Baldy brought his whole weight to bear on the rebellious sail,
and in his frenzied heedlessness let go his hold on the _tie_.

"You, Baldy! are you afraid of falling?" cried the First Lieutenant.

At that moment, with all his force, Baldy jumped down upon the
sail; the _bunt gasket_ parted; and a dark form dropped through
the air. Lighting upon the _top-rim_, it rolled off; and the next
instant, with a horrid crash of all his bones, Baldy came, like a
thunderbolt, upon the deck.

Aboard of most large men-of-war there is a stout oaken platform,
about four feet square, on each side of the quarter-deck. You
ascend to it by three or four steps; on top, it is railed in at
the sides, with horizontal brass bars. It is called _the Horse
Block;_ and there the officer of the deck usually stands, in
giving his orders at sea.

It was one of these horse blocks, now unoccupied, that broke poor
Baldy's fall. He fell lengthwise across the brass bars, bending
them into elbows, and crushing the whole oaken platform, steps
and all, right down to the deck in a thousand splinters.

He was picked up for dead, and carried below to the surgeon. His
bones seemed like those of a man broken on the wheel, and no one
thought he would survive the night. But with the surgeon's
skillful treatment he soon promised recovery. Surgeon Cuticle
devoted all his science to this case.