Catch
the idea?"
"Yes, I see the idea," replied Carthew, rather
dismally, and the two incompetents studied for a long
time in silence the complicated gear above their heads.
But the time came when these rehearsals must be put in
practice. The sails were lowered, and all hands heaved
the anchor short. The whaleboat was then cut adrift,
the upper topsails and the spanker set, the yards
braced up, and the spanker sheet hauled out to
starboard.
"Heave away on your anchor, Mr. Carthew."
"Anchor's gone, sir."
"Set jibs."
It was done, and the brig still hung enchanted. Wicks,
his head full of a schooner's mainsail, turned his mind
to the spanker. First he hauled in the sheet, and then
he hauled it out, with no result.
"Brail the damned thing up!" he bawled at last, with a
red face. "There ain't no sense in it."
It was the last stroke of bewilderment for the poor
captain, that he had no sooner brailed up the spanker
than the vessel came before the wind. The laws of
nature seemed to him to be suspended; he was like a man
in a world of pantomime tricks; the cause of any
result, and the probable result of any action, equally
concealed from him.
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