Read Online The Making of the Lamb by Robert Bear - Free Book Online

full sail, turning at all into the powerful wind was no option; a broadside blow of wind and quickly mounting wave would certainly capsize the vessel to its more immediate destruction.
    Nehemiah ordered his two hands to climb the rigging and reef the sail. He watched the two men get up there, stand on the footropes, and strain trying to no avail to pull in the cloth against the force of the wind.
    “Can we go up and help?” Daniel was already drenched from the spray. He clutched the rail to hold himself upright on the swaying deck. Jesus was in a similar state right behind him.
    Nehemiah weighed his options. With the helmsman needed to help him control the steering oar, there was no one else left except Joseph. None of them knew the ways of the sea, but the boys stood a better chance than the older and heavier man did. “Make sure you hold on for your life; there’s no turning back if you fall in. Stay as close to the mast as you can.”
    “No!” shouted Joseph as he clumsily worked his way toward them.
    “I have no choice. We are all doomed if we don’t get that sail reefed.” Nehemiah took one hand off the steering oar for a split second and pointed to the rigging. “Go!” he shouted to the boys.
    Nehemiah felt for his friend, but the steering oar took all his attention. He caught only glimpses of the boys making their way across the swaying deck and then gingerly up the rigging. Pulling together, the four now on the yardarm slowly managed to pull in the middle section of the cracking sail. With less pressure on the steering oar, Nehemiah soon was able to pay more attention to them. At first it went well as they shifted left to bring in that portion of the sail, but with the sail still not reefed to the right, the rig was now unbalanced, and the ship began to sway even more. The captain and helmsman had to struggle harder to control the ship’s course. Nehemiah’s muscles quivered at the strain.
    He stole another glance, but that was all it took to see the mistake. The experienced men should have stepped behind and around the boys, but instead they were all moving in unison along the yardarm to the right to reef the last section. Jesus would be out the farthest with Daniel alongside him, just as the unbalanced yardarm would be swinging through the air most wildly. Even on deck, the experienced captain had difficulty holding on to the steering oar as the deck rose and fell. It had to be far worse up above. He tried shouting but was soon choking on bitter seawater. The mounting wind swallowed his words anyway.
    “Look,” the captain barely heard Joseph shout.
    “God help him,” Nehemiah muttered when he took a chance to see. Jesus had lost his footing and was holding on with his hands to a single line as the yardarm pulled him through the air over the water. Daniel managed to pull the younger boy up to reach the footrope with his feet. The men finally stepped around the boys and moved to the outside. All too slowly, they were able to reef the last section that they had dropped while the boys were struggling just to hold on.
    With the sail reefed, Nehemiah turned his attention to the battle for sea room from the dangerous shore. He turned the boat up into the wind as much as he dared. Even with the sail fully reefed, there was too much force on the rig to bring the ship fully broadside to it. Beyond that, the ship would slip downwind even more when heeled over on its side. The more the ship turned up into the wind, the more Nehemiah was blinded and choked by windblown seawater. He steered mostly by the sound of the creaking planks; as they sounded louder he knew he had to ease the strain on the ship and its rig by bearing away downwind. The two hands relieved the exhausted helmsman on the steering oar, but even though Nehemiah was equally exhausted, he remained there to guide them as they fought for every yard of sea room. Inevitably, the raging wind and sea carried them along to the north; turning the boat