rred from his lungs by what he knew was
the topgallant-yard, four feet below the royal; and, unable to hold on,
with a freezing cold in his veins and at the hair-roots, he experienced
in its fullness the terrible sensation of falling,--whirling
downward,--clutching wildly at vacancy with stiffened fingers.

The first horror past, his mind took on a strange contemplativeness;
fear of death gave way to mild curiosity as to the manner of it. Would
he strike on the lee quarter, or would he go overboard? And might he
not catch something? There was rigging below him--the lee
royal-backstay stretched farthest out from the mast, and if he brushed
it, there was a possible chance. He was now face upward, and with the
utmost difficulty moved his eyes,--he could not yet, by any exercise of
will or muscle, move his head,--and there, almost within reach, was a
dark line, which he knew was the royal-backstay; farther in toward the
spars was another--the topgallant-backstay; and within this, two other
ropes which he knew for the topgallant-rigging, though he could see no
ratlines, nor could he distinguish the lay of the strands; the ropes
appeared like solid bars. This, with the fact that he was still but a
few feet below the topgallant-yard, surprised him, until it came to him
that falling bodies travel over sixteen feet in the first second of
descent, which is at a rate too fast for distinct vision, and that the
apparent slowness of his falling was but relative--because of the
quickness of his mind, which could not wait on a sluggish optic nerve
and more sluggish retina.

Yet he wondered why he could not reach out and grasp the backstay. It
seemed as though invisible fetters bound every muscle and joint, though
not completely. An intense effort of will resulted in the slow
extension of all the fingers of his right hand, and a little
straightening of the arm toward the backstay; but not until he had
fallen to the level of the upper topsail-yard was this result reached.
It did no good; the backstay was now farther away. As it led in a
straight line from the royal-masthead to the rail, this meant that he
would fall overboard, and the thought comforted him. The concussion
would kill him, of course; but no self-pity afflicted him now. He
merely considered that she, who had relented, would be spared the sight
of him crushed to a pulp on the deck.

As he drifted slowly down past the expanse of upper topsail, he noticed
that his head was