Blow the Man Down - A Romance of the Coast

Mayo looked aft and saw Alma Marston clinging to the spike-rack of the

spanker mast. The coach-house lantern shone upon her white face.

"Go below!" repeated the master.

She shook her head.

"This is no place for a woman."

"The vessel is going to sink!" she quavered.

"The schooner is all right. You go below!"

How bitter her fear was Mayo could not determine. But even at his

distance he could see stubborn resolution on her countenance.

"If I've got to die, I'll not die down there in a box," she cried. "I'm

going to stay right here."

Captain Downs swore and turned his back on her. Apparently he did not

care to come to a real clinch with this feminine mutineer.

The great spar crashed out to the extent of its arc, and the sail

volleyed with it, ballooning under the weight of the wind. The

reef-points were no longer within Mayo's reach. He ran along the boom,

arms outspread to steady himself, and was half-way to its end before the

telltale surge under him gave warning. Then he fell upon the huge stick,

rolled under it, and shoved arms and legs under the foot of the sail.

Barely had he clutched the spar in fierce embrace before it began its

return journey. It was a dizzy sweep across the deck, a breath-taking

plunge.

When the spar collided with the stays he felt as if arms and legs would

be wrenched from his body. He did not venture to move or to relax his

hold. He clung with all his strength, and nerved himself for the return

journey. He had watched carefully, and knew something of the vagaries

of the giant flail. When it was flung to port the wind helped to hold

it there until the resistless surge of the schooner sent it flying wild

once more. He knew that no mere flesh and blood could endure many

of those collisions with the stays. He resolved to act on the next

oscillation to port, in order that his strength might not be gone.

"See that the cable runs free!" he screamed as he felt the stick lift

for its swoop.

He swung himself upward over the spar the moment it struck, and the

momentum helped him. He ran again, steadying himself like a tight-wire

acrobat. He snatched the noose from his shoulders, slipped it over

the end of the boom, and yelled an order, with all the strength of his

lungs: "Pull her taut!"

At that instant the boom started to swing again.