Chapter 25
I TAKE FRENCH LEAVE ASHORE. In a sweating hurry I helped Mr. Rogers and Mr. Goodfellow to furl sail, coil away ropes, and tidy up generally. After these tedious weeks at sea I was wild for a run ashore, and, with the green woods inviting me, grudged even an hour's delay. We had run down foresail and come to our anchor under jib and half-lowered mainsail. I sprang forward to take in the jib and carry it, with the foresail, to the locker abaft the ladies' cabin, when Captain Branscome sang out to me to be in no such hurry, but to fold and stow both sails neatly without detaching them--the one along the bowsprit, the other at the foot of the fore-stay, when they could be re-hoisted at a moment's notice. These precautions were the more mysterious to me because a moment later he sent me to t
- Writer
