f this Mr Gregory one day ordered him aloft, and the poor
fellow managed to get up as high as the mainmast head, when he seemed
entirely to lose his nerve, and, letting his legs slip in between the
shrouds, he clung there with his hands clutching the ratlines, and
holding on for life.

"Go on up, sir; go on up," shouted the first-mate, and his hoarse orders
attracted the attention of the passengers. But the poor fellow did not
move, and growing tired at last, the mate ordered him to come down.

This order was of as much effect as those which preceded it, the man
remaining motionless.

"If this was only the royal navy," cried the mate, "I'd have you
spread-eagled up there and lashed to the rigging till you got used to
it. Here, where are you going, youngster?"

"Up to see what's the matter," said Mark coolly; and swinging himself up
he began to climb the rigging.

It was his first attempt, and as his feet began to make acquaintance
with the ratlines he awoke for the first time to the fact that though
they looked just like a ladder to climb it was a very different matter.
They gave and the shrouds felt loose and seemed to sway; the height
above looked terrific, and the distance below to the deck quite
startling. That clean-boarded deck, too, appeared as if it would be
horribly hard to fall upon; but a doubt arose in his mind as to what
would be the consequences if he slipped--would he fall with a crash upon
the deck, or slip part of the way down the shrouds, and be shot off into
that extremely soft place, the sea?

The idea was so startling that he glanced down at it, to see that it
looked gloriously clear and sunlit--transparent to a degree; but the
great ship was gliding through it swiftly, and he knew that he would go
down and down with the impetus of his fall, and come up somewhere in the
current to be carried far astern in the troubled water in the wake of
the ship.

How long would it take them to get down a boat? and what would become of
him while he was waiting? He could swim as boys do swim in an ordinary
way, who learn in some river or pool at school; but that was very
different to being left astern in the sea with the ship going eight or
nine knots an hour; and he felt that he would be drowned before help
could come.

Then there were the sharks!

He did not know that there were any sharks, but his brain suggested to
him that there would certainly be at least one big fellow whose back fin
would be