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Updated: May 5, 2025
I belayed the rope to the second cleat and set a half-hitch on the turns. Then I walked out of the museum and shut the door. "It had been very different from what I had anticipated. As I sat by the laboratory table with my head buried in my hands, I shook as if I had an ague; my skin was bathed in a cold sweat and I felt that it would have been a relief to weep. I was astonished at myself.
"Was the anchor rope in good condition when you put out the anchor, Miss Burrell?" "So far as I know. Did it break?" "It broke, all right. Will you show me where you made it fast last night?" Harriet led the way to the forward deck of the "Red Rover," pointing to a hard wood cleat. "I made a loop in the rope and slipped it over the cleat, drawing it tight.
I do not see how it would be possible for the loop to slip off, nor, in fact, for the rope to break." "Hm-m-m-m!" pondered George, feeling the cleat with critical fingers. "Smooth. No chance for it to have worn through. There is something to be explained in this affair, Miss Burrell." Harriet gazed searchingly at him, but said nothing. "I wish you would have a look at the rope.
Picking up the former she ran it through her hands until she came to the loop that had been drawn about the cleat on the deck when the boat had been anchored on the previous afternoon. The Meadow-Brook Girl held the loop on the palm of her left hand, gazing at the rope reflectively. She frowned slightly as she looked at it. "Well, what do you find?" questioned the captain briskly.
"The fore topgallant halliard was not made fast to the cleat, and when it ran out, it jerked her from it," replied the commander. "It ought not to have been loose, and there is a bit of discipline for some jack-tar." The ship went along as before; and when the passengers turned out the next morning Manila was in sight, and not five miles distant.
The third night, the nails of the cleat that fastened my head-clews up to the deck above me, drew, and I came down by the run, head foremost; and immediately where my head ought to have alighted on the deck was found the carpenter's pitch kettle, with the blade of an axe in the centre of it, and the edge uppermost.
Excited by the exhilarating influence of the chase, the hands sprang aloft with the utmost alacrity, and in an incredibly short space of time had the reel out and the topsails distended to their fullest extent; the flying-jib flapped wildly in the wind for a moment or two, and then yielded to the restraint of the sheet, at which it tugged as though it would tear away the cleat to which it was secured.
Had it struck him squarely it would have killed him. Bob only hesitated an instant, though the narrow escape gave him a faint feeling in his stomach. Then, before he could make the sailors understand what the trouble was, he grabbed the rope that was running free and, taking a turn about a cleat, prevented the further lowering of the boat.
"Fouled?" roared Clancy. "Cast it off altogether. Let go altogether and let me drop." "We can't the bight of it's caught around Peter's legs!" I called to him. "Oh, hell! take a couple of half-hitches around the cleat then look out now!" He gripped the halyards high above his head with both hands, gave a jumping pull, and let himself drop. The line parted and down he shot.
Belay that! Now, the main-topmast staysail. Let go the down-haul; that is it, that rope you have your hand on cast it off! That's right. Here are the sheets; hook the clips into that ring-bolt there close to the second gun. That is all right. Now take a turn with the running part round that cleat! Capital! Now wait a moment."
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