midnight
I have seen him at work and he made me shudder , although the sight of his amazing agility might have given anybody confidence . On wet nights when the deck was like a rink , he would make a rush as the boat pitched ; then he would pick up his rope unerringly in the dark and , in another second , you would see him over the side with one foot on the trawl-beam in an attitude risky enough to make you want to close your eyes . It was nothing much to see him take a flying spring on to the main boom in the dark , and hang there reefing while the vessel jerked so that you might have fancied she must send his ribs through the skin . I say it was nothing , because he performed this feat nearly every winter night , after the midnight haul , and the spectacle grew common . I never knew him bungle over a rope or make a bad slip , and it was simply a pleasure to see him steer . He never threw away an inch , and his way of stealing foot by foot was worthy of any jockey . Sometimes when I was at the wheel and running a little to leeward of another vessel , he would say , `` I reckon I can weather him , sir , if you let me have her a bit ; '' and then , with delicate touches and catlike watching of every puff and every send of the sea , he would edge his way up , and pass his opponent neatly .