of the lifeboat. "He fell from the upper rigging as he
was climbing up into the foretop. The sail ballooned out; and then,
slatting against the yard as the brace was hauled in, the clewline
caught him unexpectedly, tripping him up and knocked him out of the
rigging headlong into the sea!"

"Poor young fellow!" said Captain Farmer. "Do you think he was hurt at
all, or fell clear of the ship?"

"I'm afraid not, sir," replied Mr Gilham, sorrowfully, as he grasped
the after falls and sprang into the cutter. "One of the foretopmen, who
witnessed the accident, says that he appeared to cannon off something
below, bounding out from the ship's side before striking the water, when
he sank like a stone."

"I'm afraid, then, there's no hope of picking him up," said the captain.
"Are you all ready, Gilham?"

"All ready, sir."

"Lower away, then," cried Captain Farmer. "We can but try to save him!"

With that, down went the boat into the water alongside, in such a speedy
fashion that the after falls slipping too quickly through the
lieutenant's fingers peeled off the skin from the palms of his hands:
though Mr Gilham was quite unconscious of the injury he had received
until he returned on board, his attention being absorbed in the attempt
to save the unhappy midshipman by endeavouring to reach the spot where
he had gone down, by this time half-a-mile or so astern.

Meanwhile, the commander had stationed lookout men on the crossjack yard
and mizzen top, as well as in the weather rigging, to seek for any trace
of the poor fellow.

The captain and a dozen of the officers or more were also on the alert,
scanning the broken surface of the choppy sea surrounding us; but, alas,
it was all in vain, no dark speck was to be seen anywhere in the
distance resembling the head of the poor fellow trying to keep himself
afloat, although the signal staff of the life-buoy could be made out
distinctly from the deck, without the assistance of its flaming fuse,
which the shades of evening rendered all the more visible as daylight
waned.

Beyond this and the boat, which was cruising about beyond the buoy, away
to leeward, roving hither and thither on its vain quest, there was
nothing in sight of us on board the ship, either from the hammock
nettings or mast-head.

No, nothing but the restless, rolling billows, tossing up their white
caps in triumph over the victim who had fallen a sacrifice to Neptune;
and the breaking waves, that seemed