billy-be-damned

Its surface was like a frozen pond, my hands could get no grip as I flailed them on the stone, squealing like billy-be-damned, and while Uliba could not have heard me, she absolutely saw me for a split second before I slid from her view into the torrent, inhaling a bellyful of the Blue Nile as I continued my progress downstream, presently descending one hundred and fifty feet without benefit of canal locks.

Flashman on the March Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 2005

Down beyond the parapet the Chinese gunners were labouring like billy-be-damned; their shot was churning the ground all along the allied line, but still it came on, unhurried and unbroken, and the Chinks were yelling exultantly in their ranks, their banners waving in triumph, for out on the plain could be seen how small was our army, advancing on that mighty mass of Imperials, who outflanked it half a mile on either side.

Flashman And The Dragon Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1985

Down beyond the parapet the Chinese gunners were labouring like billy-be-damned; their shot was churning the ground all along the allied line, but still it came on, unhurried and unbroken, and the Chinks were yelling exultantly in their ranks, their banners waving in triumph, for out on the plain could be seen how small was our army, advancing on that mighty mass of Imperials, who outflanked it half a mile on either side.

Flashman and the Dragon Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1985

Down beyond the parapet the Chinese gunners were labouring like billy-be-damned; their shot was churning the ground all along the allied line, but still it came on, unhurried and unbroken, and the Chinks were yelling exultantly in their ranks, their banners waving in triumph, for out on the plain could be seen how small was our army, advancing on that mighty mass of Imperials, who outflanked it half a mile on either side.

Flashman and the Dragon Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1985

So I headed 'em bang for the bomb-belt, racing like billy-be-damned.

Rhymes of a Red Cross Man 1916

Something told me he wasn’t suggesting that this would be a capital spot for a picnic, and I didn’t need Uliba’s command to put my head down and my heels in and go like billy-be-damned.

Flashman on the March Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 2005