Even from where they sat they could hear the faint
whirr of a dynamo.
At the signal, a loud
whirr of wings in quick flight was heard and a large Falcon came and settled itself on the window ledge.
Verily, in those have I mine amusement: wherever I find such clocks I shall wind them up with my mockery, and they shall even
whirr thereby!
No, they came in a body, they came with a
whirr and a rush, they came like a volley from a battery; came with heads low down, plumes streaming out behind, lances advanced at a level.
The rocks of the Spy-glass re-echoed it a score of times; the whole troop of marsh-birds rose again, darkening heaven, with a simultaneous
whirr; and long after that death yell was still ringing in my brain, silence had re- established its empire, and only the rustle of the redescending birds and the boom of the distant surges disturbed the languor of the afternoon.
Wheels creak on their axles as the cogs engage one another and the revolving pulleys
whirr with the rapidity of their movement, but a neighboring wheel is as quiet and motionless as though it were prepared to remain so for a hundred years; but the moment comes when the lever catches it and obeying the impulse that wheel begins to creak and joins in the common motion the result and aim of which are beyond its ken.
The measured motion of their shadows on the walls, was the substitute Coketown had to show for the shadows of rustling woods; while, for the summer hum of insects, it could offer, all the year round, from the dawn of Monday to the night of Saturday, the
whirr of shafts and wheels.
And very faint now, but very distinct through the hot, quiet air, one heard the
whirr of a machine-gun that was presently stilled, and an intermittent cracking of rifles.
But early as he woke on the next morning--and although there was an excuse for not prolonging sleep in the constant
whirr and rattle of the "donkey" engine winches of the great ship--he met the eyes of Adam fixed on him from his berth.
But there are other tunes in England besides that the arrow sings." Here he
whirred the staff about his head by way of practice.
With a word of farewell he touched the button which controlled the repulsive rays, and as the flier rose lightly into the air, the engine purred in answer to the touch of his finger upon a second button, the propellers
whirred as his hand drew back the speed lever, and Carthoris, Prince of Helium, was off into the gorgeous Martian night beneath the hurtling moons and the million stars.
The quick glance which had swept the ground for some weapon of defense discovered it, and as the lion reared upon his hind legs to seize the rash man-thing who had dared interpose its puny strength between Numa and his prey, the heavy stock
whirred through the air and splintered upon the broad forehead.