One of the green hands, a tramp--and he must already have got a taste of Mr.Harding--fell off the lower-topsail-yard.

I was only a little girl, but it looked like certain death, for he was falling from the weather side of the yard straight down on deck.

But he fell into the belly of the mainsail, breaking his fall, turned a somersault, and landed on his feet on deck and unhurt.

And he landed right alongside of Mr.Harding, facing him.

I don't know which was the more astonished, but I think Mr.Harding was, for he stood there petrified.