Страница 307 из 416

"Everything went all right for three hours, with the wind getting

fresher all the time, and the vessel under four lowers, which was

a pretty big strain on any schooner. As I say, she should have

stood it, but all of a sudden, on a big lurch, the fore topm'st

that hadn't a rag on her broke off short and banged down, hanging

by the guys. With one swipe it smashed the foregaff to splinters,

and half the canvas hung down flapping like a great wing.

"I couldn't understand it. I knew the topm'st was in a weakened

condition, but not as rotten as punk, and I supposed my foregaff

was as solid a piece of timber as ever went into a vessel.

"But listen!" as Elsa started to speak. "That isn't all. The

flapping canvas, with part of the gaff, pounded around like the

devil let loose for the ten seconds before we couldn't loosen the

halyards and lower away the wreckage, but in that time it had

parted the mainstay in two like a woman snipping a thread.