Bollup grinned. “It pretty nearly is,” he remarked. “How does she reeve? I’m rusty on that particular piece of hemp.”
“Look up at the main topsail; you see we are braced high up in the wind. Now the leech of the sail is pulled forward by the main to’ bowline. Don’t you see that line running forward from that bridle on the leech of the sail? Follow it along with your eye and you’ll see it leads right under the fore top. It runs through a block hooked under the top, and then down to this fife-rail. It’s a long lead, Bollup.”
“Of course it is,” returned Bollup, “if it is as long as Himski’s name. By the way, Os, what was all the row about this morning?”
“Oh, that miserable Coleman told me to stand on my head in a slop bucket, and I told him I wouldn’t do it. Then he tried to jump me, and asked me if I didn’t intend to obey a third classman’s order. I told him I wouldn’t obey that order, I didn’t care who gave it. He then got wrathy and struck me in the face. Well, I punched him a few times good and hard; of course he’s a baby and had no show with me, but he deserved all he got. Then ‘Gruff’ Smith rushed up mad as could be. ‘Why don’t you take a man of your size?’ he shouted. ‘What are you hammering a kid like Coleman for?’ I said: ‘Mr. Smith, Mr. Coleman told me to stand on my head in this slop bucket and I told him I wouldn’t do it for a third classman or for anybody else, and I won’t. He then struck me in the face and got hit back.’ Well, Bollup, you should have seen old ‘Gruff.’ He said to Coleman: ‘You miserable idiot, if you——’”
At this instant Ralph was interrupted by a cry from the officer of the deck, repeated by the boatswain’s mates, of: “Stand by to take in the royals and topgallantsails! Lay aloft royal and topgallant-yard men! Man the royal and topgallant clew-lines and buntlines! Clear away the sheets! In royal and topgallantsails!”
At the first order the midshipmen concerned with these duties ran aloft with great speed and soon were at the dizzy heights their furling stations took them to. Before they had arrived there the sails had been clewed up and were ready to be furled. Ralph and Bollup with others had manned the weather foretopgallant clew-line, and now had returned to the fife-rail and were looking aloft, interested by the young men working one hundred and fifty feet above the ship’s deck.
Of a sudden a fearful scream, a shout of agonized terror was heard, and Ralph’s blood seemed to freeze. His horrified eyes, fastened on the weather fore royal yard-arm, saw a midshipman suddenly lose his balance and tumble backward. There was a sheer fall of one hundred and fifty feet to the deck below.
A frightful feeling possessed Ralph, he knowing that in the next instant a mangled corpse would be dashed to the deck beside him. The body came whizzing down. But look! The unfortunate midshipman in his fall struck a small iron rod used as a railing on the after rim of the fore top, and then tumbled backward. Right below him was the main to’ bowline, and he landed squarely on this. Ralph saw all this with terrified eyes. He then saw that the midshipman was clinging to the main to’ bowline with his hands and had shifted a leg over it. With quick presence of mind Ralph threw the coil of the main to’ bowline off the pin where it had been belayed, and started to slack it away. A couple of first classmen standing near jumped to where Ralph was and helped him to do this, and in a few seconds the midshipman who had fallen was safely lowered to the deck.[1]
It proved to be “Gruff” Smith. He was bruised and badly shaken up but not seriously injured and in a few days was about as usual, though his station was changed from the royal yard to the deck.
Late in the day Ralph heard a word passed: “Midshipman Osborn, report to the quarter-deck.” He went aft, wondering what he was wanted for. On the weather side of the quarter-deck he saw the captain, Commander Bolton, the executive, Lieutenant-Commander Roberts, and First Classman Baldwin. Ralph approached them uneasily, fearing that perhaps he was to receive some severe punishment for his fight with Coleman. He had never spoken to these high officers. He recognized them with awe and feared them.