A Very Real Danger.
Meanwhile the "St. George" under full sail and well over on her side
was running before a strong west wind. The waves washed over the deck;
the sea was so rough that it was hard for an experienced seaman to make
his way, and only those sure of foot and hand dared venture on the
rigging. Nevertheless Redfox ordered Willy to climb the mainmast with
him to help unfurl the sail at the very top.
"If you want to be a good seaman like your father you must learn to
climb the rigging not only in a light breeze like this but also in a
hurricane. You want to get so that you can run around up there like a
squirrel in a Christmas tree. There is no danger; just hold tight to
the rigging with one hand and don't get frightened when the boat
pitches. You can't learn to do any climbing that's worth while
standing around here on deck. Up, my little man, let's see if you have
any nerve."
"Yes, I have nerve, and lots of times in pleasant weather I've been up
the mast, but when the ship rocks as it does now, my father would never
let me think of going up," answered Willy.
"And he had good reason, too," put in the helmsman, who was standing
near Redfox and had heard all the conversation.
"I never heard of such a thing as asking the cabin-boy to climb the
rigging when the sea is rough, and before he has had a chance to prove
himself a good climber in pleasant weather. Master Willy, don't obey
any such foolhardy order. The Captain, I am sure, does not want you to
try any such thing."
"Oho, helmsman, you dare to order this boy to be insubordinate, do you?
I'll have you put in irons for your impudence," cried Redfox, giving
him a wicked look.
"Green, don't be frightened. I can climb much better than you think,
and then besides my guardian angel will watch over me and keep me from
falling. I am sure I won't come down any more of a corpse than I did
from the dome of the cathedral. I must obey this man. Let me go. You
just see my guardian angel will take care of me."
"Mr. Redfox, I tell you plainly it's a foolhardy game you are playing
with that boy," said the helmsman earnestly. "If anything happens to
him you'll answer for it on a charge of criminal carelessness at the
first port we put into."
"Wait till you get a chance," growled the officer to Green; to Willy he
said, "Go on up."
Willy crossed himself, then swung himself without fear up on the rope
ladder leading from the side of the vessel to the crow's nest. Right
after him followed Redfox. With anger and fear Green watched how the
wind blew Willy's blonde hair and the officer's red beard; for a moment
the two disappeared behind the sails, then they appeared scaling the
topmost ladder. The wind had increased; the vessel tipped still more
to the side. Willy clambered on courageously higher and higher up, but
the real danger was yet to come.
"Now see, he is astride the yard sliding out fully twelve feet from the
main mast--now he is loosening the rope by which the top-sail is
fastened to the arm! Redfox ought to do that himself," said the
helmsman to himself. "But no, he forces the boy before him out on the
yard, orders him to stand up and unfasten the rope. The inhuman
wretch!--That means the boy's death. It is no easy task even for an
experienced seaman. And he is not even holding him by the belt, only
by the bottom part of his jacket.----Now he is holding him tighter.
There----O holy Mother of God the boy is falling!" Green closed his
eyes for a moment and gasped. "No, he is sliding along the yard. Hold
fast, Willy, hold fast for two or three minutes. I'll come to help
you."
He threw the rope over the wheel and ran like a cat up the rigging.
Willy, in utmost danger of falling, was sliding and swinging along
between the sails of the fore and mainmast, every moment expecting that
his strength would give out and that he would fall on the planks of the
deck below or into the sea.
"Holy guardian angel," he cried, "take me; I cannot hold on any
longer!" Everything swam before his eyes, and in a moment he would
have fallen, if the helmsman had not, almost miraculously reached him
and seized him in his arms. He carried him down to the deck and laid
him in a dead faint on a pile of rope, and began working over him.
Before Redfox came down from the rigging Willy had recovered. "You
see," he said to Green, "my holy guardian angel did not leave me."
"Indeed, Master Willy, you speak the truth, for without the help of
your guardian angel I should not have been able to save you," affirmed
Green, wiping drops of cold sweat from his forehead. Then he thundered
at Redfox:
"Thank God, that you lay yourself down to rest tonight without a murder
on your conscience. It is no fault of yours that that boy came down
from the rigging alive."
"I forbid any such talk," answered Redfox without meeting the gaze of
the helmsman. "The stupid youngster got dizzy when I let go of his
jacket and started to get a better hold of his belt."
"No, no, Mr. Redfox," answered Willy firmly, "you pushed me instead of
getting hold of my bolt. I did not get dizzy."
"Ridiculous! Your fear put that notion into your head. Now if you go
to telling that story round here--even once--I'll have the Captain shut
you up in the steerage with the Chinamen. You go to telling the wrongs
you suffer from your superior officer and you'll get yourself into
trouble. No more of this."
Redfox went to the Captain's cabin. Indignantly the helmsman looked
after him, and then he again asked the boy if he was very sure that
Redfox had pushed him.
"Quite sure," he replied, "and he looked at me more wickedly than I
thought any man could look. What has he against me? I have never done
him any harm. And my uncle, too, acts so strangely, he has never once
given me a pleasant word or look."
"I understand well enough," answered the helmsman. "Be on your guard
with Redbeard and your uncle; I don't dare to tell you any more. I'd
like to open your eyes, but I can't. Trust in God and your holy
guardian angel who saved you almost miraculously today. In the first
port that we put into Redbeard will answer for what he did today--and
for a few other things, too."
To the Captain Redfox reported, "I did not think it possible for that
boy to come down from the rigging alive, and now he is telling that I
tried to push him off the yard, and, of course, that numbskull of a
Green is only to ready to believe him. That fellow has got wind of
some things, too. We must see to it that he gets no chance to tell
what he knows or thinks he knows."
"You are my bad angel, Redfox, and want to drag me deeper and deeper
into crime," said the Captain. "Haven't I told you again and again
that I will not have that boy put out of the way?"
"Oh, you are always for half-way measures. I take no account of them
in my reckonings. It would have been very fine for you,
if--accidentally--he had fallen from the rigging," growled Redfox.
"No, no, I won't have any bloodshed," said the Captain most earnestly.
"There are enough things now for which I have to answer,--and there
will be more when we wreck the 'St. George' on one of the many reefs
off the east coast of Australia, as we have planned to do. Now, if
against my will, you do anything to that boy, I'll have you turned over
to the authorities, even if I run the danger of being arrested as your
accomplice. You may know what to expect."
With these words the Captain left Redfox standing at the door of the
cabin. He muttered to himself, "Well, do you know, I really believe
his conscience is troubling him--the mushhead! I must deal with him
more firmly.--No, no, Captain, after what happened this morning the
only thing to do is to get him out of the way,--and the helmsman along
with him. I'll tend to that. Ha, ha! Mr. Captain, you'll get up in
the morning early to turn Redfox over to the authorities!"