Tom Spink waited till dark, when he
went aloft and attached loose rings of stiff wire around the stays
below the knots. Also he bent on hoisting-gear and connected
permanent fastenings with the sliding rings. And further, between
rings and fastenings, is a slack of fifty feet of light line.
This is the idea: after dark each night we shall hoist our three
metal wash-basins, loaded with inflammables, up to the stays. The
arrangement is such that at the first alarm of a rush, by pulling a
cord the trigger is pulled that ignites the powder, and the very same
pull operates a trip-device that lets the rings slide down the steel
stays. Of course, suspended from the rings, are the illuminators,
and when they have run down the stays fifty feet the lines will
automatically bring them to rest. Then all the main deck between the
poop and the mizzen-mast will be flooded with light, while we shall
be in comparative darkness.
Of course each morning before daylight we shall lower all this
apparatus to the deck, so that the men for'ard will not guess what we
have up our sleeve, or, rather, what we have up on the trysail-stays.
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