back with the weather roll. Then the old man got
her up in the wind until the jib was shaking like thunder; then
he held her off, and she went off as soon as the head-sails
filled, and he couldn't get her back again without the spanker.
Then the _Helen B._ did her favourite trick, and before we had
time to say much we had a sea over the quarter and were up to our
waists, with the parrels of the trysail only half becketed round
the mast, and the deck so full of gear that you couldn't put your
foot on a plank, and the spanker beginning to get adrift again,
being badly stopped, and the general confusion and hell's delight
that you can only have on a fore-and-after when there's nothing
really serious the matter. Of course, I don't mean to say that
the old man couldn't have steered his trick as well as you or I
or any other seaman; but I don't believe he had ever been on
board the _Helen B._ before, or had his hand on her wheel till
then; and he didn't know her ways. I don't mean to say that what
happened was his fault. I don't know whose fault it was. Perhaps
nobody was to blame. But I knew something happened somewhere on
board when we shipped that sea, and you'll never get it out of my
head. I hadn't any spare time myself, for I was becketing the
rest of the trysail to the mast. We were on the starboard tack,
and the throat-halliard came down to port as usual, and I suppose
there were at least three men at it, hoisting away, while I was
at the beckets.

Now I am going to tell you something. You have known me, man and
boy, several voyages; and you are older than I am; and you have
always been a good friend to me. Now, do you think I am the sort
of man to think I hear things where there isn't anything to hear,
or to think I see things when there is nothing to see? No, you
don't. Thank you. Well now, I had passed the last becket, and I
sang out to the men to sway away, and I was standing on the jaws
of the spanker-gaff, with my left hand on the bolt-rope of the
trysail, so that I could feel when it was board-taut, and I
wasn't thinking of anything except being glad the job was over,
and that we were going to heave her to. It was as black as a
coal-pocket, except that you could see the streaks on the seas as
they went by, and abaft the deck-house I could see the ray of
light from the binnacle on the captain's yellow oilskin as he
stood at the wheel--or rather I might have seen it if I had
looked round at that minute. But I