - The Quest of a Summer Vacation • Stella M. Francis
... "That's the worst of living in this big, still country—it makes one introspective, and so confoundedly conscious of what puny atoms we human beings are, after all. But there's less chance of sickness here than any place. Anyway, we've got to take a chance on things now and then, in the course of living our lives according to our lights. We're playing for a stake—and things that are worth having are never handed to us on a silver salver. Besides, I never ...
— North of Fifty-Three • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... hain't no chance on't. But if I had ten boys I would ruther have 'em wanderin' through them beautiful halls, full of the wonders of the world which the Lord made and give to His children for their amusement and comfort—I ...
— Samantha at the World's Fair • Marietta Holley
... framed panel picture was clamped against it. On taking it out, he found it was the picture that is now lying on the sofa. It was very dirty, and covered with mould; but he managed to clean it, and, to his great joy, saw that he had fallen by mere chance on the one thing for which he had been looking. Here was an authentic portrait of Mr. W. H., with his hand resting on the dedicatory page of the Sonnets, and on the frame itself could be faintly seen the name of the young man ...
— Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories • Oscar Wilde
... you fail to shine or triumph in your special line; if, let us say, your hopes are bent on some day being President, and folks ignore your proper worth, and say you've not a chance on earth—Cheer up! for in these stirring days Fame may be won in many ways. Consider, when your spirits fall, the case ...
— Indiscretions of Archie • P. G. Wodehouse
... and has its fixed rules, whereby, when we are well acquainted with them, we can pretty correctly tell how the trial will go. To-morrow, it seems, the die is to be cast, and in my judgment, without the least chance on our side. The militia will, I suppose, as usual, play the back-game, that is, get out of the scrape as fast as their legs can carry them. But that, you know, won't do for me. I am an old soldier, and cannot run: and I believe I have with me some brave fellows that will ...
— The Life of General Francis Marion • Mason Locke Weems
... time, when he was not fighting against the enemies of Ireland, Fionn was searching and hunting through the length and breadth of the country in the hope that he might again chance on his lovely lady from the Shi'. Through all that time he slept in misery each night and he rose each day to grief. Whenever he hunted he brought only the hounds that he trusted, Bran and Sceo'lan, Lomaire, Brod, and Lomlu; for if a fawn was chased each of these ...
— Irish Fairy Tales • James Stephens
... Harmony was fighting for time, anxious now to have the game called a draw, so that they might have another chance on their home grounds. Such yelling as took place. Harmony was loudly accused of weakening, and trying to crawl out of a tight hole. Loud calls were made for Big Bob at bat to knock one over the fence and lose the ...
— Jack Winters' Baseball Team - Or, The Rivals of the Diamond • Mark Overton
... the extravagances of a vivid but very unbalanced and barbaric style, in the praise of a poet who really represented the calmest classicism and the attempt to restore a Hellenic equilibrium in the mind. It is like watching a shaggy Scandinavian decorating a Greek statue washed up by chance on his shores. And while the strength of Goethe was a strength of completion and serenity, which Carlyle not only never found but never even sought, the weaknesses of Goethe were of a sort that did not draw the best out of Carlyle. The one civilised ...
— The Victorian Age in Literature • G. K. Chesterton
... rang off that she might have no chance on impulse to do herself mischief with her generous thoughtfulness for him. She felt rather mean, but not nearly so mean as she would have felt had she let the opportunity go by with no generous word said. "And no doubt my aversion for that little wretch," thought ...
— The Price She Paid • David Graham Phillips
... that would almost fell an ox. His plan was to wait beside the door in the morning until whoever brought him his food should have unlocked the door, then to strike him down, and while he was stunned, take a chance on escaping from ...
— The Ranger Boys and the Border Smugglers • Claude A. Labelle
... chance on ill-luck," he ran on, arguing aloud with himself concerning the possible consequences of betraying Mr. Hubbard's trust, "you'll be glad you were happy while it was possible; and if the fates make you the one person in a million, ...
— The Philistines • Arlo Bates
... the Twins, who had resigned themselves to having never a chance on the nine, found themselves suddenly called upon to pitch and catch in the game of the year; for the drubbing the regular pitcher had received had destroyed the confidence of the team in his ability to pitch a second time successfully against ...
— The Dozen from Lakerim • Rupert Hughes
... kid, that don't know wha I got ner what you fellers has got, ain't scared to take, a chance. Are yuh, kid? What d' yuh think of this pikin' bunch here that has seen Skeeter come in second and third more times 'n what he beat, and yet is afraid to take a chance on rosin' two bits? Whatd' yuh think of 'em? Ain't they an ...
— Cow-Country • B. M. Bower
... said, "Willie, you've solved the riddle. And it is just as I feared. The Germans have been alarmed. They know that they are detected. Now everything is plain enough—in a way. They had to warn all the members of the gang and they hadn't time to send messages. So they took a chance on the wireless. But they used a new cipher and resorted to a code. The use of the word 'rendezvous' indicates to my mind that they intend to flee. They're going to meet at the 'Balaklavan rendezvous' at nine. We've got to find where that is and get ...
— The Secret Wireless - or, The Spy Hunt of the Camp Brady Patrol • Lewis E. Theiss
... face," as one who saw him tells me,—and was making irresistible way against the odds when an Arab thrust a spear in his throat, and he fell off his horse dead. He sleeps now, as he always yearned to rest, in a soldier's grave, dug for him by chance on the continent whose innermost recesses he had ...
— Faces and Places • Henry William Lucy
... Rough lot, but you get a stroke of luck sometimes. I've got a chance on now—me and ...
— Lady Merton, Colonist • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... you understand, the girl must have got a chance on the sly to speak into the broadcasting horn. Now, all the big broadcasting stations are registered with the Government. And if secret ones are established the Government agents soon ...
— The Campfire Girls of Roselawn - A Strange Message from the Air • Margaret Penrose
... not going to take a chance on his pulling through, in the face of the advice of the doctors that only the girl's presence can stimulate him to a desire to live. I tell you, Hector McKaye, man, he's dying because he ...
— Kindred of the Dust • Peter B. Kyne
... did it, and Duncan says he saw me do it. Doubler isn't dead. At least he wasn't dead when I left the doctor with him at sundown. But he wasn't far from it, and if he dies without coming to it's likely that things will look bad for me. But because I knew he wasn't dead I took a chance on staying here. I am not allowing that I'm going to let anyone hang me for a thing I didn't do, and so if you're determined to get me without making sure that Doubler's going to have mourners immediately, ...
— The Trail to Yesterday • Charles Alden Seltzer
... Barbicane. "Putting every chance on our side, and after having so much despaired, I may say I think ...
— Jules Verne's Classic Books • Jules Verne
... you another visit. . . . My next visit to London will, I hope, be sufficiently free from other avocations to allow me to devote a good deal of time to the examination of your various treasures. Pray give my kind remembrances to Mrs. Croker.—I constantly think of my great good luck in lighting by chance on so agreeable a dinner-party that day. The only drawback was, that it spoiled me—both mentally and physically speaking—for the dinner ...
— A Walk from London to Fulham • Thomas Crofton Croker
... with Cleopatra, Harmachis?" Charmion asked of me when I met her by chance on that day of return. "On some new mission of betrayal? Or was it but ...
— Cleopatra • H. Rider Haggard
... there. Here the wheel is common, and the fiery stake; and under this king they drown men by the score in Paris river, Seine yclept. But the English are as peremptory in hanging and drowning for a light fault; so travellers report. Finally, a true-hearted Frenchman, when ye chance on one, is a man as near perfect as earth affords; and such a man is my Denys, ...
— The Cloister and the Hearth • Charles Reade
... to take their chance on that," he said, rising with the air of a man who has rounded out a discussion. ...
— Paradise Garden - The Satirical Narrative of a Great Experiment • George Gibbs |
