He had expected the man to be killed.

Not so the man.

He took one look at Mr.
Harding, then made a wild jump for the rigging and climbed right back up to that topsail-yard." Miss West and the mate laughed so heartily that they scarcely heard me say: "Astonishing! Think of the jar to the man's nerves, falling to apparent death that way." "He'd been jarred harder by Silas Harding, I guess," was Mr.Pike's remark, with another burst of laughter, in which Miss West joined.
Which was all very well in a way.

Ships were ships, and judging by what I had seen of our present crew harsh treatment was necessary.

But that a young woman of the niceness of Miss West should know of such things and be so saturated in this side of ship life was not nice.