Torn-missing 4 by Margaret Peterson Haddix

toward the rigging. He let go with one hand and motioned behind his back, pointing down.
    Katherine, this is not the time to be dense,
he thought.
Or scared or slow. Get out of here! Climb down!
    He felt Katherine let go of his shoulders.
    “Yes, yes, just as I expected,” Prickett said, moving around as he peered first to the south, then to the north and east. “Nothing in sight except to the west. Well, I’ve seen enough. I shall climb down now. Pray allow me passage.”
    Jonah froze. He was pretty sure “pray allow me passage” actually meant “Get out of my way.” But Katherine had just started climbing down. She was still tugging on Jonah’s cloak even as Prickett said “allow.” If Prickett went down now, he’d run right into her.
    Maybe even knock her off the ropes.
    “Uh, sir!” Jonah said, standing up straight. He pointedin the opposite direction. “Look over there! Did you see—er, I mean, see you—the, uh …”
    Way back at the beginning of this whole time-travel mess, before Jonah knew anything about what was going on, Jonah had fooled an FBI agent with the old “Look over there! What’s that?” ploy. He’d made up an imaginary plane crash, a ball of flame—he’d been downright inspired. But what in the world was he supposed to claim he saw out here, where there was nothing but gray sky and gray sea and gray fog? Land? They’d already established that the only land was off to the west. Some sort of animal? Would they have whales out here? Polar bears? Would they have been called polar bears in 1611?
    Jonah settled on a feeble “Is that a fish?”
    “A
fish
?” Prickett repeated. “
One
fish? You would have me believe you can see one fish swimming in this water, from their height?”
    “I mean, fishes. A school of fish,” Jonah said quickly. He thought quickly. “Shouldn’t we go fishing? For more food?”
    Prickett glared suspiciously at him, then took him by the shoulders and moved him aside.
    “Out of my way! I shall report you to the captain for insolence!” Prickett threatened. “Mocking an officer. For shame!”
    “No, no, I wasn’t mocking!” Jonah insisted, dartingback to block Prickett’s way again. “I was … letting you know important information! Doing my job as lookout!”
    Prickett’s glare intensified. Then he slammed his hands against Jonah’s chest, shoving him sideways.
    “The captain shall be informed about
all
of this,” he said.
    And then he began climbing down the rigging.
    Where was Katherine?
    Prickett’s bulk blocked her from view. Jonah knew she couldn’t have gotten far, but was she climbing really, really fast? Could she get down to the deck before Prickett ran into her?
    Prickett handled the ropes as if he’d been racing up and down rigging his whole life. Which he probably had. He even paused every few handholds to glance down—and still seemed to be setting some unbeatable record for speed.
    Prickett turned to the side for an instant, perhaps to get one last glimpse of the land. In that moment Jonah saw something glow right below him—Katherine. Her hands were only one rung below Prickett’s feet. Katherine glanced up, then glanced down quickly. Jonah could almost see her calculating:
I’m too high up to jump. I’d break a leg if I tried that.
    As Prickett stepped down to the next rung, Katherineswung out of the way, holding on only to the sides of the rigging. Her feet dangled in midair.
    Doesn’t Prickett feel the ropes pulling over to the right?
Jonah wondered.
    He must have, because he stopped momentarily, his head turned directly toward Katherine. He even reached over to the side rope, Katherine just barely sliding her hands out of the way in time.
    Ouch!
Jonah thought.
That’s got to cause some serious rope burn!
    Prickett seemed to be waiting for something.
    Katherine twisted her face into a grimace. Jonah began to wonder how much upper-body strength she had.
    Has she done weight training in gym class yet?
He thought.
Not