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We made haste to tie his elbows back, and then, before he came to himself, we dragged him to a small tree, sat him up, and bound him to it, not by the waist but by the neck some twenty turns of small line round his throat and the trunk, finished off with a reef-knot under his ear.
Now, how would you tie a knot if you was doing up a parcel?" We both tried, and both made granny knots, with the ends sticking out at right angles to the rest of the yarn. "Wrong," he said. "Those are grannies. They would jam so that you'd never untie 'em, besides being ugly. There's wrong ways even in doing up a string. See here." He rapidly twisted the ends together into a reef-knot.
He taught me how to make a reef-knot, an' I can do semaphore the whole alphabet . . . nearly." "Here we are," interrupted his harassed mentor, stopping before the door of his cabin. "This is where you've got to sleep." He lifted his small charge on to the bunk. "Now then, let's get these shoes off. . . ." The flat echoed with the voices of children and the sounds of expostulation.
"He can't sing out," whispered Bob, "for I've stuffed my han'kercher as far down his throat as I could get it, and have made all fast with a turn of his own necktie through his jaws with a reef-knot at the back of his head. He's safe enough till morning."
To this the tiger agreed, and having tied their tails together in a reef-knot, the pair set off arm-in-arm. Now the farmer and his wife had remained in the field, laughing over the trick she had played on the tiger, when, lo and behold! what should they see but the gallant pair coming back ever so bravely, with their tails tied together. 'Run! cried the farmer; 'we are lost! we are lost!
At these words the tiger became wild with fright, and, quite forgetting the jackal, and that reef-knot in their tails, he bolted away full tilt, dragging the jackal behind him. Bumpety, bump, bump, over the stones! crash, scratch, patch, through the briars!
He knows, as if by instinct, what sort of knot should be used for this, and what sort for the other whether a "reef-knot" or a "bowline," a "diamond" or an "overend" whether a "clove-hitch," a "clinch," or a "cat's paw" all these modes of splicing and trying, with five times as many more, are secrets only known to the sailor.
Why, when I asked some of you boys to tie a clove-hitch ye handed me out a reef-knot, which is nothin' more than a 'granny' knot, which any one could tie. I want yez to do more than other people kin, or what's the use of havin' a troop? So git away home now, fer we'll have no more fun until yez git through with yer work." Rod was delighted at the idea of going to the city with the captain.
"There's strength and beauty together," he said. "Look how neat it is, the ends tidy along the standing part, all so neat as pie. Besides, it'd never jam. Watch how I do it, and then try it for yourself." Very soon we had both mastered the reef-knot, and had tried our hand at others the bowline, the figure of eight, the Carrick-bend, and the old swab-hitch. He was very patient with us.
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