[Transcriber's note: Illustration captions surrounded by brackets were added by the transcriber] [Illustration: Cover art] [Frontispiece: Captain Brooke and Commander Hutton.] [Illustration: Title page] The Mid of the Maintop By Arthur Lee Knight, Author of "The Young Rajah," etc. With Pen-and-ink Illustrations by Hilda K. Robinson. London: Ernest Nister New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. Printed in Bavaria. 651. [Illustration: Headpiece] THE MID OF THE MAINTOP. CHAPTER I. The "Forte" was a fifty-gun frigate employed upon the East Coast of Africa in the suppression of the slave trade. About a week previous to the commencement of our story the ship had been to Zanzibar Harbour, where the rest of the squadron was assembled, and Captain Brooke and his second-in-command, Commander Hutton, had reported themselves on board the flagship, which was a modern man-of-war, and had received instructions from the admiral to sail along the coast, keeping a sharp look-out for slave-dhows, at that time very numerous. On the captain's return the "Forte" at once sailed, and at the time our story opens she was about fifty miles to the eastward of Ras Hafoon, a bold bluff promontory formed by huge sun-scorched rocks, and utterly destitute of vegetation of any kind. The captain looked anxiously at the barometer in his cabin. It had begun to fall ominously. There was a hurried knock at the door. "Come in," shouted Captain Brooke, as he snatched his cap from a peg. The lieutenant of the watch entered. "There's a dense fog driving up, sir," he said, "and I think we're in for a bit of a blow as well." "Take a reef in the topsails," responded the captain promptly, "and turn the hands up." A few seconds later the order was echoing along the "Forte's" crowded decks, and the bluejackets were streaming up the hatchways, laughing and joking as they went. The captain unrolled a chart, glanced for a moment at it, and then followed the lieutenant on deck. [Illustration: (The Captain)] A squall had burst upon the ship. The topmen were swarming up the rigging: every man was at his post. Jack Villiers was one of the smartest midshipmen on board the "Forte," and was a general favourite with everyone. As he was a smart athletic youngster, he had been placed in command of the maintopmen when they were aloft, and was always in the thick of any adventure, which very much endeared him to the bluejackets' hearts. As soon as the reef was taken in on this occasion, Jack sent his men down from aloft and then prepared to follow himself. The "Forte" was heeling over to the strong breeze, and tearing through the water at the rate of eight knots an hour. The scud and spray were flying over the hammock-nettings, but a dense fog had begun to envelop the ship, and blew in clouds of vapour through her network of rigging and amongst her white sails. [Illustration: _Jack ran down the ratlines as fast as he could._]