The Cruise of the Ghost Author:William Livingston Alden Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Charley allowed the boat to run her bow gently against the shore, and told Joe to keep her from drifting off while he climbed up the mast-hoops to see how the la... more »nd and water lay. He came down in a moment or two, and ordering Joe to shove off, steered up the creek. "The tide is out, boys," he explained," and we can't get through till it comes in again. We'll just run up to a bridge that's close by, and get the mast down, so that we can be ready to pass under it to-morrow morning." They reached the bridge in a few moments; the sails were lowered, and the Ghost made fast to the timbers of the bridge; and then they began to wonder how in the world they were going to be able to get the mast out. They all stood on the bridge and tried to lift the mast, but it was so heavy that they could not stir it. Had the- bridge been a few feet higher, they could have taken the throat-halyard blocks and rigged a tackle with which to hoist the mast out, but the bridge was so low that this could not be done. After they had tried HE CLIMBED UP THE MAST-HOOPS TO SEE HOW THE LAND AND WATER LAY. their best to lift the heavy mast Charley told them that it was of no use, and that they must have a pair of shears. " I've got a small pair of scissors," said Tom," but I don't see how they will help you any." " A pair of shears," replied Charley," is two timbers with the upper ends fastened together so that they look like the letter A. If we had a pair of shears ten feet high, we could stand it on this bridge, lash a tackle to it, and hoist that mast right out. That's the way to hoist a lower mast out of a ship." " I can tell you what's better than a pair of shears, though it mayn't be quite so stylish," said Joe. "What's that?" " Why, a pair of darkies," answered Joe. " I see two colo...« less