b!" I said angrily. "Here, tell me, Barney," I continued;
for now that the man was safe, the horror and nervousness of a terrible
accident rapidly passed away.

"Tell you what, sir?"

"Is it hopeless? Is there no chance of getting to the forecastle
bulk-head that way?"

"Well, sir, I can't say only that you know how far Neb Dumlow got, and
then how Bob Hampton got a little farther."

"Didn't," growled Dumlow.

"Now what's the good o' you talking, messmate? because he did, just a
bit farther," said Barney, in a tone full of protest. "You may just as
well say I didn't go three times as far."

"Nay, I won't say that, lad."

"'Cause I did; and arter the tight nip of a bit where them two stuck, it
were pretty easy, and I got along fast, though of course it's all ups
and downs like. Then there's the widish bit 'tween them two big cases,
where I twisted round; and after that the cargo's closer together, and
nigher the beams, till it got too stiff for me, and I give it up; for I
knowed that if I got stuck there, I should have to stay."

"Then there is a way on?" I said excitedly.

"Kind of a sort of a way, sir. I don't think I could ha' got along if
I'd tried ever so hard, 'cause the cargo's jammed up so close to the
roof; but a small sort o' man might do it, or p'r'aps I might if old
Frenchy keeps me here long enough to get precious thin."

"But a boy could get along?" I said.

"Oh yes, sir, I dessay a boy could; but don't you get thinking it's a
regular pipe or a passage, 'cause it arn't. It's all in and out, and
over chests and cases and things as don't fit together, or has got
settled down; and you have to feel all this as you go, and trust to the
tips of your fingers for leading of you right. It arn't as if there was
any light, you see; 'cause their ain't enough to show a mouse the way to
the inside of a Dutch cheese."

"Then if any one got along there far enough, he would come to the
forecastle bulk-head?" I said eagerly.

"Well, that I can't say, sir; 'cause, you see, he might find he had to
creep along right under the forksle floor, and the men's bunks."

"If he got to the place where our friends are, that would not matter," I
cried excitedly. "The distance must be very small."

"O' course, sir."

"But one moment, Barney. Could any of the cargo be pushed out of the
way, so as to make more room?"

"No, sir, for sartain, 'cause it's all wedged together, and there's
nowhere else to put it