! I will report you for disobedience."

"I was right over the hatch, and I had either to go down or jump over:
I couldn't stop there."

"And you did the same thing, Hyde," added the officer.

"I couldn't help it, sir," replied he. "When Hunter got over, he
dragged me so far that I couldn't stop."

"Why didn't you let go, then?" demanded Leavitt, angrily.

"I was afraid the next bar would hit me in the head."

Both of these boys were ordinarily models of propriety, and they had
not, for an instant, intended to do anything out of order. The real
culprits were all at the foot of the stairs, rubbing their limbs and
making the most terrible contortions, as though their legs, arms, and
heads were actually broken. The officers had all seen Hunter and Hyde
pushing along the bars after the order had been given to stop. They
seemed to be guilty, and they were required to report at the mainmast
to the first lieutenant, for discipline. The second lieutenant then
went down the fore-hatch, where the appalling spectacle of a crowd of
sufferers was presented to his view.

"Are you hurt, Little?" he asked, turning to the most prominent victim
of the catastrophe.

"Yes, sir," groaned Little, twisting his back-bone almost into a hard
knot, and trying to reach the seat of his injury with both hands at the
same time.

"How happened you to fall through?" inquired Leavitt, more gently than
he had spoken on deck, for the sight of all this misery evidently
affected him.

"I don't know, sir," answered Little, with one of his most violent
contortions. "I was looking up at the fore-yard arm, and--ugh!--the
first thing I knew, I was--O, dear!--I was down here, with
that--ugh!--with that plank on top of me."

"Are you much hurt?"

"I don't know. It aches first rate," cried Little, with a deep,
explosive sigh.

"Well, go aft, and report to the surgeon."

"I don't want to go to the surgeon. He mauls me about to death. I shall
be better soon."

"On deck, all who are able to do so!" added Leavitt. "Bennington, you
will ask Dr. Winstock to attend to those who are hurt, and report to
the first lieutenant."

But it did not appear that any one was so much injured as to require
the services of the surgeon, for the whole party went on deck at the
order. Little still writhed and twisted. Howe rubbed his knee, and
Spencer nursed his elbow. Commodore Kendall, who had witnessed the
whole affair, did not see how it was possible for them to tu