"False alarm" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... sleep much. They tried to, but every now and then one of them would awaken and, sitting up on his cot, would listen intently. He thought he had heard someone approaching through the bushes, but each time it was a false alarm. The fire was kept going brightly, in the hope Frank might happen to see it from ...
— Frank Roscoe's Secret • Allen Chapman
... anything about Cullen," Tommy answered with a grin, "but I know that the man Katz is a false alarm. You should have seen him take to his heels last night, when the train robbers rushed through the camp. I'd like to know what ...
— Boy Scouts on the Great Divide - or, The Ending of the Trail • Archibald Lee Fletcher
... having been called, and began to upbraid me, on whose friendship she ought to have been able to rely, for having served her so ill under such circumstances! In vain did I reiterate that it had been only a false alarm, and that she required to have her strength recruited. "It is not diminished," said she; "misfortune gives us additional strength. Elisabeth was with the King, and I was asleep,—I who am determined to perish by his side! ...
— Memoirs Of The Court Of Marie Antoinette, Queen Of France, Complete • Madame Campan
... of Periodical Festivities to the Municipality of Dieppe, was marched down into East Looe, to the wonder and delight of the inhabitants, who had just recovered from the shock of Gunner Spettigew's false alarm, and were in a condition to be pleased with trifles. As the Company tramped along the street, Captain Pond pointed out the Town Hall to ...
— Wandering Heath • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... to feel The secrets I should shudder to reveal; When told her friend was by a parent ask'd, 'Fed you the swine?'—Good heaven! how I am task'd! - What! can you smile? Ah! smile not at the grief That woos your pity and demands relief." "Trifles, my love: you take a false alarm; Think, I beseech you, better of the Farm: Duties in every state demand your care, And light are those that will require it there. Fix on the Youth a favouring eye, and these, To him pertaining, or as his, will ...
— Tales • George Crabbe
... future. How would the Philistines get at the fireworks? Would they change their minds, and instead of drowning them apply a slow match and blow up the shed? or would it, after all, turn out to be only a false alarm, raised by the boy Crump for the sake of the ...
— The Triple Alliance • Harold Avery
... appeased, and to this great fright a profound calm succeeded. No explosion had been heard; and they saw that it must have been a false alarm, so each returned home, thinking no longer of the fire, but agitated by another fear. The robbers may have profited by the absence of the inhabitants to pillage the houses, but as luck would have it no mischance of this kind had ...
— The Private Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Constant
... a terrible fellow," said Peter pleasantly, "but this is a false alarm, Carl. I cannot spy your bugbear anywhere among the skaters. Ah, there he is! Why, what is ...
— Hans Brinker - or The Silver Skates • Mary Mapes Dodge
... know this is only a false alarm. There are always a few stray ones about at this time; the fly will not be "up" for ten days at least. When it does come, the stream, so smooth and glassy now, will be "like a pot a-boiling," as the villagers say. You would ...
— A Cotswold Village • J. Arthur Gibbs
... place which soon absorbed her attention. Lane's letter announcing the opening of the campaign proved a false alarm, although, from a subsequent letter, she learned that he had had experiences not trifling in their nature. On the rainy night, early in April, that would ever be memorable to her, she had said to Merwyn, "The army ...
— An Original Belle • E. P. Roe
... a moment by the false alarm of a twisting seam, soon returned to her guns. With a skill Annabel was forced to admire, she veiled her ...
— Other People's Business - The Romantic Career of the Practical Miss Dale • Harriet L. Smith
... made good times of it. We often went after wood, and occasionally we knocked over a deer. We had a target out on the lake, and this we practised on, making ourselves rather expert cannoneers. Now and then they rowsed us out on a false alarm, but I know of no serious attempt's being made by the enemy, to ...
— Ned Myers • James Fenimore Cooper
... Kingslake before the Turkish pasha, I felt that the honor of my race and my own haughty dignity were better served by insisting on social equality even to a colonel, and stuck doggedly to the adobe brick. The rumor proved a false alarm anyway. No doubt the great man had turned over in ...
— Tramping Through Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras - Being the Random Notes of an Incurable Vagabond • Harry A. Franck
... an exceedingly anxious one. From my own recollection, I believe that every antelope in South Africa has to run for its life every one or two days upon an average, and that he starts or gallops under the influence of a false alarm many times in a day. Those who have crouched at night by the side of pools in the desert, in order to have a shot at the beasts that frequent them, see strange scenes of animal life; how the creatures gambol at one ...
— Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development • Francis Galton
... this very minute. Whatever there is to face, I'll face it for you, so get this into your head and go to sleep. Nothing can get to you—neither man nor devil—until it has first passed by me. There, now—don't sob so; don't, you'll hurt yourself. There's nothing to cry about—it's all a false alarm." ...
— The Wheel of Life • Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow
... the window, her heart beating a little faster. "What three people know, three hundred are likely to know sooner or later. It may be a false alarm, but father is in a fury about something. He must not be told the news until he is in ...
— The Story Of Waitstill Baxter • By Kate Douglas Wiggin
... infliction of a very heavy fine. If anyone is caught doing it now without cause he is made to pay richly for his mischief, and quite rightly too. Yet it does happen sometimes that men and engine are summoned on a false alarm, and when they arrive they find only a smouldering chimney, or perhaps even only a smoky one, and the people who have called them up have been needlessly alarmed. At Hampstead, in the north of London, where the ground is very high, there is a great tower rising many feet into the ...
— The Children's Book of London • Geraldine Edith Mitton
... and indignant reproof, that embellish his other productions. He might, and did, think wrongly on these subjects, but he never wrote what he did not believe to be true, and, therefore, must be acquitted of all charges of servility or dishonesty. The False Alarm was published in 1770, and "intended," says Mr. Boswell, "to justify the conduct of the ministry, and their majority in the house of commons, for having virtually assumed it as an axiom, that the expulsion of a member of parliament was equivalent to exclusion, and thus having declared colonel ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 6 - Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons • Samuel Johnson
... We had scarcely been in the water five minutes, when some voice in-board cried out, "A shark! a shark!" In an instant every one of the swimmers came tumbling up the ship's sides, half mad with fright, the gallant black among the rest. It was a false alarm. We felt angry with ourselves for being frightened, angry with those who had frightened us, and furious with those who had laughed at us. In another moment we were all again in the water, the black and ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 4, September, 1850 • Various
... alarum, larum[obs3], alarm bell, tocsin, alerts, beat of drum, sound of trumpet, note of alarm, hue and cry, fire cross, signal of distress; blue lights; war-cry, war- whoop; warning &c. 668; fogsignal, foghorn; yellow flag; danger signal; red light, red flag; fire bell; police whistle. false alarm, cry of wolf; bug-bear, bugaboo. V. give the alarm, raise the alarm, sound the alarm, turn in the alarm, beat the alarm, give an alarm, raise an alarm, sound an alarm, turn in an alarm, beat an alarm &c. n.; alarm; warn &c. 668; ring the tocsin; battre la generale[Fr]; cry wolf. Adj. alarming ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... But it was a false alarm. The visitor proved to be a young gentleman named Theed, aged about twenty-one, who was devoted to music and sometimes sang duets with her. She would have none of his duets to-night. She scarcely smiled when receiving him, and would scarcely condescend ...
— Fan • Henry Harford
... know we are neither dangerous nor hostile, but they do not know as much about those on the other side of the creek. While the advance of the warriors is not yet sufficient to threaten 'em, it's enough to make 'em suspicious, and so they are flying away slowly, ready to return if it be a false alarm." ...
— The Rulers of the Lakes - A Story of George and Champlain • Joseph A. Altsheler
... finish of a long distance race; for the steady plodding horse will almost invariably prove the better stayer of the two. In hunting, the pace will not always hold a horse, because hounds may check at any moment, the start to a "holloa" may prove a false alarm, and leaving out the uncertain behaviour of foxes, a sudden stoppage may be caused by an impossible fence, river, railway, or by a variety of causes which would amply prove the fallacy of the pace holding a hard puller in the hunting field. As pulling ...
— The Horsewoman - A Practical Guide to Side-Saddle Riding, 2nd. Ed. • Alice M. Hayes
... winter, when Washington was at Morristown. Now, there were only four guards at the headquarters,—two at the front of the house, and two at the back. But the most careful preparations were made in case the enemy should show itself, and now and then a false alarm showed the perfection of the discipline ...
— Stories of New Jersey • Frank Richard Stockton
... possibly escape it. For it is in the nature of all defensive measures to be sharp and vigorous under the impressions of the first alarm, and to relax by degrees, until at length the danger, by not operating instantly, comes to appear as a false alarm,—so much so, that the next menacing appearance will look less formidable, and will be less provided against. But to those who are on the offensive it is not necessary to be always alert. Possibly it is more their interest ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12) • Edmund Burke
... was not to be found, Dick was reproved for giving a false alarm; and they all jumped over the stones of the old wall, and ran up the hill towards the walnut-grove, where woodchucks were sure to be as thick ...
— The Nursery, March 1877, Vol. XXI. No. 3 - A Monthly Magazine for Youngest Readers • Various
... to the grocer, and acquainted him that it was a false alarm, and that the porter ...
— Old Saint Paul's - A Tale of the Plague and the Fire • William Harrison Ainsworth
... you! Ain't there a race in this country long enough for you to win? A mile and a half ought to give you a chance to open up and step, but what do you do? You come last, just beginning to warm up and go some! Sometimes I think I ought to sell you to a soap factory, you clumsy false alarm, you ugly old fraud, you cross between a mud turtle and a ...
— Old Man Curry - Race Track Stories • Charles E. (Charles Emmett) Van Loan
... There's just no telling how soon those fellows may be out from Verde, and when they come we want to know it. The Indians have their sentries out, so they evidently expect them. Watch them like a hawk, but don't give any false alarm or make any noise. Let me sleep until it begins to get light, then call me. Now, can ...
— Sunset Pass - or Running the Gauntlet Through Apache Land • Charles King
... shout, "Shoot, sahibs, shoot! She is coming! She is coming!" His experienced eye had told him that the tigress was about to charge, and another instant showed that he had given no false alarm. Maddened by the scent of the pack animals, and by the whining of her famished cubs, the tigress turned short and came at them with two tremendous leaps! The second carried her full into the light of the fire, and as she touched the ground, all three rifles cracked, ...
— Jack Haydon's Quest • John Finnemore
... familiar sound jarred on Mrs. Ellmother's shattered nerves. In her state of mind and body, she was evidently at the mercy of any false alarm which might be raised by her own fears. Relieved of the feeling of distrust which had thus far troubled him, Alban sat down by her again—opened his match-box to relight his pipe—and changed his mind. Mrs. Ellmother had unconsciously warned him to ...
— I Say No • Wilkie Collins
... them. In the midst of this terror, I heard the well-known voice of the commander of the town, Colonel Jones, vociferating with all the energy and passion of a Welchman. In my distraction, I ran out to him; he stormed, and explained in no gentle terms, that it was a false alarm, caused by the sudden nervous affection of the troop of Belgians I had seen in flight. He commanded me to quit my house, and kindly sent me a carriage to secure my entrance into the town. We were cheered ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 20, - Issue 570, October 13, 1832 • Various
... given that there were thieves on the top of our house, endeavouring to set it on fire. Our ladders being ready, I and others went up immediately, but found nobody, yet all the houses of our neighbours were peopled on the top like ours on similar alarms. This was judged to be a false alarm, risen on purpose to see whether any one would be found in readiness. At this very time there was a house set on fire, a good way from our house, but the fire was soon quenched. The night before, three houses were set a-fire in different parts of the town, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume IX. • Robert Kerr
... lad. A false alarm. We're in a volcanic land, and if we search about I daresay we shall find ...
— Mother Carey's Chicken - Her Voyage to the Unknown Isle • George Manville Fenn
... of the day; by which means, if the rain came, we had secured perhaps one hundred sacks of wheat, and these would prove worth from five to ten shillings a sack more than that which was left out to take the rain. If it proved a false alarm, and the weather was fine, we got a second rick finished by night, and thereby had secured two hundred instead of one hundred sacks of wheat in one day. It will be asked by some, how did the labourers relish ...
— Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. Volume 1 • Henry Hunt
... we know, if we can, what the noise proceeds from. Go into that closet, but don't take the candle, lest the light of it might alarm them—it overlooks the stable-yard—open the window gently; you know it turns upon hinges—and look out cautiously. If Sir Thomas is disturbed by a false alarm, you might fly at once; for somehow of late he has lost all command of ...
— The Black Baronet; or, The Chronicles Of Ballytrain - The Works of William Carleton, Volume One • William Carleton
... of his sword. All rushed to the door except Gen. Hull, who laying his hand on the young officer's shoulder as he was about leaving the house, said, 'Snelling, you need not go, I will excuse you.' 'By no means,' was the reply, 'I feel more like doing my duty now than ever.' 'Stay, it is a false alarm by my order,' said the General."[150] The ignoble surrender of Detroit by General Hull was deplored by many of the men under him. The story is told that while General Hull's aid was trying to place the white flag in position he ...
— Old Fort Snelling - 1819-1858 • Marcus L. Hansen
... in the principal church in honour of the Grand Duchess Tatiana's birthday; and the foreign missions received a hint to go, it being understood that the Emperor proposed to be present in person. This, however, proved to be a false alarm. The service began at 10 A.M., and we went at 11.30 A.M. and stayed till noon; it was still going on at that time, and we understood that they were only in the middle of it. Even half an hour of this was something of an ordeal, seeing that the church was overheated (as ...
— Experiences of a Dug-out, 1914-1918 • Charles Edward Callwell
... little to put down on paper—how we rode hour after hour, often with insufficient food; how we watched at night, sometimes springing to arms at a false alarm, and more than once having to fight desperately to beat off a surprise attack; but it was a stiff business for those who ...
— For The Admiral • W.J. Marx
... aimed volleys before they could make any return. At length they succeeded in carrying one of the hedges; and would have overpowered the little band which was opposed to them, had not the country people, who mortally hated the Irish, given a false alarm that more of the Prince's troops were coming up. Sarsfield recalled his men and fell back; and Campbell proceeded on his march unmolested with the ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 2 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... as being correct conversational English. My friend of the king-like toe spoke of his feet as "plates of meat"—and this though he was an Australian, not a cockney. If he had had occasion to allude to his leg he would probably have called it "Scotch peg." A man's arm is his "false alarm"; his nose, "I suppose"; his eye, "mince pie"; his hand, "German band"; his boot, "daisy root"; his face "chevvy chase"; and so forth—an interminable list. What exactly was the raison d'etre of this pseudo-poetic mania I do not know, but I suspect that it originated, in the distant past, ...
— Observations of an Orderly - Some Glimpses of Life and Work in an English War Hospital • Ward Muir
... excitement. Giles Sheridan stopped short in his discourse, and the inmates of the house rushed in great agitation into the street. The alarm spread rapidly, and people began to run in every direction but the right one. One declared it a false alarm. That it was set on foot to afford recreation for the mischievous, another was quite sure. A third was ready to swear he saw the incendiary run down "the lane." People ran in opposite directions, crying ...
— The Life and Adventures of Maj. Roger Sherman Potter • "Pheleg Van Trusedale"
... reached Bow Street, we were relieved to find that our prisoner, after all, had not evaded us. It was a false alarm. He was there with the policeman, and he kindly allowed us to make the ...
— An African Millionaire - Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay • Grant Allen
... of 500 men, in prisoners. This gallant exploit secured Detroit from any immediate danger, but the day after it was sadly tarnished by the straggling Indians, who massacred such wounded prisoners as were unable to walk, the guard left for their protection deserting their charge on a false alarm of General Harrison's approach. This success, for which Colonel Proctor was immediately promoted to the rank of Brigadier, together with the spoil obtained at Frenchtown, brought down several warlike tribes of Indians from the river Wabash, and even from ...
— The Life and Correspondence of Sir Isaac Brock • Ferdinand Brock Tupper
... doctor. "That is the point of one of those exceedingly sharp thorns that we are so infested with here. Look at it;" and he held out the tweezers for everyone to examine the point. "It's a false alarm, Mark, my lad. I can see no ...
— Dead Man's Land - Being the Voyage to Zimbambangwe of certain and uncertain • George Manville Fenn
... have brought down the fishing canoes outside, and given warning to every Indian within sound of his voice; but, when he saw them stop and begin to fish, he hesitated. If he gave the alarm, he might prove to be mistaken, and he shrank from facing the ridicule which a false alarm would bring upon him. Should they really prove, as he believed, to be spies, he would, if he gave the alarm, lose the honour and glory of their capture, and their scalps would fall to other hands—a risk ...
— With Wolfe in Canada - The Winning of a Continent • G. A. Henty
... "False alarm!" he laughed cheerfully. "There's a part of a carcass of a red deer up the creek a bit. It has been killed by wolves, and Wolf smells some of his own blood coming in to the feast. Muky has set traps there and we may have our first scalp in ...
— The Wolf Hunters - A Tale of Adventure in the Wilderness • James Oliver Curwood
... the same under tone, and with great self-possession: "I can yet save you. And see!" he added, as the figures drew back, and the lights disappeared; "it's a false alarm. They have retired. However, not a moment is to be lost. ...
— Jack Sheppard - A Romance • William Harrison Ainsworth
... cause. Having some suspicion of Vaca de Castro, the former governor, whom he had lately allowed to be a prisoner at large on parole not to leave the city, and believing that he had some secret intelligence with his former friends and dependents, the viceroy ordered a false alarm one day about noon, reporting that Gonzalo was near at hand; and when the troops were all assembled in the great square, he sent his brother-in-law, Diego Alvarez de Cueto to arrest Vaca de Castro. At the same time he arrested Don Pedro de Cabrera, Hernan Mexia ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. IV. • Robert Kerr
... breathe. With him, was his wife: a charming creature to whom he had been married in the previous spring. I thought it (under the circumstances) rather imprudent to bring her, because there is no knowing what even a false alarm may do at such a time; but I suppose he knew his own business best, and I must say that if she had been MY wife, I never could have left her endearing and bright face behind. They drew the Clock Room. Alfred Starling, an uncommonly agreeable young fellow of eight-and- twenty ...
— The Lock and Key Library • Julian Hawthorne, Ed.
... next morning the doctor was questioned with intense anxiety; "Was she going?—was she drooping?—had yesterday's horrid doubts raised only a false alarm?" It was utterly beyond Barry's power to make any attempt at concealment, even of the most shallow kind. "Well, doctor, is she dying yet?" was the brutal ...
— The Kellys and the O'Kellys • Anthony Trollope
... a false alarm. As the footsteps came nearer the waiting lads saw one of the janitors on his rounds. He did not ...
— Andy at Yale - The Great Quadrangle Mystery • Roy Eliot Stokes
... took Grant to his cell as the town went home and presumably to bed, George Brotherton with Henry Fenn and Nathan Perry, rolled his car around the court house square in the still, hot June night. The Doctor stood by his electric runabout, for half an hour or more. Then, the Doctor feeling that a false alarm had been spread, whirred up the hill. The younger men stayed on Market Street. They left it long after midnight, ...
— In the Heart of a Fool • William Allen White
... Burlingham was not unprepared for the evidences that she thought pretty well of herself, felt that she had arrived. He laughed to himself indulgently. "Let the kiddie enjoy herself," thought he. "She needs the self-confidence now to give her a good foundation to stand on. Then when she finds out what a false alarm this jay excitement was, she'll not be ...
— Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise • David Graham Phillips
... capital filet d'ours from a bear that had been shot only two days before. I enjoyed my supper immensely; the wine was as good as the food. My pretty hostess laughed a good deal over the false alarm my appearance had created. Her husband interpreted between us, but I promised to learn Hungarian before I paid them another visit. My host proved himself to be a very intelligent man; I had an exceedingly interesting conversation with him after supper. ...
— Round About the Carpathians • Andrew F. Crosse
... if the creature that scared him up was one of his own kind—i.e., this was a false alarm—then at once, by showing his national colors, the mistake is made right. On the other hand, if it be a Coyote, Fox, or Dog, they see at once, this is a Jack-rabbit, and know that it would be waste ...
— Animal Heroes • Ernest Thompson Seton
... before there was a waggon near our Lines into which I got & wrapt myself in my Blanket after Twelve & half after One was waked & acquainted that the Enemy were coming up to force our Lines & we immediately took our Places in the Trenches & there remained untill after Sun Rise, but it proved a false Alarm, our Enemy have encamped in plain sight of our camp at the distance of about a mile & half, We have had no General Engagement yet, but no Day passes without some smart & Hot skirmishes between different Parties in which the success is sometimes One Way & sometimes another, We are in constant Expectation ...
— The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn • Henry P. Johnston
... raced through Ford's brain; he would arouse the street with a false alarm of fire and lead the firemen, with the tale of a smoking chimney, to one of the three houses; he would feign illness, and, taking refuge in one of them, at night would explore the premises; he would impersonate a detective, ...
— The Lost House • Richard Harding Davis
... other beasts of burden, all in confusion and disorder, among whom they did great execution. Although he heard the noise occasioned by this unexpected assault, Carvajal continued his march for some time, believing it only a false alarm. The six horsemen therefore continued their assault almost unopposed, carrying all before them, and doing incredible mischief. Among the rest they overthrew a loaded mule which carried several quintals of gun-powder, which they blew up with so violent ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 5 • Robert Kerr
... is the main charge brought against us? Like Robison and Barruel, we are accused of raising a false alarm, of creating a bogey, or of being the victims of an obsession. Up to a point this is comprehensible. Whilst on the Continent the importance of secret societies is taken as a matter of course and the libraries of foreign capitals teem with books on the question, people in this ...
— Secret Societies And Subversive Movements • Nesta H. Webster
... with your clothes immediately, as we have work on hand, I expect." And Swinburne left the cabin, and I heard him calling the other men who were below. I knew that Swinburne would not give a false alarm. In a minute I was on deck, and was looking at the stern of the schooner. "What is ...
— Peter Simple and The Three Cutters, Vol. 1-2 • Frederick Marryat
... Kane," he said shortly, as the officer's story ended. "We shall have to examine into this, of course, but will probably discover the whole affair a false alarm. There is, at present, no necessity for alarming any others. Sergeant, kindly explain to me why Miss McDonald should have come to you in ...
— Molly McDonald - A Tale of the Old Frontier • Randall Parrish
... man in the world to raise a false alarm, neither do I desire to enter homes and bring discord there. But I read from a passage under my hand, 'If thy right hand offend thee ...
— Tess of the Storm Country • Grace Miller White
... waited for the girl to ride once more to his side, "is the Monte Cristo mine—the worst false alarm that ever disfigured ...
— The Furnace of Gold • Philip Verrill Mighels
... of illness was a false alarm, but Katy is going. The city is filling up, and many "best families" must re-open their town-houses in time for the school terms. She looks as happy at the prospect of a return to area-gossip and Sunday flirtation as I feel at getting rid of her. ...
— The Secret of a Happy Home (1896) • Marion Harland
... obliged to leave the work-shop, and cross the street doubled in two, holding on to the walls. One of the workwomen offered to accompany her; she declined, but begged her to go instead for the midwife, close by, in the Rue de la Charbonniere. This was only a false alarm; there was no need to make a fuss. She would be like that no doubt all through the night. It was not going to prevent her getting Coupeau's dinner ready as soon as she was indoors; then she might perhaps lie down on the ...
— L'Assommoir • Emile Zola
... speaking, it turned out to be a false alarm. A bonfire of leaves and brush, abandoned at dusk by the boys who kindled it, had, after smouldering a while, sprung up briskly and, flaming high, was now scorching the clap-boarded side of ...
— From Place to Place • Irvin S. Cobb
... bridesmaids, and somehow it gets whispered about that the carriage which is to take the young couple into the country has arrived. Such members of the party as are most disposed to prolong its enjoyments, affect to consider this a false alarm, but it turns out too true, being speedily confirmed, first by the retirement of the bride and a select file of intimates who are to prepare her for the journey, and secondly by the withdrawal of the ladies generally. ...
— Sketches by Boz - illustrative of everyday life and every-day people • Charles Dickens
... "efficiency" program was presented to the professors of Harvard University, apparently with the expectation that they would fall in with its requirements without hesitation or protest. For some days there seemed to be real danger that this would actually happen. It turned out to be a false alarm; the faculty of the foremost of American universities were guilty of no such supineness. The project was ignominiously shelved, with some sort of explanation that the springing of it on the professors was due to an error or ...
— The Unpopular Review, Volume II Number 3 • Various
... It was no false alarm. Mounted police charged down the dark thoroughfare swinging their swords as they rode at the scurrying men and women who raced for shelter. Big Ivan dragged Anna into a doorway, and toward their hiding place ran a young boy who, like themselves, ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1915 - And the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... responsibility wherever he happened to be. "Take what men you have," said he to the constable St. Poi, who was at his side, "and go in this direction; if they are really coming upon us, they will pass that way." It was discovered to be a false alarm. Two days afterwards there was a more serious affair. The inhabitants of a canton which was close to the city, and was called Franchemont, resolved to make a desperate effort, and go and fall suddenly upon the very spot where the two princes were quartered. One night, about ten P. M., ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume III. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot
... Waled Sakertaf. This morning we pursued our way, cautiously sending scouts before. But as the wady opened, the place proved to be desolate, and we advanced joyously, with the confidence that this time at least we had been disturbed by a false alarm. Still, as we descended towards the well we could not now and then refrain from casting our glances about into the gorges of the mountains, to discover whether or not, after all, our enemies were lying in ambush there. Not a living thing stirred upon the hills; and we gathered round ...
— Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 1 • James Richardson
... must sink in about three hours or more, and only cast uncertain shadows friendly to my purpose. And then the outlaws must cower round it, as the cold increased on them, helping the weight of the liquor; and in their jollity any noise would be cheered as a false alarm. Most of all, and which decided once for all my action,—when these wild and reckless villains should be hot with ardent spirits, what was door, or wall, to stand betwixt them ...
— Lorna Doone - A Romance of Exmoor • R. D. Blackmore
... Office. Newman is said to have had a jackdaw. The bird, as the mail coach ran down the narrow road on Black Boy Hill, called "Mail, mail, quick, quick!" to attract his master's attention, and, waggish bird as he was, he not infrequently gave a false alarm, and called his master at the wrong time. After some years Mr. Newman moved with the Post Office to the east side of Black Boy Hill, to a house near the present Porter Stores. He was succeeded by Mr. Enoch Park. The next ...
— The King's Post • R. C. Tombs
... would be cautious and patient. It was well that Willet had given the advice, as a full hour passed without any sign from the foe. Troops even more experienced than the city men might well have concluded it was a false alarm, and that the forest contained nothing more dangerous than a bear. There was no sound, and Captain Colden himself asked if the warriors ...
— The Shadow of the North - A Story of Old New York and a Lost Campaign • Joseph A. Altsheler
... and began to look very smiling and altogether at ease.—False alarm. Only a parcel of spoons,—"loaned," as the inland folks say when they mean lent, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 30, April, 1860 • Various
... ready to surrender their charges to their successors. In accordance with this order, President Payeras notified Governor Sola of his readiness to give up the Missions, and rejoiced in the opportunity it afforded his co-workers to engage in new spiritual conquests among the heathen. But this was a false alarm. The bishop responded that the decree had not been enforced elsewhere, and as for him the California padres might remain at their posts. Governor Sola said he had received no official news of so important a change, but that when he did he "would act with the circumspection and ...
— The Old Franciscan Missions Of California • George Wharton James
... other side, some having to clamber over the heaps of duffle that took up so much room aboard, the scouts saw that it was no false alarm. A number of men were hurrying toward them, splashing through water that was in places almost knee deep, even when they took the upper levels. Should they make a blunder, and stray off the ridges, it was likely they would speedily have to ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts Afloat • George A. Warren
... dishonest bark at everything and nothing half through the night. As to the moral quality of the noise, the only honest bark is that of the mosquito, who is too sincere either to attack you without warning or to give a false alarm. I have thrown my share of boot-jacks and other missiles at the nightly cat, and with some small measure of success; but what boot-jack will reach the howling mastiff domiciled several doors off, and whose owner ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, September, 1885 • Various
... the false alarm about Hancock's left flank being turned was that all the cavalry was drawn in to guard the trains and protect the rear of the army. Custer's brigade moved back to the furnaces where it remained during the ...
— Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman - With Custer's Michigan Cavalry Brigade in the Civil War • J. H. (James Harvey) Kidd
... sound of a distant bugle; both children ran down to the foot of the steps and gazed eagerly up the street. But it was a false alarm, and after a few moments spent in fruitless watching they returned to their post of observation on ...
— An Unwilling Maid • Jeanie Gould Lincoln
... but a score dispersed. The courage of these whites, however, was so outweighed by their caution that Nat and his fellows were able to continue their marauding course in a new direction, gradually swelling their numbers to forty again. That night, however, a false alarm stampeded their bivouac and again dispersed all the faint-hearted. Nat with his remaining squad then attacked a homestead just before daybreak on Tuesday, but upon repulse by the five white men and boys ...
— American Negro Slavery - A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime • Ulrich Bonnell Phillips
... once shouts of "Snake!" were sent up, and each time this proved to be a false alarm, or the snake must have made good its escape, for no horrible crawling reptile came to view, in spite of the most desperate thrashing of bushes, and beating of ...
— The Girl Scouts at Sea Crest - The Wig Wag Rescue • Lillian Garis
... some vaunt what they would do, in case they should he opposed, that have, even at a false alarm, fled faith, the pilgrim's way, ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... guns have preserved all along an absolute silence, which was not broken on our side until ten at night, when a sentry set off his rifle. This roused the whole camp, and soldiers everywhere stood to their arms until the cause of this false alarm was discovered. ...
— Four Months Besieged - The Story of Ladysmith • H. H. S. Pearse
... are indeed a false alarm; You offer trips to heaven at tourist's rates And publish fairy tales about the dates You're going to keep (not meaning any harm), Then get some poor old Rube fresh from the farm, As graceful as a kangaroo on skates, ...
— The Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum • Wallace Irwin
... ground with his hoofs and waked his master. Then the hideous monster vanished; and the man, aroused from his sleep, saw nothing, although the evil smell still lingered in the sultry atmosphere. He lay down again once more, thinking that for once his steed had given a false alarm. Again the grisly dragon drew nigh, and again the courser notified its rider, and again the man could make out nothing in the darkness of the night; and again he was wellnigh stifled by the foul emanation that trailed in the wake of the misbegotten creature. ...
— Tales of Fantasy and Fact • Brander Matthews
... time here," he added. "We'll look about a little and then I'll decide what to do. I don't want to raise any false alarm." ...
— The River of Darkness - Under Africa • William Murray Graydon
... false alarm. The time for action had come; and, turning to the right, he waved his hands, turned to the left, and did likewise; and directly after a puff of grey smoke darted out from the top of each tower, followed by two rapidly succeeding peals like thunder, which ...
— The Young Castellan - A Tale of the English Civil War • George Manville Fenn
... general grounds for disaffection among these ungrateful favorites of Fortune, the slaves. Then there were fancied dangers. An absurd report had somehow arisen—since you cannot keep men ignorant without making them unreasonable also—that on the ensuing Fourth of July the whites were to create a false alarm, and that every black man coming out was to be killed, "in order to thin them"; this being done to prevent their joining an imaginary army supposed to be on its way from Hayti. Others were led to suppose that Congress ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 44, June, 1861 • Various
... happened. At the sound of her voice, they stopped, and looked up, while she repeated her question, and was told, that Roberto, their fellow of the watch, had been seized with a fit, and that his cry, as he fell, had caused a false alarm. ...
— The Mysteries of Udolpho • Ann Radcliffe
... in the ranks, but bewilderment deprived us of the power of taking concerted action. A sudden fear seized me—could last night's celebrations have been the result of a false alarm? ...
— Combed Out • Fritz August Voigt
... and I am confident that, during the day, you will have found, if not the three hundred and fifty thousand francs, at least the greater portion of it; and to-morrow neither you nor I will remember anything about this false alarm." ...
— File No. 113 • Emile Gaboriau
... Bluebeard's closet. Her inclination was to stay where she was, and take her chance of losing her head, yet she felt as if she could not bear to be found invading a sanctuary of past recollections, and was relieved to find that it was a false alarm, though not relieved by the announcement that Admiral and Mrs. Osborn and the Miss Osborns were ...
— The Young Step-Mother • Charlotte M. Yonge
... came running to the place and began to belabor the door. To their surprise they found everything quiet and nothing displaced. They examined the outside of the building thoroughly, and then, supposing that they had been roused by a false alarm, ...
— The Children's Hour, Volume 3 (of 10) • Various
... contingent took the road to Thirsk, and on the way were joined by the Mashamshire men. Whether it was with relief or disappointment I do not know; but when the volunteers reached Thirsk they heard that they had been called out by a false alarm, for the light seen in the direction of Roseberry Topping had been caused by accident, and the beacon on that ...
— Yorkshire Painted And Described • Gordon Home
... up, exclaimed, "Ah! nous sommes perdus!(16) they are carrying us back to our own country!" The duke started up; he had the same opinion, but thought opposition vain; he charged him to keep silent and quiet; and after about another league, they found this, at least, a false alarm, owing merely to a thick fog ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume 3 • Madame D'Arblay
... generally believed that the silly, cowardly boy had given a false alarm. They cross-examined him. He was so frightened that he could not tell a straight story. The men, indignant at being thus a second time duped, as they supposed, actually tied the poor boy to the whipping-post and commenced whipping him. But a few lashes had left their bloody marks upon his ...
— David Crockett: His Life and Adventures • John S. C. Abbott
... was their disgust to see the three policemen climbing into a cable car and calmly taking a seat. It was an outrageous sell on all of them, but it could not be helped, and there was no law by which they could sue the policemen for a false alarm. They had the right to run to catch a car if they wanted to. The family went on more deliberately now for they had no breath to spare and there was but little to be said. Uncle felt that Chicago was very much of a mockery anyhow. But he ...
— The Adventures of Uncle Jeremiah and Family at the Great Fair - Their Observations and Triumphs • Charles McCellan Stevens (AKA 'Quondam')
... Purnell exclaimed. "They'll be out all night. How could you have gone with them? I don't believe Gordon has been kidnaped at all. It's a false alarm, I tell you. Who could have ...
— Hidden Gold • Wilder Anthony
... of the audience, especially the old women and the children, look around, fearful of the ceiling falling in, or big bugs lighting on them. But the pause is for a moment, and anxiety ceases when they learn it was only a false alarm, only— ...
— The Humors of Falconbridge - A Collection of Humorous and Every Day Scenes • Jonathan F. Kelley
... as have men on their backs; I also hear such a noise of their bridles, that I am afraid that some enemies are coming upon us to encompass us round. However, let somebody go to look about, and make report of what reality there is in the present state of things; and may what I have said prove a false alarm." And when he had said this, some of them went out to spy out what was the matter; and they came again immediately, and said to him, that "neither hast thou been mistaken in telling us what our enemies were doing, nor will those enemies ...
— The Antiquities of the Jews • Flavius Josephus
... we started off again, and finally fixed the men up and in the end ourselves in an estaminet (whisper it softly—a pub.) in a wee room with one large bed. We both then slept on the bed and used the rest of the room for storing our clothes in. The men were roused up in the night by a false alarm from the trenches, but they did not disturb us. To-day we breakfasted at 9-0 and were lectured to in the morning and afternoon by an officer, who came out of the trenches yesterday afternoon. This evening we went to a fairly large town ...
— Letters from France • Isaac Alexander Mack
... have known it was a false alarm. Spotty Cahill! Say, do you want to know what I'd advise you ...
— Odd Numbers - Being Further Chronicles of Shorty McCabe • Sewell Ford
... they had reached the garden, "this, after all, is only a false alarm, or even if it be not, we know that the government could by no means afford to abandon the established church in Ireland, because that would be, in other words, to reject the aid of, and sever themselves from all connection with, ...
— The Tithe-Proctor - The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two • William Carleton
... a report of Betty Lapthorn's child having another fit," said Agnes, "and set off to see; but it turned out to be a false alarm. And now we are going up to the Manor House to ask Lady Arundel if she has any arrowroot for it, for ours is all ...
— The Two Guardians • Charlotte Mary Yonge
... on an appearance of the greatest embarrassment and emotion. After some delay, and much pretended confusion, he at length confessed that the seizure of her father was all a stratagem; a mere false alarm, to procure him the present opportunity of having access to her, and endeavouring to mitigate that obduracy, and conquer that repugnance, which he declared had almost driven him ...
— Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists • Washington Irving
... worth, Sudden he stopp'd; he cocked his ear; And dropp'd his brushy tail with fear. 'Bless us! the hunters are abroad— What's all that clatter on the road?' 80 'Hold,' says the dog, 'we're safe from harm; 'Twas nothing but a false alarm. At yonder town, 'tis market day; Some farmer's wife is on the way; 'Tis so, (I know her pyebald mare) Dame Dobbins, with her poultry ware.' Reynard grew huff. Says he, 'This sneer From you I little thought to ...
— The Poetical Works of Addison; Gay's Fables; and Somerville's Chase • Joseph Addison, John Gay, William Sommerville
... me hath a charm That no printed book can impart, 'Tis no fancied tale, 'tis no false alarm, But stern ...
— Our Profession and Other Poems • Jared Barhite
... should be enriched by the pillage. They had even entered into a solemn compact, and whoever revealed the secret was to be visited by instant death. Their purpose was to seize Champlain in an unguarded moment and strangle him, or to shoot him in the confusion of a false alarm to be raised in the night by themselves. But before the plan was fully ripe for execution, a barque unexpectedly arrived from Tadoussac with an instalment of utensils and provisions for the colony. One of the men, Antoine Natel, who had entered into the conspiracy with reluctance, ...
— Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Vol. 1 • Samuel de Champlain
... himself, told Goriot that Delphine had just been knocked down by a cab. The vermicelli maker turned ghastly pale, left the Exchange at once, and did not return for several days afterwards; he was ill in consequence of the shock and the subsequent relief on discovering that it was a false alarm. This time, however, the offender did not escape with a bruised shoulder; at a critical moment in the man's affairs, Goriot drove him into bankruptcy, and forced him to disappear from the ...
— Father Goriot • Honore de Balzac
... but as I had my double-barrelled pistols I did not deprive him of his weapons. I made the ladies go to bed, and, sitting at their door, tried to sleep as well as I could, a pistol in each hand. But at every instant the noise of a false alarm sounded through the town, and when day dawned my only consolation was that no one else in Orgon had ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... was, of the popish plot; nor could they prevent it from being a powerful engine in the hands of the Whigs, who, during the alarm raised by it, gained an irresistible superiority in the House of Commons, in the City of London, and in most parts of the kingdom. But they who could not quiet a false alarm raised by their adversaries, found little or no difficulty in raising one equally false in their own favour, by the supposed detection of the intended assassination. With regard to the advantages derived to the respective parties from those detestable ...
— A History of the Early Part of the Reign of James the Second • Charles James Fox
... find when it grew light that there had never been an Englishman near! The whole thing from beginning to end was only another false alarm, and all our valour had ...
— With Steyn and De Wet • Philip Pienaar
... the investigator was a false alarm. If corned beef was poison, as he said, there wouldn't be a working man alive in America. But millions have eaten corned beef all their lives and have thrived on it. Things are never one tenth so bad as the agitators say. They merely take the heart out of men ...
— The Iron Puddler • James J. Davis
... in a thing like this. A little cool-headedness goes farther than hard words or lead. And," he added cheeringly, "it may be a false alarm, remember. We won't borrow trouble. We'll just make sure of our ground, first thing ...
— Good Indian • B. M. Bower
... Teutones, long impatient to measure themselves against their antagonists, immediately rushed up the hill and began the conflict. It was severe and protracted: up to midday the Germans stood like walls; but the unwonted heat of the Provengal sun relaxed their energies, and a false alarm in their rear, where a band of Roman camp-boys ran forth from a wooded ambuscade with loud shouts, utterly decided the breaking up of the wavering ranks. The whole horde was scattered, and, as was to be expected in a foreign ...
— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen
... I jumped up simultaneously with my companions, who were also alarmed by a rustling among the dry leaves. Silence was soon restored, and I fancied, although the dog continued to growl, that it was a false alarm; so I was about to lie down again, when Sumichrast's hand touched me on the shoulder. An enormous serpent was gliding over ...
— Adventures of a Young Naturalist • Lucien Biart
... around hastily, to assure themselves that it was no false alarm; then they left her to wait alone, while they settled themselves behind a pile of great wooden boxes which half filled the upper end of the platform. Allie watched them arrange themselves at their ease; then, when they were quite hidden from view, she turned ...
— In Blue Creek Canon • Anna Chapin Ray
... or forty-nine sail, brought news of their own arrival at the mouth of the Channel a day or two before your letter, of August the 18th, brought an account of that probability, and of the detachment for Minorca. Admiral Darby, on a false alarm, or perhaps, a true one, had returned to Torbay a week ago, where he is waiting for reinforcements. This is the fourth or fifth day since the appearance of the enemy off Scilly. It is thought, I ...
— Letters of Horace Walpole - Volume II • Horace Walpole
... and he battled with his despair. His father was not dead—he would recover—at the hospital he would have the best medical assistance possible. The coachman who sent the telegram would be sure to make things out at the worst. Yes, when he got to Saint Nathaniel's he would find it was a false alarm, that there was nothing much the matter at all, and when his mother and Reginald arrived by the next train, he would be able to meet them with reassuring news. It was not more than a ten-minutes' cab- drive from the terminus—the train ...
— Reginald Cruden - A Tale of City Life • Talbot Baines Reed
... to take his threat seriously, and more than any man I ever met he seemed to possess the knack of falling out of mind. One could forget him more swiftly than the birds forget a false alarm. I don't believe any of us thought of him again until that night ...
— The Eye of Zeitoon • Talbot Mundy
... Suzanne: "Malaria false alarm only passing effects of overwork coming by the one-thirty PERCIVAL," I found myself at tea-time being nursed back to health on mulberries-and-cream administered by the ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 159, September 1st, 1920 • Various
... But even granting that Mrs. Jenkinson had brought him five miles on a false alarm, in the provoking manner of matrons, the shortest professional visit could not ...
— Robert Elsmere • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... a-quiver and his heart beating violently the subaltern held his rifle at the ready, as the noise of the beaters drew nearer. Again and again he brought the butt to his shoulder, only to lower it when he realised that it was a false alarm. The sounds of the beat grew louder and closer, and still there was no sign of the tiger. Frank's heart sank. He saw the vultures stir uneasily and some rise into the air as the elephants ...
— The Jungle Girl • Gordon Casserly
... Missolonghi was taken, it was only after a most glorious resistance. When the defenders could hold out no longer, they resolved to cut their way through the Turks. One division of them were deceived by a false alarm, and returned to the town, where, when the enemy entered the powder magazine, they set fire to it, and blew themselves up, together with ...
— Aunt Charlotte's Stories of Greek History • Charlotte M. Yonge |
