"You might have blarsted well sent me flyin' down hon deck," he shouted. "If you bl--dy well think it's a joke, try it hon some one else--" "It wasn't me!" interrupted Plummer. "I 'aven't touched yer. 'oo the 'ell are yer swearin' at?" "At you--!" I heard him reply; but what more he may have said, was lost in a loud shout from Plummer. "What's up, Plummer?" I sung out. "For God's sake, you two, don't get fighting, up aloft!" But a loud, frightened curse was all the answer he gave. Then straightway, he began to shout at the top of his voice, and in the lulls of his noise, I caught the voice of Stubbins, cursing savagely. "They'll come down with a run!" I shouted, helplessly. "They'll come down as sure as nuts." I caught Jaskett by the boot. "What are they doing? What are they doing?" I sung out. "Can't you see?" I shook his leg as I spoke. But at my touch, the old idiot--as I thought him at the moment--began to shout in a frightened voice: "Oh! oh! help! hel--!" "Shut up!" I bellowed. "Shut up, you old fool. If you won't do anything, let me get past you." Yet he only cried out the more. And then, abruptly, I caught the sound of a frightened clamour of men's voices, away down somewhere about the maintop--curses, cries of fear, even shrieks, and above it all, someone shouting to go down on deck: "Get down! get down! down! down! Blarst--" The rest was drowned in a fresh outburst of hoarse crying in the night. I tried to get past old Jaskett; but he was clinging to the rigging, sprawled on to it, is the best way to describe his attitude, so much of it as I could see in the darkness. Up above him, Stubbins and Plummer still shouted and cursed, and the shrouds quivered and shook, as though the two were fighting desperately. Stubbins seemed to be shouting something definite; but whatever it was, I could not catch. At my helplessness, I grew angry, and shook and prodded Jaskett, to make him move. "Damn you, Jaskett!" I roared. "Damn you for a funky old fool! Let me get past! Let me get past, will you!" But, instead of letting me pass, I found that he was beginning to make his way down. At that, I caught him by the slack of his trousers, near the stern, with my right hand, and with the other, I got hold of the after shroud somewhere above his left hip; by these means, I fairly hoisted myself up on to the old fellow's back. Then, with my right, I could reach to the forrard shroud, over his right shoulder, and having got a grip, I shifted my left to a level with it; at the same moment, I was able to get my foot on to the splice of a ratline and so give myself a further lift. Then I paused an instant, and glanced up. "Stubbins! Stubbins!" I shouted. "Plummer! Plummer!"