“Then if you say so I’ll go and take this life-preserver off.  It is quite heavy.”

“Do so by all means.  The young rascal,” added the mate under his breath as he thought of Bob.  “I’ll have to teach him a lesson.”

Bob was not a little alarmed at the result of his thoughtless prank.  He did not know what the captain might do to punish him, and in the future he resolved to restrain his impulses.

“Maybe he’ll send me home by some passing ship,” the boy thought, “and I wouldn’t like that a bit.”

The weather was fine for the next few days.  The Eagle continued on her way south, the climate getting warmer and warmer as they approached the equator.  Bob meanwhile had learned much about the ship and the manner of sailing it.  He got the names of the various ropes and sails by heart, and it would have taken a pretty ingenious sailor to have sent him on a foolish errand now after some part of the ship’s gear.  Captain Spark was encouraged by Bob’s behavior, and began to think the voyage was doing the lad good.  So it was, but the cure was not complete, as you shall see.

Mr. Tarbill resented Bob’s joke, and had not spoken to the boy since the “whale” incident.  But Bob did not mind this.  There was plenty to keep him occupied, with his duties to perform and sailors’ stories to listen to.

When they were out about two weeks there came a day when there was only the lightest breeze, The Eagle barely had steerageway over the sea, which was as quiet and still as a small lake.  The blue waters sparkled in the bright sun, and as Bob lounged about on deck he felt a lazy contentment which was probably caused by the near approach to the tropical zone.

He looked up at the towering masts, and an idea came to him.

“If I could climb up there,” he said, “I could have a fine view.  I ought to be able to see a vessel from that height.  Guess I’ll do it.  I never tried it, but it looks easy, and there’s not enough motion to pitch me off.”

With Bob, usually, to think was to act.  Looking around to see that neither the captain nor the mates were in sight to forbid him, he stepped to the rail, mounted Into the shrouds, or ladders, that are formed by the wire ropes supporting the mast, and was soon ascending toward the maintop, the highest point of the largest mast.

It was rather difficult work, but Bob kept on and soon was a great distance above the deck.  He looked around him, noted several ships which were not visible from below and then glanced down.  He saw Mr. Tarbill come out on deck, and then, more in good spirits than because he wanted, to cause the nervous passenger a scare, Bob gave a great shout.  Mr. Tarbill looked up, saw the boy far in the air, clinging to what, at that distance, Seemed but a slender stick, and then he cried: 

“Quick!  Somebody come quick!”

“What is it?” shouted Mr. Carr, thinking from the tones of Mr. Tarbill’s voice some one had fallen overboard.