ted, the bight of it narrowly escaping my head in
its downward descent, wetting my face with the spray it threw up as it
splashed into the water right under me.

I could not restrain a shriek of alarm; and, wriggling more violently
than before in the hands of those holding me as I tried to release
myself, I managed somehow or other to jerk away from their grasp,
sending them all sprawling backward on the deck inboard, while I shot
out of the port like a catapult, tumbling headlong into the sea as if
taking a header after the rope!

CHAPTER NINE.

MY DIP GAINS ME A DINNER.

Fortunately, though, as I fell, my outstretched hands, clutching wildly
in the air, came in contact with the identical rope whose sudden descent
from the gangway above had been the unwitting cause of the disaster, the
tail end of the "whip" Mr Triggs had ordered to be rigged up from the
lee yardarm, in readiness to hoist in the powder when the hoy bringing
the same was made fast alongside.

This naturally yielded to my weight as I clung to it, on account of the
other end, which passed through a block fastened to the yard, not being
secured.

However, it let me down easy into the water, my unexpected immersion
making no noise to speak of and hardly causing a ripple on the surface
of the tide as it gurgled past the ship's counter and eddied away in
ripples under her stem.

Not a soul on board, indeed, knew of my mishap save those merry
messmates of mine, all of whom doubtless, I thought, as soon as I
regained my composure after the fright and knew that I was comparatively
safe, would be in a great funk, fearing the worst had happened.

Glancing upward, my head being just clear of the water, which I trod to
keep myself in an erect position, holding on, though, all the while,
"like grim death," to the rope, of which I had taken a turn round my
wrist, I saw Larkyns, the ringleader of the frolic, leaning out over the
port sill as pale as a ghost.

He was looking downwards, in every direction but the right one, seeking
vainly to discover me; and he evidently dreaded that I was drowned, his
face being the picture of misery and despair.

"Hist, old chap, don't call out," I whispered in a low voice, as he was
about to give up the search and rouse the ship. "I'm all right, my
boy."

"My goodness Vernon, is that you? I thought you were lost, old chap,"
he hailed back in the same key, the expression of his face changing
instantly to one of hea