The Cannibals Read Online Free Page B

rain came driving down. It streamed from the sails above us, soaking the wood and soaking my clothes. The top became as slick as ice.
    “Can you see the longboat?” Midgely asked. “Are they hauling it in?”
    I turned around and peered from the back of the maintop. Lightning glared more closely, and I saw the helmsman at the wheel. I saw the longboat still behind us. Then the wind made a sudden shriek. The masts tilted far to the side, and I slithered across the wet top until my feet overhung the edge. We both held on—to the top and to each other—so that neither of us would go spinning off into the night.
    Bolts of lightning smoked across the sky. I saw the sails glow with a pure whiteness, the rigging etched in silver. I saw a wave towering over the deck. Below me—in one instant—was only wild and boiling water, and in the next a shattered pile of wood. The stacks of lumber were breaking apart.
    Then I saw Walter Weedle. I saw Carrots and Boggis, Benjamin Penny and Early Discall. Clasping hands, they stood in a human chain that stretched to the side of the ship. Weedle was anchored at the rail. Then the lightning seared again, and all of them were gone.
    I thought they were lost. The truth was slow to sink in, but it did. I shouted at Midge, “They're taking the boat!”
    I shifted around on the tilted top. Far behind and far below, I saw a feather of white spray where the longboat scythed back and forth on its towline.
    What happened next I couldn't say. I knew only that Midgely was falling, that he'd somehow lost his balance. He slid past me and shot right over the edge. I grabbed his arm and clutched the shrouds, ready to take the shock of his weight. But it was too much, and it tore me from the rigging. We tumbled together, down past the mainsail and into the sea.
    My canvas clothes buoyed me up. Bulges of air in the trousers and sleeves bobbed me to the surface. Midge was there, his hand still in mine. Waves tumbled over us, and spray stung our faces. As the ship sailed past, I began to struggle, and then to sink. It was little Midge who held me above the sea, but he couldn't hold on for very long.

four

ALL AT SEA
    Something grabbed me in the water. It clutched me by the waist and tore me suddenly through the waves. My first thought was of a shark, the next of a whale that would swallow me whole. Whatever it was, it pulled me along at a frantic speed. Then it grabbed Midgely as well and pulled him, too. I saw the spray pluming from his hands and head as, side by side, we shot along across the sea.
    I tried to fight the thing off, but wherever I pummeled and punched, my fists met only water. Then a low, dark shape went rushing by.
    In a furious tumble of foam, it sliced down the back of a wave. It dove through the crest, then surfaced again, hurtling toward us.
    It was the longboat, half on its side and half full of water.Swinging out from the ship, it had dragged the towline with it. The rope was what held us, stretched tight as an iron bar.
    As it veered across the wake, I reached out and grabbed the boat. It hauled me along, and I hauled Midge, our hands still locked together. He flailed and thrashed until he somehow got his own hand on the gunwale, and we hung on as the boat shot up the waves at a slant. I saw the ship—or at least the windows in the stern. They were squares of yellow light in a steeply slanted line, and in the middle was a figure, my father staring out. To him, the sea would be nothing but blackness, our struggle unseen.
    A rumbling wave—a giant old graybeard—fell across us. With a bang, the tow rope snapped in two, and the longboat came to a stop. It rolled and wallowed in the waves, slopping water across the gunwales. Lighting flashed above us, and I saw my father's ship sailing along on her way.
    Midgely and I clambered aboard the longboat, tumbling in turn over the side. I was shocked to see a face looking at me, a boy huddled in the stern. It was Walter Weedle, who had vowed