"Come on!" invited the freckled youngster. "Come on up!"
"Come down!" snarled Scudder.
"Come up and bring me down!"
"I’ll bring you down without coming up!" declared Uric savagely, as his hand went round to his hip pocket. He drew a revolver.
"If you don’t come down," he said, pointing the weapon at the boy, "I’ll shoot you!"
The boy was frightened now, but he went yet higher on the shrouds.
"Stop!" cried Scudder. "I’m not fooling! By the blazes! if you don’t come down, I’ll begin shooting!"
"Better come down, kid." said Glennon. "He can’t fail to hit you there if he fires."
But the boy had mounted to the cross-trees, where he suddenly caught a dangling rope. Before the two fellows below were aware of his intentions, the lad had wound a leg round that rope, and down he came like a streak alongside the mast.
Glennon jumped for him, but the boy struck the deck and dodged the outstretched hand of the Hudsonville youth. Then he again ran the length of the vessel, dodged round the cabin, and escaped over the side to the old wharf.