nd then devoted himself in earnest to the
difficult and perilous task of reaching the deck of the ship. He had
hardly begun this task before he realised that it was one which would
tax his strength, energy, and ingenuity to their utmost extent. The
propeller-blade upon which he was perched happened to be at the very
lowest point of its revolution; and his first task must be to reach the
boss, which was about seventeen feet above his head. The peculiar shape
of the blades rendered it impossible for him to achieve this by climbing
up the edge of any one of them; his only chance consisted in working his
way from one to the other. The blade to his right seemed to him the
most easily accessible, and he forthwith set about the work of reaching
it. To do this he had to climb about ten feet up the fore _edge_ of the
blade upon which he was perched, and to anyone but a sailor this would
have been an impossibility. Even to Mildmay it proved a most difficult
as well as hazardous feat; but after a couple of failures success
crowned his efforts, and he found himself high enough to reach the point
of the next blade. This was so far away, however, that he could only
touch it with his finger-tips, and in order to grasp it--even with _one_
hand--he found that he would be obliged to overbalance himself so much
that, if he missed, a fall must inevitably result. The risk had to be
taken, however; and he took it, fortunately with success. This left him
swinging by _one_ hand from the point of the propeller-blade; but in
another second he had grasped it with his other hand, and, after a
struggle or two, managed to get fairly astride the edge. His next task
was to work himself in along the edge until he was abreast the after
edge of the blade he had just left, when he had to reach over to the
utmost stretch of his arms, grasp the blade, and in that awkward
position scramble to his feet. This he also managed, when a further
comparatively easy climb enabled him to reach the boss. He now found
himself standing on the boss and leaning against the smooth elliptical
stern of the vessel. His next task was to climb up over this smooth
rounded surface and so make his way along the upper surface of the hull
to the superstructure, when he would soon find means to reach the deck.
This also, though a task of immense difficulty, he actually
accomplished; finally reaching the deck in so prostrate a condition that
he fell insensible before he coul