For the remainder of the forenoon and well into the afternoon watch the Hyperion drove steadily down channel, her yards bending like great bows as she heeled to the blustering offshore wind. Bolitho spent more time on the quarterdeck than he had first intended as one crisis after another called him from his cabin. Inch had managed to set the topgallants, and under the great pyramids of straining canvas the ship was heeling over at an almost permanent angle, so that working aloft seemed even more hazardous than before to the men on the lee side. Looking down from their dizzy perches the- ship appeared to have shrunk in size, while below them there was nothing but the angry wavecrests creaming and spitting from the labouring hull. One man clung to the fore topgallant yard and would not move at all. Or rather he could not, and his fear was greater than that of an enraged bosun's mate who clung to the mast cursing and threatening, all too aware of his opposite number on the mainmast who was calling insults to the delight of his nimble-footed topmen.

Eventually Inch sent a midshipman who had already displayed a great agility aloft to fetch the wretched man down, and Bolitho had come on deck just as both had arrived on deck breathless and gasping with exertion.

Lieutenant Stepkyne had yelled, "I'll see you flogged for that, you gutless doltl"

Bolitho had called, "Bring that man aft!" Then to Inch, "I'll not have a man terrified to no good purpose. Get one of the older hands to go aloft with him now."

As the man in question had stood shivering below the quarterdeck ladder Bolitho had asked, "What is your name?"

The man had muttered thickly, "Good, sir."

Stepkyne had been plucking at his belt with impatience and had said quickly, "He's a fool, sir!"

Bolitho had continued calmly, "Well, Good, you must go back to that yard now, do you understand?" He had seen the man peer upward at the foremast again. The yard was over a hundred feet above the deck. "There's no shame in fear, lad, but there's danger in showing it." He had watched the mixed emotions on the man's pinched features. "Now off with you."