The man laughed.

"There are not many sailors who can do it," he said. "Well, let us see
how high you will get."

As Dick was accustomed to go up a rope thirty feet high, hand over
hand, without using his legs, he was confident that, with their
assistance, he could get up to the main top, lofty as it was, and he
at once threw off his jacket and started. He found the task harder
than he had anticipated, but he did it without a pause. He was glad,
however, when the two sailors above grasped him by the arms, and
placed him beside them on the main top.

"Well, sir," one said, admiringly, "we thought you was a Johnny
Newcome, by the way you went up the ratlines, but you came up that
rope like a monkey.

"Well, sir, you are free up here, and if you weren't it would not make
much odds to you, for it would take half the ship's company to capture
you."

"I don't want to get off paying my footing," Dick said, pulling five
shillings from his pocket and handing them to the sailors; for his
mother had told him that it was the custom, on first going aloft, to
make a present to them, and had given him the money for the purpose.
"I can climb, but I don't know anything about ropes, and I shall be
very much obliged if you will teach me all you can."

Chapter 2: A Brush With Privateers.

Dick was surprised when, on descending to the deck, he found that what
seemed to him a by no means very difficult feat had attracted general
attention. Not only did half a dozen of the sailors pat him on the
back, with exclamations expressive of their surprise and admiration,
but the other midshipmen spoke quite as warmly, the eldest saying:

"I could have got up the rope, Holland, but I could not have gone up
straight, as you did, without stopping for a bit to take breath. You
don't look so very strong, either."

"I think that it is knack more than strength," Dick replied. "I have
done a lot of practice at climbing, for I have always wanted to get
strong, and I heard that there was no better exercise."

When, presently, Dick went aft to the quarterdeck, Captain Barstow
said to him:

"You have astonished us all, lad. I could hardly believe my eyes, when
I saw you going up that rope. I first caught sight of you when you had
climbed but twenty feet, and wondered how far you would get, at that
pace. I would have wagered a hundred guineas to one that you would not
have kept it up to the top.

"Well, lad, whatever profession you take to