All who saw the catastrophe looked on with suspended breath.

The captain glared at Ralph as the lad picked himself up, then pointed
to the wreck of his breakfast.

"Clean up that rubbish," he growled, a grimness as of death settling
over his face.

Two sailors sprang forward with bucket and mop. The captain turned to
Ralph, who could now trace little resemblance in his superior's face
and mien to the bland, almost fatherly man who had welcomed him at the
Marshall House.

"My lad," said Gary, and his voice grated harshly on the ear, "I don't
think the deck agrees with you. Suppose you try the fo'mast head for
an hour. Come! Up you go!"

In his bewilderment Ralph attempted to mount the mainmast ratlines in a
lumbering way.

"Start him up, Long Tom," roared the captain. "The fool don't even
know where the fo'mast is."

Bludson again seized Ralph by the collar, propelled him the length of
the deck and gave him a long boost up the forward ratlines.

Faint from sickness, shivering in his wet clothes, dizzy with the peril
of his position, yet with a rising passion in his heart, the boy began
to ascend. With a shifting foundation under his feet, a stiff wind