“Shall I go now, sir?” asked Billy.
“Yes,” said the Chairman, “unless Mr. Jackson has something else to say to you.”
But Mr. Jackson had nothing more to say just then except this:
“When you have found out where the key of the keelson is, Bill, I wish you would ask permission to show it to me, and then—bring the keelson along, too, so that we can examine it carefully and see whether the key really fits.”
There was the slightest possible twinkle in Mr. Jackson’s eyes as he made this remark, and Bill looked at him earnestly, as if to fathom its meaning. He then turned to the cabin companionway and disappeared below.
Just then Mr. Jackson’s eye was arrested by a boy up on the mainmast crosstrees, and he recognized Jack Perkins.
“Why, there’s your chief ‘B. M.’,” said he to the Chairman, “taking a view of the ocean.”
“Yes,” was the reply, “that’s Jack, and he’s having his regular constitutional. It is pretty good exercise for a boy who is as strong as he is, but I should hate to do it myself.”
The Chairman then explained that Jack was in the habit of beginning at the jib stay and climbing up to the foremast crosstrees hand over hand, with only the slight support he could get from his knees and feet. He then would proceed in the same manner over to the mainmast crosstrees, a distance of twenty-seven feet, and finally come down by the main topping lift to the quarter-deck.
“That means a pretty good head,” said Mr. Jackson, “besides good muscle.”