ens up there to-day?" I
asked as he passed me, not looking happy, for the ship was tumbling
about, the spray was flying over us, and the wind was howling
terrifically in the rigging. It was altogether very different to what
it had been on the previous evening. Still poor Snookes had to go up.
The boatswain's whistle and the voices of the officers sounded loud
above the gale, and so did the cries of the midshipmen. I contrived to
make myself heard, though, of course, I only sung out what I was told to
say, and wasn't always certain what would happen after I had said it,
any more than does a person in a fairy tale, who has got hold of some
magic words and doesn't know what effect they will produce. The
topgallantsails and royals were quickly furled--those are the sails
highest up, you know; and then the huge topsails came rattling down the
masts, and the men lay out on the yards and caught hold of them, as they
were bulging out and flapping fearfully about, to reef them. One of the
topmen, Tom Hansard, was at the weather yardarm, and had hold of the
earing, which isn't a bit like those gold things our sisters wear in
their ears, but is a long rope which helps to reef the sails. Suddenly
the ship gave a tremendous lurch, I heard a cry, I looked up, and there
was Tom Hansard hanging by one hand to the earing from the yard-arm,
right over the foaming ocean. I felt as if I had swallowed a bucket
full of snow. I thought the poor fellow must be dropped overboard, and
so did everybody else, and some were running to one of the boats to
lower her to pick him up. He swung fearfully about from side to side.
No human power could save him. I was watching to see him drop, when he
made a great effort, and springing up, he caught the rope with his other
hand. Still he was only a degree better off. Fancy dangling away at
the end of a thin rope, jerked backwards and forwards high up in the
air, with certain death were he to fall on board, and very small
prospect of escape if he fell into the foaming, tumbling sea, through
which the ship was flying at the rate of some ten knots an hour. I felt
inclined to shriek out in sympathy, for I am sure that I should have
shrieked out, and very loudly too, had I been up there in his place. I
felt sure that he would come down when I saw two of the topmen going out
to the end of the yard-arm and stretching out their arms towards him to
help him. He saw them, and began to climb up the thin