“Then come down.”
“Thankye for nothing,” I muttered; and then aloud, “Yes, sir;” and I closed my glass, and wiped my wet forehead, feeling stiff and sore, as if I had been exerting myself with all my might.
“I suppose I’m very stupid,” I said to myself, as I began to descend slowly, “but I did try my best. What a height it seems up here! If a fellow slipped and fell, he would never have another hour up at the mast-head.”
I went on downward, with my legs feeling more and more stiff, and a sense of heavy weariness growing upon me. My head ached too, and I felt a pain at the back of my neck, while mentally I was as miserable and dissatisfied as ever I remember being in my life.
“I hope he’ll send old Barkins up next time,” I thought. “He wouldn’t feel so precious jealous then. Nice job, squinting through that glass till one’s almost blind, and nothing but bullying for the result.”
It seemed to be a very long way down to the deck, but I reached the remaining few rattlins at last, and I was nearly down to the bulwarks, meaning to go below and bathe my head, if I could leave the deck, when I was stopped short, just in my most gloomy and despondent moments, by the captain’s voice, his words sounding so strange that I could hardly believe my ears.
For, as I held on to the shrouds, and looked sharply aft at the mention of my name, he said—
“Thank you, Mr Herrick; very good indeed;” while, as I reached the deck, Mr Reardon came up—
“Yes, capital, Mr Herrick. A very arduous task, and you have done it well.”