A Very Real Danger.

Meanwhile the "St. George" under full sail and well over on her side was running before a strong west wind. The waves washed over the deck; the sea was so rough that it was hard for an experienced seaman to make his way, and only those sure of foot and hand dared venture on the rigging. Nevertheless Redfox ordered Willy to climb the mainmast with him to help unfurl the sail at the very top.

"If you want to be a good seaman like your father you must learn to climb the rigging not only in a light breeze like this but also in a hurricane. You want to get so that you can run around up there like a squirrel in a Christmas tree. There is no danger; just hold tight to the rigging with one hand and don't get frightened when the boat pitches. You can't learn to do any climbing that's worth while standing around here on deck. Up, my little man, let's see if you have any nerve."

"Yes, I have nerve, and lots of times in pleasant weather I've been up the mast, but when the ship rocks as it does now, my father would never let me think of going up," answered Willy.

"And he had good reason, too," put in the helmsman, who was standing near Redfox and had heard all the conversation.

"I never heard of such a thing as asking the cabin-boy to climb the rigging when the sea is rough, and before he has had a chance to prove himself a good climber in pleasant weather. Master Willy, don't obey any such foolhardy order. The Captain, I am sure, does not want you to try any such thing."

"Oho, helmsman, you dare to order this boy to be insubordinate, do you? I'll have you put in irons for your impudence," cried Redfox, giving him a wicked look.

"Green, don't be frightened. I can climb much better than you think, and then besides my guardian angel will watch over me and keep me from falling. I am sure I won't come down any more of a corpse than I did from the dome of the cathedral. I must obey this man. Let me go. You just see my guardian angel will take care of me."

"Mr. Redfox, I tell you plainly it's a foolhardy game you are playing with that boy," said the helmsman earnestly. "If anything happens to him you'll answer for it on a charge of criminal carelessness at the first port we put into."

"Wait till you get a chance," growled the officer to Green; to Willy he said, "Go on up."

Willy crossed himself, then swung himself without fear up on the rope ladder leading from the side of the vessel to the crow's nest. Right after him followed Redfox. With anger and fear Green watched how the wind blew Willy's blonde hair and the officer's red beard; for a moment the two disappeared behind the sails, then they appeared scaling the topmost ladder. The wind had increased; the vessel tipped still more to the side. Willy clambered on courageously higher and higher up, but the real danger was yet to come.

"Now see, he is astride the yard sliding out fully twelve feet from the main mast—now he is loosening the rope by which the top-sail is fastened to the arm! Redfox ought to do that himself," said the helmsman to himself. "But no, he forces the boy before him out on the yard, orders him to stand up and unfasten the rope. The inhuman wretch!—That means the boy's death. It is no easy task even for an experienced seaman. And he is not even holding him by the belt, only by the bottom part of his jacket.——Now he is holding him tighter. There——O holy Mother of God the boy is falling!" Green closed his eyes for a moment and gasped. "No, he is sliding along the yard. Hold fast, Willy, hold fast for two or three minutes. I'll come to help you."

He threw the rope over the wheel and ran like a cat up the rigging. Willy, in utmost danger of falling, was sliding and swinging along between the sails of the fore and mainmast, every moment expecting that his strength would give out and that he would fall on the planks of the deck below or into the sea.

"Holy guardian angel," he cried, "take me; I cannot hold on any longer!" Everything swam before his eyes, and in a moment he would have fallen, if the helmsman had not, almost miraculously reached him and seized him in his arms. He carried him down to the deck and laid him in a dead faint on a pile of rope, and began working over him. Before Redfox came down from the rigging Willy had recovered. "You see," he said to Green, "my holy guardian angel did not leave me."

"Indeed, Master Willy, you speak the truth, for without the help of your guardian angel I should not have been able to save you," affirmed Green, wiping drops of cold sweat from his forehead. Then he thundered at Redfox:

"Thank God, that you lay yourself down to rest tonight without a murder on your conscience. It is no fault of yours that that boy came down from the rigging alive."

"I forbid any such talk," answered Redfox without meeting the gaze of the helmsman. "The stupid youngster got dizzy when I let go of his jacket and started to get a better hold of his belt."

"No, no, Mr. Redfox," answered Willy firmly, "you pushed me instead of getting hold of my bolt. I did not get dizzy."

"Ridiculous! Your fear put that notion into your head. Now if you go to telling that story round here—even once—I'll have the Captain shut you up in the steerage with the Chinamen. You go to telling the wrongs you suffer from your superior officer and you'll get yourself into trouble. No more of this."

Redfox went to the Captain's cabin. Indignantly the helmsman looked after him, and then he again asked the boy if he was very sure that Redfox had pushed him.

"Quite sure," he replied, "and he looked at me more wickedly than I thought any man could look. What has he against me? I have never done him any harm. And my uncle, too, acts so strangely, he has never once given me a pleasant word or look."

"I understand well enough," answered the helmsman. "Be on your guard with Redbeard and your uncle; I don't dare to tell you any more. I'd like to open your eyes, but I can't. Trust in God and your holy guardian angel who saved you almost miraculously today. In the first port that we put into Redbeard will answer for what he did today—and for a few other things, too."

To the Captain Redfox reported, "I did not think it possible for that boy to come down from the rigging alive, and now he is telling that I tried to push him off the yard, and, of course, that numbskull of a Green is only to ready to believe him. That fellow has got wind of some things, too. We must see to it that he gets no chance to tell what he knows or thinks he knows."

"You are my bad angel, Redfox, and want to drag me deeper and deeper into crime," said the Captain. "Haven't I told you again and again that I will not have that boy put out of the way?"

"Oh, you are always for half-way measures. I take no account of them in my reckonings. It would have been very fine for you, if—accidentally—he had fallen from the rigging," growled Redfox.

"No, no, I won't have any bloodshed," said the Captain most earnestly. "There are enough things now for which I have to answer,—and there will be more when we wreck the 'St. George' on one of the many reefs off the east coast of Australia, as we have planned to do. Now, if against my will, you do anything to that boy, I'll have you turned over to the authorities, even if I run the danger of being arrested as your accomplice. You may know what to expect."

With these words the Captain left Redfox standing at the door of the cabin. He muttered to himself, "Well, do you know, I really believe his conscience is troubling him—the mushhead! I must deal with him more firmly.—No, no, Captain, after what happened this morning the only thing to do is to get him out of the way,—and the helmsman along with him. I'll tend to that. Ha, ha! Mr. Captain, you'll get up in the morning early to turn Redfox over to the authorities!"