"
"That will do, Jessop!" he said, angrily. "I won't have any back talk."
Yet there was something about his tone that told me I had got one in on
my own. He seemed all at once less able to appear confident that I was
telling him a fairy tale.
After that, for perhaps half a minute, he said nothing. I guessed he was
doing some hard thinking. When he spoke again it was on the matter of
getting the Ordinary down on deck.
"One of you'll have to go down the lee side and steady him down," he
concluded.
He turned and looked downwards.
"Are you bringing that gantline?" he sang out.
"Yes, Sir," I heard one of the men answer.
A moment later, I saw the man's head appear over the top. He had the
tail-block slung round his neck, and the end of the gantline over his
shoulder.
Very soon we had the gantline rigged, and Tom down on deck. Then we took
him into the fo'cas'le and put him in his bunk. The Second Mate had sent
for some brandy, and now he started to dose him well with it. At the
same time a couple of the men chafed his hands and feet.
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