But the quick eye of Wolf Larsen caught him.
"Here, you, what are you up to ?" he cried.
Johnson's ascent was arrested.

He looked his captain in the eyes and replied slowly: "I am going to get that boy down." "You'll get down out of that rigging, and damn lively about it! D'ye hear?
Get down!" Johnson hesitated, but the long years of obedience to the masters of ships overpowered him, and he dropped sullenly to the deck and went on forward.
At half after five I went below to set the cabin table, but I hardly knew what I did, for my eyes and my brain were filled with the vision of a man, white-faced and trembling, comically like a bug, clinging to the thrashing gaff.

At six o'clock, when I served supper, going on deck to get the food from the galley, I saw Harrison, still in the same position.
The conversation at the table was of other things.

Nobody seemed interested in the wantonly imperilled life.

But making an extra trip to the galley a little later, I was gladdened by the sight of Harrison staggering weakly from the rigging to the forecastle scuttle.