e knocked himself there when he slipped," he answered.

"Likely 'nuffli," agreed old Jaskett, who was sitting smoking on a chest
near by.

"Well, you're both a damn long way out of it!" Tom chipped in, pretty
warm. "I wasn't asleep; an' the sail did bloomin' well hit me."

"Don't you be impertinent, young feller," said Jaskett.

I joined in again.

"There's another thing, Stubbins," I said. "The gasket Tom was hanging
by, was on the after side of the yard. That looks as if the sail might
have flapped it over? If there were wind enough to do the one, it seems
to me that it might have done the other."

"Do you mean that it was hunder ther yard, or hover ther top?" he asked.

"Over the top, of course. What's more, the foot of the sail was hanging
over the after part of the yard, in a bight."

Stubbins was plainly surprised at that, and before he was ready with his
next objection, Plummer spoke.

"'oo saw it?" he asked.

"I saw it!" I said, a bit sharply. "So did Williams; so--for that
matter--did the Second Mate."

Plummer relapsed into silence; and smoked; and Stubbins broke out
afresh.

"I reckon Tom must have had a hold of the foot and the gasket, and
pulled 'em hover the yard when he tumbled."

"No!" interrupted Tom. "The gasket was under the sail. I couldn't even
see it. An' I hadn't time to get hold of the foot of the sail, before it
up and caught me smack in the face."

"'ow did yer get 'old er ther gasket, when yer fell, then?" asked
Plummer.

"He didn't get hold of it," I answered for Tom. "It had taken a turn
round his wrist, and that's how we found him hanging."

"Do you mean to say as 'e 'adn't got 'old of ther garsket?," Quoin
inquired, pausing in the lighting of his pipe.

"Of course, I do," I said. "A chap doesn't go hanging on to a rope when
he's jolly well been knocked senseless."

"Ye're richt," assented Jock. "Ye're quite richt there, Jessop."

Quoin concluded the lighting of his pipe.

"I dunno," he said.

I went on, without noticing him.

"Anyway, when Williams and I found him, he was hanging by the gasket,
and it had a couple of turns round his wrist. And besides that, as I
said before, the foot of the sail was hanging over the after side of the
yard, and Tom's weight on the gasket was holding it there."

"It's damned queer," said Stubbins, in a puzzled voice. "There don't
seem to be no way of gettin' a proper hexplanation to it."

I glanced at Williams, to suggest that