Blow the Man Down - A Romance of the Coast

Standing on the end of the spar, he was outboard; the frothing sea was

under him. He could not jump then; to leap when the boom was sweeping

across the deck meant a skinful of broken bones; to wait till the boom

brought up against the stays, so he realized, would invite certain

disaster; he would either be crushed between the boom and shrouds or

snapped far out into the ocean as a bean 'is filliped by a thumb. On the

extreme end of the spar the leverage would be so great that he could not

hope to cling there with arms and legs.

A queer flick of thought brought to Mayo the phrase, "Between the devil

and the deep sea." That flying boom was certainly the devil, and the

foaming sea looked mighty deep.

Her weather roll was more sluggish and Mayo had a moment to look about

for some mode of escape.

He saw the sail of "number four" mast sprawling loose in its lazy-jacks,

unfurled and showing a tumbled expanse of canvas. When he was inside the

rail, and while the boom was gathering momentum, he took his life in his

hands and his grit between his teeth and leaped toward the sail. He made

the jump just at the moment when the boom would give him the most help.

He heard Captain Downs's astonished oath when he dove over that worthy

mariner's head, a human comet in a twenty-foot parabola.

He landed in the sail on his hands and knees, yelling, even as he

alighted: "Catch her, boys!"

They did it when the spar banged against the stays. They surged on the

rope, tightened the noose, and before the vessel rolled again had made

half a dozen turns of the free end of the cable around the nearest

cleats.

Mayo scrambled down from the sail and helped them complete the work of

securing the spar. He passed near Captain Downs when the job had been

finished.

"Well," growled the master of the Alden, "what do you expect me to say

to that?"

"I simply ask you to keep from saying something."

"What?"

"That a steamboat man can't earn his pay aboard a wind-jammer, sir. I

don't like to feel that I am under obligations in any way."

The master grunted.

"And if the little thing I have done helps to square that break I made

by licking your passenger I'll be glad of it," added Mayo.

"You needn't rub it in," said Captain Downs, carefully noting that there

was nobody within hearing distance. "When a man has been in a nightmare

for twenty-four hours, like I've been, you've got to make some

allowances, Captain Mayo. This is a terrible mixed-upmess." He squinted

at the mizzen rigging where the lanterns revealed the damage. "And by

the way those backstays are ripped out, and seeing how that mast is

wabbling, this schooner is liable to be about as badly mixed up as the

people are on board of her."