"Chance on" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... of the sailors, but trade was bad at that time, and she became ill, and dies as well. Thus the family were left without any support, until a Mr Gray, a Quaker, comes on the scene, and takes them under his wing. He is also a shipowner, and he gives Peter a chance on one of his ships. However, there are various mishaps with this ship, and Peter and his friend Jim arrive in Shetland, an archipelago in the far north of Britain, where Peter discovers that he has relatives. ...
— Peter Trawl - The Adventures of a Whaler • W. H. G. Kingston
... asked Endicott. "We could take a chance on snake-bite, dump out the booze, and use the ...
— The Texan - A Story of the Cattle Country • James B. Hendryx
... 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 is at present confined, till he can bring better proofs on his behalf of the reasons ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys
... at first in the least to suspect Lord Mowbray's sincerity, she was, as I rejoiced to perceive, little interested by his professions: she was glad he was reformed, for his sake; but for her own part, her vanity was not flattered. There seemed to be little chance on this plea of persuading her to take charge of him for life. My heart beat again with hope—how I admired her!—and I almost forgave Lord Mowbray. My indignation against him, I must own, was not always as steadily proportioned to his ...
— Tales & Novels, Vol. IX - [Contents: Harrington; Thoughts on Bores; Ormond] • Maria Edgeworth
... take it that you are willing to please at any rate your neighbour, so that he may kindle a fire for you in your need, may prove himself a ready helpmate in good fortune, or if you chance on evil and are stumbling, may friendlily stand ...
— The Memorabilia - Recollections of Socrates • Xenophon
... signal; -L-P D-A-R-L was all I got, but it was enough. How you ever got the other side of the barrier had me wingin', but you were there right enough, and yellin' for help. Ran-los had been doin' some repairs on a head support an' his weldin' machine was still there. Takin' an awful chance on there bein' air on the other side, I butted it up against the wall, shot the flame against the steel, and when she was soft enough had some of the Weenies smash her in with sledge-hammers. First thing I see is you, stretched out in a pool o' blood, with a couple of those yellow ...
— The Great Dome on Mercury • Arthur Leo Zagat
... 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 is ...
— Kindred of the Dust • Peter B. Kyne
... weeks continued to seem much like others, and if he had then died (as some cousins hoped he would, and as, indeed, there seemed to be a good chance on the day that he swallowed the pebble at Bournemouth) I should have no more to write about. There would be an end of little Joseph so far as you and I are concerned; and as for the family of Duggleton, why any one but the man who ...
— On Nothing & Kindred Subjects • Hilaire Belloc
... still completely hidden, it is no less strange to think that the prospect of the Austrian marriage, destined to be so fatal to the Empire, should be suddenly discussed in a five minutes' talk between two men who met by chance on the steps of the Tuileries, at the very moment when the unhappy Josephine was about to leave this spot which had been so long her home. When we reflect on the course of all the following events, we may perhaps ...
— The Happy Days of the Empress Marie Louise • Imbert De Saint-Amand
... 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
... looking more closely, he discovered that a 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 ...
— Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories • Oscar Wilde
... take a chance on being clear of the enemy when we go up," Lord Hastings explained. "But we've got to get Davis out of that engine room the first ...
— The Boy Allies Under the Sea • Robert L. Drake
... rosewood sofa, intent on the pages of a yellow-covered volume which he held above his perfumed head; "come, have done with 'Ten Thousand a Year,' and let us have a last game of cards. We shall be in New Orleans to-morrow, so here's our last chance on ...
— Eventide - A Series of Tales and Poems • Effie Afton
... at Windygates—now that Anne had apparently obliterated all trace of herself—was becoming serious. The one chance on which the discovery of Arnold's position depended, was the chance that accident might reveal the truth in the lapse of time. In this posture of circumstances, Sir Patrick now resolved—if nothing happened to relieve Blanche's anxiety ...
— Man and Wife • Wilkie Collins
... Countess Guiccioli observed me poring over Don Juan, she stumbled by mere chance on the 137th stanza of the First Canto, and asked me what it meant. I told her, 'Nothing,—but your husband is coming.' As I said this in Italian with some emphasis, she started up in a fright, and said, 'Oh, my God, ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 6 • Lord Byron
... him, he'd 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 ...
— The Mystery Of The Boule Cabinet - A Detective Story • Burton Egbert Stevenson
... like to believe otherwise, wouldn't they? I mean, at least believe they have a fighting chance on Earth." ...
— The Burning Bridge • Poul William Anderson
... standards 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, ...
— None Other Gods • Robert Hugh Benson
... 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 she, "makes me ...
— The Price She Paid • David Graham Phillips
... 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 ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 14 • Robert Kerr
... when she came round from Windsor in a schooner, and it was a storm,—may-happen he saved her life in it. And Mary after, Mary'd meet him at church, and in the garden, and on the river; 't was by pure chance on her part, and he was forever in the way. Then my mother, innocent of it all, went to Edinboro', as you know, and I was married and out of the reach, and Mary kept the house those two months with Mrs. March of the Hill ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 11, No. 63, January, 1863 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various
... could never stand the disgrace. But what if the truth were to leak out through Mary—that would be infinitely worse. Her thoughts went around in a torturing circle and brought her to no decision. Should she make a clean breast of it now and have nothing more to fear, or should she take a chance on Jo's never ...
— The Campfire Girls at Camp Keewaydin • Hildegard G. Frey
... until the records of our work could be made complete it was a wise precaution not to take a chance on both of us getting killed at the same time. We never flew together but once. From 1900 to 1908 the total time in the air for both Wilbur and myself, all put together, was only ...
— Aircraft and Submarines - The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present-Day - Uses of War's Newest Weapons • Willis J. Abbot
... guileless-looking youth made a fool of me. For Rupert knew that I had met Mr. Rassendyll the year before at Dresden; Rupert was keeping a watchful eye on all that passed in Strelsau; Rupert had procured the fellow his fine testimonials and sent him to me, in the hope that he would chance on something of advantage to his employer. My resolve to take him to Wintenberg may have been hoped for, but could scarcely have been counted on; it was the added luck that waits so often on the plans of a ...
— Rupert of Hentzau - From The Memoirs of Fritz Von Tarlenheim: The Sequel to - The Prisoner of Zenda • Anthony Hope
... 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 bones of twenty ...
— The Magic Skin • Honore de Balzac
... you know me by sight, Mr. Sabre. I've seen you about the town. I'm the coroner's officer at Tidborough. You're rather wanted down there. I've been to Brighton after you and followed here and just took a lucky chance on finding you about this part. You're rather wanted down there. The fact is that young woman that's been living with you's been ...
— If Winter Comes • A.S.M. Hutchinson
... meant to do his best in helping them to procure the material for a meal. Any creature, beast or bird, that should be so unfortunate as to come within clutching distance of his gaunt jaws, would have but little chance on that particular morning of escaping ...
— The Cliff Climbers - A Sequel to "The Plant Hunters" • Captain Mayne Reid
... hours. I came down gradually, approaching within striking distance west of Australia, then finally nosed in and took my chance on stretching it to one of the ten mile strips for a powerless landing. I did it in Australia. But if I had not had orthodox controls, had I even gotten that far, I would have churned up a good part of the Coral Sea between Sydney and New Zealand. You see, you've got ...
— What Need of Man? • Harold Calin
... 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 ...
— Roman Holidays and Others • W. D. Howells
... especially, of the angler's art. Still following the stranger, with my eyes intently fixed on every movement of his rod and line, and with not so much as a chance fragment of my attention to spare for the rough path along which I was walking, I stepped by chance on the loose overhanging earth at the edge of the bank, and fell into the stream ...
— The Law and the Lady • Wilkie Collins
... about the country for a couple of days, I stumbled by chance on just such a spot as I had been wishing to find—a rustic village not too far away. It was not more than twenty-five minutes' walk from a small station, less than one hour by ...
— Birds in Town and Village • W. H. Hudson
... words 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 with ...
— Dio's Rome • Cassius Dio
... 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 gun nest that was ...
— "Same old Bill, eh Mable!" • Edward Streeter
... stranger, "I'll take a chance on it. I have to trust somebody, if I'm ever to get anywhere. I picked you out because I liked your face." He gave Hal another searching look as he walked. "Your smile isn't that of a cheat. But you're young—so let me remind you of the importance of ...
— King Coal - A Novel • Upton Sinclair
... is 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 in ...
— The Worlds Greatest Books, Volume XIII. - Religion and Philosophy • Various
... in the winter. It was in the winter following, again by chance on a holiday, but Christmas this time, that I quit. They don't have much cold down in that country and usually but little snow; but this year there had been a lot,—soft, wet snow, half rain, that melted on the ground and made the roads almost impassable. For that reason we'd ...
— The Dominant Dollar • Will Lillibridge
... gone upstairs to the members' smoking room, in a comfortable corner of which they were lazily continuing their conversation. It turned by chance on a certain barrister of Sydney's inn, a Mr. Barrington Baynes, whom one of the party not incorrectly described as "that beautiful, bumptious, and briefless barrister, ...
— Name and Fame - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant
... made a clean job of it. And yesterday morning the girl played into my hands. She rode over to the Sawtooth, and I got her at Thurman's place, on her way home, and figured I'd marry her and take a chance on keeping her quiet afterwards. I'd have been down the Pass in another two hours and heading for the nearest county seat. She'd have married me, too. She knows I'd have killed her if she didn't—which I would. I've been square with her—she'll tell you that. I ...
— The Quirt • B.M. Bower
... him angrily: "Oh, cut out that love-and-gratitude talk! I want money, do you understand? MONEY! You think I won't dare go through with this, and so does Merkle. You, neither of you, can understand why I'll take a chance on 'the chair' just to make you pay. Well, that's because you are men, and because you are healthy and happy and have something to live for. But what have I got? I'm sick. I'm going to pieces. I'll be gone ...
— The Auction Block • Rex Beach
... 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, "I am jealous of Mr. Beecher—he preaches ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 7 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Orators • Elbert Hubbard
... Well, General, if you ask me, I fancy you had too much slack on the water. You'll have a better chance on the sharp stream below. Let me carry your rod, sir. (Hitches fly in small ring.) No wonder, General, the fish got off: the barb's ...
— Lines in Pleasant Places - Being the Aftermath of an Old Angler • William Senior
... or four times and I'd start believing it," he said. "And Dr. Harnosh of Hosh would believe it the first time; he's been talking to himself ever since the Lady Dallona started her experimental work here. Lord Virzal, I'm going to take a chance on you. The Lady Dallona is still carnate, or was four days ago, and the same for Dirzed. They both went into hiding after the discarnation feast of Garnon of Roxor, to escape the enmity of the Statisticalists. Two days ...
— Last Enemy • Henry Beam Piper
... I say he would have been no man to leave her after that; only a moment was allowed him, and it was their last chance on earth. He took it. His arm went round his beloved, and he drew ...
— The Little Minister • J.M. Barrie
... never 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 service in his own tongue in a surplice, or celebrated the Latin ...
— Clare Avery - A Story of the Spanish Armada • Emily Sarah Holt
... 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 ...
— The Dozen from Lakerim • Rupert Hughes
... black shadow, the better that I might do honor to my lady's memory and bring surer retribution on him that had been my lord, for, certes, I, vassal to my lady alone, no longer owed allegiance to her murderer. Now at last was come my chance on this night when he had brought him home a new wife to take the place of her that was but a little while in earth. Poor ladies, both! and if the thought that the blessed Jesu was merciful sometimes made me ...
— A Williams Anthology - A Collection of the Verse and Prose of Williams College, 1798-1910 • Compiled by Edwin Partridge Lehman and Julian Park
... can torment me a little," he said, smiling, "but the forces arrayed against you are too strong, and you have not a chance on your side. It would be monstrous to suppose that you should go on making me ...
— Cousin Henry • Anthony Trollope
... but in no great degree removed from it, was the hope of being able to entwine into that future the actuality of Hsi Mean, a very desirable maiden whom it was Cheng Lin's practice to meet by chance on the river bank when his heavily-weighted duties for the day ...
— Kai Lung's Golden Hours • Ernest Bramah
... right without waiting for me to translate it. What he wanted to get at, right at the jump off, was whether Paula knew LaChaise had come down to talk about her. Was he to consider Mr. LaChaise her emissary? I took a chance on emissaire for that and it ...
— Mary Wollaston • Henry Kitchell Webster
... 'twas her chance on some nettles to light (Things, till then, she had scarcely heard nam'd); The vulgar intruders call'd forth all her spite; In a transport of rage ...
— Books for Children - The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 3 • Charles and Mary Lamb
... glorious spectacle, isn't it, Bunch, to watch this mouldy writer, with a big newspaper behind him and columns of space at his command, throwing his hooks into actors and actresses who haven't a chance on earth ...
— You Can Search Me • Hugh McHugh
... loss of his death to the man he had helped, and smiled ruefully. Yet the request for the meeting might be genuine and important. He had to take a chance on it and meet his ex-assistant and future partner somewhere far away from ...
— The Man Who Staked the Stars • Charles Dye
... 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
... wed to-day; with much beside, Which now I have not leisure to repeat. I, on the instant, hastening to find you, Run to the Forum to inform you of it: There, failing, climb an eminence, look round: No Pamphilus: I light by chance on Byrrhia; Inquire; he hadn't seen you. Vex'd at heart, What's to be done? thought I. Returning thence A doubt arose within me. Ha! bad cheer, The old man melancholy, and a wedding Clapp'd up ...
— The Comedies of Terence • Publius Terentius Afer
... poem is "Who in Russia Finds Life Good?" Seven peasants meet by chance on the highway, and fall into a dispute on that theme. One says, "the landed proprietor"; another, "the official"; a third, "the priest." Others say, respectively, "the fat-bellied merchant," "the minister of the empire," "the Tzar." All of the peasants ...
— A Survey of Russian Literature, with Selections • Isabel Florence Hapgood
... 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
... questions about climate, and every time he asked that I wrote that it was salubrious. You see," she explained, with a sly little air, "in the children's geographies the climate of a country is nearly always salubrious. So I took a chance on every country. ...
— The Wrong Woman • Charles D. Stewart
... pretty rotten," reflected Coquenil with a whimsical smile. "My hair is burned off and my eyebrows are gone and about half my skin, but—I guess I'll take a chance on a burn or two more ...
— Through the Wall • Cleveland Moffett
... related that the thief had been caught. Without saying a word, the duchess opened her jewel-case. Having worked a year, and having saved a few dollars, I married (with) my Mary. Having crossed the river, he found the thief. Looking (having looked) by chance on the floor, she saw some book, forgotten probably by a ...
— The Esperanto Teacher - A Simple Course for Non-Grammarians • Helen Fryer
... 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 ...
— Deathworld • Harry Harrison
... to keep our main force around Hunters' Hall while we're demonstrating at the Municipal Building," Corkscrew Finnegan said. "We can't take a chance on Ravick's ...
— Four-Day Planet • Henry Beam Piper
... 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 job in his ...
— Abe and Mawruss - Being Further Adventures of Potash and Perlmutter • Montague Glass
... again, was now eager to devise a means of finding her way privately to an interview with Grace. It should be done without loss of time—on that very day, if possible; by the next day at latest. She looked round her mechanically, pondering how to reach the end in view. Her eyes rested by chance on the ...
— The New Magdalen • Wilkie Collins
... you know. Nor I him. But then I've seen his picture more than once and I know all about him. He's keeping low but he took a chance on me. I was just a whiskey drummer last night, you know, and happened to let it out that I was riding this way this morning on my way to Dry Town. So Jimmie slipped ...
— Six Feet Four • Jackson Gregory
... 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
... underwriters will 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
... the lake this morning, and the tidings may have come up by some fellow-traveller. He would drop word with some of the boys at Ballintubber as he passed by. And they might have thought it likely that I should go to Headford. They have had their chance on this occasion, and they have not done any ...
— The Landleaguers • Anthony Trollope
... when he had been at work to build up the Binet Company; but it follows that they were days of extraordinary prosperity. He comments regretfully upon the fact that Bertrand des Amis should have died by ill-chance on the very eve of so ...
— Scaramouche - A Romance of the French Revolution • Rafael Sabatini
... I in its peaceable womb, Be laid with my sorrows asleep? Should LAVINIA but chance on my tomb - I could die if I thought she ...
— The Man of Feeling • Henry Mackenzie
... in New 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 ...
— Inca Land - Explorations in the Highlands of Peru • Hiram Bingham
... a very different quarter—"I had to refer the other day to Aristophanes, and came by chance on a curious Speaking-pot story in the Vespae, which ...
— Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam • Omar Khayyam
... last night when I told Goodell that this was something of a forlorn hope," he said. "Are you ready to take a chance on getting your throat cut or being ...
— Raw Gold - A Novel • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... just have to take a chance on that. That goes right back to what we were talking about this morning. They might be anywhere, so the chance of hitting one is very small. It isn't like hitting the Sirius, because we knew within ...
— Spacehounds of IPC • Edward Elmer Smith
... 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, it's a dead sure thing that some one's going to get hurt. I reckon that's all. ...
— The Trail to Yesterday • Charles Alden Seltzer
... the supreme moment of Perry's early life, the ultimate chance on which he risked his fortunes. He rose and looked first at Betty, where she sat weakly, her face aghast at this new complication, and then at the individual who swayed from side to side on his chair, uncertainly ...
— O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1920 • Various
... right up in feerful dignity, and the buggy and I sez that one feerful word to him, "Gamblin'!" He sort a quailed. But sez he, "you had better take a five-dollar chance on the ...
— Samantha at Saratoga • Marietta Holley
... be travelling on the Emperor's business, but we knew him very well as one of the most daring and successful spies that Germany had ever employed in this country. One of our people picked him up quite by chance on his arrival in London, and shadowed him to Dalston, where we promptly laid him by the heels when ...
— The Man with the Clubfoot • Valentine Williams
... 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 ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... 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 planned ...
— Faces and Places • Henry William Lucy
... "you must try to see it from our point of view. This production's cost us thousands of dollars. If we bankrupt ourselves before the opening night it will be a bad business for everybody. You ought to see that. The costumes are very nice, I admit that. But remember we took a chance on it. We waited for them with the idea that you'd cooperate with us in ...
— The Real Adventure • Henry Kitchell Webster
... the hotel on a beeline," Scotty suggested. "No sense in taking a chance on getting roughed ...
— The Egyptian Cat Mystery • Harold Leland Goodwin
... 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
... Puritan divines. What made your section great, dominant, glorious in the history of our common country? To what class of your citizens—more than to any other, I think—do you owe the proud memories of your past, and your strength, achievements, and culture in the present? Who had the first chance on your destiny, your character, your development? Why, the Puritan preacher, of course; the man who in every parish inculcated the fear of God in your fathers' souls, obedience to law, civil and divine, the ...
— Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z • Various
... 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
... he 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
... along the road he speculated on the best method of entering camp. He had been late several times recently, and he knew that were he caught again his name would probably be stricken from the list of officer candidates. He wondered if he had not better dismiss the taxi and take a chance on passing the sentry in the dark. Still, officers often rode past the ...
— The Beautiful and Damned • F. Scott Fitzgerald
... that nice but rather stupid fellow Arthur, what on earth could he be doing at the Atherstones'? Had he—Page—come by chance on a secret,—dramatic and lamentable!—when, on the preceding Saturday, as he was passing along the skirts of the wood bounding the Atherstones' little property, on his way to one of the Coryston hill-farms, he had perceived in the distance—himself masked ...
— The Coryston Family • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... 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 not. I was ...
— Flash-lights from the Seven Seas • William L. Stidger
... are looking at me," said Dick, with a grim little laugh. "No, Al, you're right. We haven't a chance on earth to escape." ...
— The Last of the Chiefs - A Story of the Great Sioux War • Joseph Altsheler
... to taste those five hundred dollar mouthfuls. It happened in this way: as the Boodah's searchlights, destroyed in the battle, were not yet repaired, in the interval some lawless ships took the chance on dark nights to skulk past with extinguished lights; now, the captain of Frankl's chartered steamer had that bright idea (being of adventurous turn), when night fell forty knots east of the Boodah, so he came to Frankl, ...
— The Lord of the Sea • M. P. Shiel
... "Nous avons recherche le plaisir," says Rousseau, in one of his own inimitable antitheses, "et le bonheur a fui loin de nous." ["We have pursued pleasure, and happiness has fled far from our reach."] But in the pursuit of Pleasure we sometimes chance on Wisdom, and Wisdom leads us to the right track, which, if it take us not so far as Happiness, is sure at least ...
— The Disowned, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... on the accelerator and the truck shot forward madly and tore into the town with shells breaking about it. Having escaped thus far they were ready to take another chance on the ...
— The War Romance of the Salvation Army • Evangeline Booth and Grace Livingston Hill
... long trip across "the big flat," as he called the valley between the Continental Divide and the Cascade Range, stopped at Cinnebar to see what was going on. In less than three days he sold his horse and saddle and took a chance on a leased mine. At the end of a year he was half owner in a tunnel that was yielding a fair grade of ore and promised to pay, but he was not content. A year in one place was a long time for him, and he was already ...
— They of the High Trails • Hamlin Garland
... living a world[42] illogical, irrational, personal or divine, that those who do not believe in God, or believe that they do not believe in Him, believe nevertheless in some little pocket god or even devil of their own, or in an omen, or in a horseshoe picked up by chance on the roadside and carried about with them to bring them good luck and defend them from that very reason whose loyal and devoted henchmen ...
— Tragic Sense Of Life • Miguel de Unamuno
... envy not your chance on their returning; When, scarred with war, they come from overseas, There should be trouble in those Seats of Learning Where you sat tight and took ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, March 29, 1916 • Various
... old, agrees that "it is better to dwell alone in the wilderness than with an angry and contentious woman." The father doesn't mind getting her back, because he keeps the original purchase price and will also collect from the next brave that wants to take a chance on her; why should he worry? In a few instances braves have been known to trade wives and throw in an extra pony or silver belt to settle all difficulties. The missionaries are doing much to discourage this ...
— I Married a Ranger • Dama Margaret Smith
... this way, Mr. Ellins: Piddie had it put up to him and wouldn't even hang it on the hook; but the guy that brings it looked so mournful that I butts in and takes a chance on passin' it along to ...
— Torchy • Sewell Ford
... work. It was his task to extract from these prisoners admissions which would justify their being sent to prison if they were citizens, or being deported if they were aliens. There was of course seldom any way to distinguish between citizens and aliens; you just had to take a chance on it, proceeding on the certainty that all were dangerous. Many years ago, when Peter had been working for Pericles Priam, they had spent several months in a boarding house, and you could tell when there was going to be beef-steak for dinner, because you heard the cook ...
— 100%: The Story of a Patriot • Upton Sinclair
... knew that 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 ball ...
— Jack Winters' Baseball Team - Or, The Rivals of the Diamond • Mark Overton
... our way on our trembling mounts, trying vainly to push through quickly to escape it all. But it was no good. We had stumbled by chance on the actual route taken by an avenging column, and the men who had been mad with lust to loot the Palace, and had been turned off almost as an afterthought to relieve co-religionists, had vented their wrath on everything. The farther and farther we penetrated the more hideous did the ruins ...
— Indiscreet Letters From Peking • B. L. Putman Weale
... of mind, was the Awakening of the Will, which I found as interesting as any novel or drama, or series of active adventures which I have ever read or experienced. I can remember when most deeply engaged in it, re-reading DE QUINCEY'S "Confessions of an Opium Eater." I took it by chance on my birthday, August 15, which was also his, and as I read I longed from my very heart that he were alive, that I might consult with him on the marvelous Fairyland which it seemed to me had been discovered—and then I remembered how Dr. TUCKEY, ...
— The Mystic Will • Charles Godfrey Leland
... Taking a chance on the liver diagnosis, he had out the attenuated garrison, and drilled it, both mounted and dismounted, first on the hilltop—where they made the walls re-echo to the clang of grounded butts—and then on the plain below, with the gate wide open in their rear and one man ...
— Rung Ho! • Talbot Mundy
... I was the child of actors, and they died, and there was enough money to bring me up and educate me, and give me my chance on the stage.... And I wasn't good enough.... I was too much myself. Couldn't quite be other characters. I don't know if you understand.... But ... then a man got infatuated with me and married me.... ...
— The Wind Bloweth • Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne
... take a chance on de light," said Larry the Bat plaintively; "'cause I had ter frisk youse." He turned off the light again. "Sure, she's a slick one!" Larry the Bat, his left hand free again, turned his flashlight upon the detective. "Youse can put yer flippers ...
— The Further Adventures of Jimmie Dale • Frank L. Packard
... 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. ...
— Martin Eden • Jack London
... 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, but he could not. Then the Moth-worm ...
— Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel • Ignatius Donnelly
... came out, my stepmother came on the scene. She's about as remarkable a creature as you'll chance on between now and the blue moon. She has one idea in her head, the glory of the Beauleighs. I believe she's as mad as a hatter about it. She was one of the Stryke & Wigrams, the bankers, a Miss Wigram; and I think, don't ...
— The Admirable Tinker - Child of the World • Edgar Jepson
... 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 ...
— The Diary of Samuel Pepys • Samuel Pepys
... tied their kites to the basket. They had never tried them at home; it might be a good chance on the hills. Solomon John had put in some fishing-poles; Elizabeth Eliza, a book of poetry. Mr. Peterkin did not like sitting on the ground, and proposed taking two chairs, one for himself and one for anybody else. The little boys were perfectly happy; they jumped in and out of the wagon a dozen times, ...
— The Peterkin Papers • Lucretia P Hale
... at her queerly and laughed. "I'll take a chance on that," he said, and went chuckling back to the camera. To have a girl absolutely ignore his position and authority, and treat him in that off-hand manner of equality was a new experience to Robert ...
— Jean of the Lazy A • B. M. Bower
... The chance on which the allies turned their backs was quickly seized by the enemy. One of the brightest pages in modern military annals is that which records how the genius and indomitable energy of one man improvised a resolute ...
— The Thin Red Line; and Blue Blood • Arthur Griffiths
... again. He knew Emerson Crawford well. He was a level-headed cowman and his word was as good as his bond. If Em said this young man was trustworthy, the shipper was willing to take a chance on him. The honest eye, the open face, the straightforward manner of the youth recommended his ability and integrity. The shipper was badly in need of a man. He made up his ...
— Gunsight Pass - How Oil Came to the Cattle Country and Brought a New West • William MacLeod Raine
... Steve felt he couldn't take a chance on rescuing Orvil, there had to be a good reason. The only reason Rick could think of was that Steve had decided there was more at stake ...
— The Flying Stingaree • Harold Leland Goodwin
... the play started at 5:30 in the afternoon. Our orders were to blow holes in the parapet wire which ran in a zigzag direction every way out in front, for the purpose of enabling the infantry to get through when they got over. Our ammunition was of the best; we now took no chance on any defective goods. We had 20 rounds of shell for each gun. When we got the order—"Fire!" gaps were torn in the wire by my gun, and the other gun had blown away some small ridges. We were going strong ...
— S.O.S. Stand to! • Reginald Grant
... good thing for that girl to be married and settled down. She seems to have picked out Bradish. Mayo, you're one of my kind, and I want to help you. I'll take a chance on my right to perform the ceremony. What say if we get Bradish back in here and swap a marriage for what he can tell ...
— Blow The Man Down - A Romance Of The Coast - 1916 • Holman Day
... 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 species ...
— Crime: Its Cause and Treatment • Clarence Darrow |
