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And, so saying, he sprang into the main rigging and danced up the ratlines at a pace that made the shellbacks on deck stare in wonderment. "Come down out of my rigging, you; d'ye hear?" roared Potter. "Come down, I say. How dare you take such liberties aboard my ship? D'ye hear what I say?" as Leslie grasped the futtock shrouds and lightly drew himself over the rim of the top.
"Nothing, Sir," said Tammy, and went down on to the maindeck. The first man to wind'ard had reached the futtock shrouds; his head was above the top, and he was taking a preliminary look, before venturing higher. "See anythin', Jock?" asked Plummer, the man next above me. "Na'!" said Jock, tersely, and climbed over the top, and so disappeared from my sight. The fellow ahead of me, followed.
"You must climb out by the futtock shrouds, as every proper sailor does." Seeing, however, that poor `Ugly' was quite in a fog, he turned to me as I stepped down from the chains and stood up in front of him, touching my cap to report myself as having accomplished my task. "I say, my boy," said he, "what's your name?" Of course I had to reply to this, and so I told him "Tom Bowling, sir."
They were filled with flickering, grotesque shadows cast by the dripping light above. A group of the men stood by the port galley door their faces upturned and pale and unreal under the gleam of the light. Then I was in the futtock rigging, and a moment afterwards, standing in the top, beside the Old Man. He was shouting to the men who had gone out on the craneline.
"We did, Mr Futtock; yes, we heard it distinctly, seeing that we don't `caulk' in our watch on deck," I retorted. "Yes, it's another boat affair; so be good enough to have all hands called at once, if you please. And kindly make it your personal business to see that nobody raises his voice, lets anything fall, or otherwise creates row enough to wake the dead.
These, like the channels for the lower rigging, are mere projections or out-riggers; the true point of support for the topmast rigging is the lower shrouds, the connection being made by what are called futtock shrouds and catharpins.
Accordingly, I raced aloft the second time and soon fetched up to `Ugly, who, in a mortal funk, was trying to step out from the lower rigging on to the futtock shrouds, which, I may explain for the benefit of those who have not been to sea, stretch out laterally from the mast, and not in towards it, like the ordinary standing rigging below.
Everything on the decks was brightly revealed, every ringbolt, the pins in the rails, deadeyes, sails, gear, aye, every rope in the rigging was boldly etched against the glowing background. With that one sweeping glance I took in the scene. High up in the main rigging, almost to the futtock shrouds, the figure of a man was revealed: he was blazing away in the direction of the poop with a revolver.
This is going to be a little surprise visit, you understand." "Ay, ay, Mr Fortescue, I understands," answered Futtock, as he moved toward the open hatchway; "I'll see that the swabs don't make no noise. The man that raises his voice above a whisper won't go. That's all." "Just one word more, Mr Futtock," I hastily interposed, as the boatswain stepped over the coaming to descend the hatchway.
Here, without losing touch with Jouett, he was very near the pilot, had the whole scene of battle spread out under his eyes, and at the same time, by bracing himself against the futtock shrouds, was able to use his spy-glass more freely.
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