"In the main-rigging, there! Who's that going aloft?"
I sat up on the hatch, and listened. There succeeded an intense silence.
Then the Second's voice came again. He was evidently getting wild.
"Do you damn well hear me? What the hell are you doing up there? Come
down!"
I rose to my feet, and walked up to wind'ard. From there, I could see
the break of the poop. The Second Mate was standing by the starboard
ladder. He appeared to be looking up at something that was hidden from
me by the topsails. As I stared, he broke out again:
"Hell and damnation, you blasted sojer, come down when I tell you!"
He stamped on the poop, and repeated his order, savagely. But there was
no answer. I started to walk aft. What had happened? Who had gone aloft?
Who would be fool enough to go, without being told? And then, all at
once, a thought came to me. The figure Tammy and I had seen. Had the
Second Mate seen something--someone? I hurried on, and then stopped,
suddenly. In the same moment there came the shrill blast of the Second's
whistle; he was whistling for the watch, and I turned and ran to the
fo'cas'le to rouse them out. Another minute, and I was hurrying aft with
them to see what was wanted.
His voice met us half-way:
"Up the main some of you, smartly now, and find out who that damned fool
is up there. See what mischief he's up to."
"i, i, Sir," several of the men sung out, and a couple jumped into the
weather rigging. I joined them, and the rest were proceeding to follow;
but the Second shouted for some to go up to leeward--in case the fellow
tried to get down that side.
As I followed the other two aloft, I heard the Second Mate tell Tammy,
whose time-keeping it was, to get down on to the maindeck with the other
'prentice, and keep an eye on the fore and aft stays.
"He may try down one of them if he's cornered," I heard him explain. "If
you see anything, just sing out for me, right away."
Tammy hesitated.
"Well?" said the Second Mate, sharply.
"Nothing, Sir," said Tammy, and went down on to the maindeck.
The first man to wind'ard had reached the futtock shrouds; his head was
above the top, and he was taking a preliminary look, before venturing
higher.
"See anythin', Jock?" asked Plummer, the man next above me.
"Na'!" said Jock, tersely, and climbed over the top, and so disappeared
from my sight.
The fellow ahead of me, followed. He reached the futtock rigging, and
stopped to expectorate. I was close at his heels, and he looked down to
me.
"What's up, anyway?" he said. "What's 'e seen? 'oo're we chasin' after?"
I said I didn't know, and he swung up into the topmast rigging. I
followed on. The chaps on the lee side were about level with us. Under
the foot of the topsail, I could see Tammy and the other 'prentice down
on the maindeck, looking upwards.
The fellows were a bit excited in a sort of subdued way; though I am
inclined to think there was far more curiosity and, perhaps, a certain
consciousness of the strangeness of it all. I know that, looking to
leeward, there was a tendancy to keep well together, in which I
sympathised.
"Must be a bloomin' stowaway," one of the men suggested.
I grabbed at the idea, instantly. Perhaps--And then, in a moment, I
dismissed it. I remembered how that first thing had stepped over the
rail _into the sea. That_ matter could not be explained in such a
manner. With regard to this, I was curious and anxious. I had seen
nothing this time. What could the Second Mate have seen? I wondered.
Were we chasing fancies, or was there really someone--something real,
among the shadows above us? My thoughts returned to that thing, Tammy
and I had seen near the log-reel. I remembered how incapable the Second
Mate had been of seeing anything then. I remembered how natural it had
seemed that he should not be able to see. I caught the word "stowaway"
again. After all, that might explain away _this_ affair. It would----
My train of thought was broken suddenly. One of the men was shouting and
gesticulating.
"I sees 'im! I sees 'im!" He was pointing upwards over our heads.
"Where?" said the man above me. "Where?"
I was looking up, for all that I was worth. I was conscious of a certain
sense of relief. "It is _real_ then," I said to myself. I screwed my
head round, and looked along the yards above us. Yet, still I could see
nothing; nothing except shadows and patches of light.
Down on deck, I caught the Second Mate's voice.
"Have you got him?" he was shouting.
"Not yet, Zur," sung out the lowest man on the lee side.
"We sees 'im, Sir," added Quoin.
"I don't!" I said.
"There 'e is agen," he said.
We had reached the t'gallant rigging, and he was pointing up to the
royal yard.
"Ye're a fule, Quoin. That's what ye are."
The voice came from above. It was Jock's, and there was a burst of
laughter at Quoin's expense.
I could see Jock now. He was standing in the rigging, just below the
yard. He had gone straight away up, while the rest of us were mooning
over the top.
"Ye're a fule, Quoin," he said, again, "And I'm thinking the Second's
juist as saft."
He began to descend.
"Then there's no one?" I asked.
"Na'," he said, briefly.
As we reached the deck, the Second Mate ran down off the poop. He came
towards us, with an expectant air.
"You've got him?" he asked, confidently.
"There wasn't anyone," I said.
"What!" he nearly shouted. "You're hiding something!" he continued,
angrily, and glancing from one to another. "Out with it. Who was it?"
"We're hiding nothing," I replied, speaking for the lot. "There's no one
up there."
The Second looked round upon us.
"Am I a fool?" he asked, contemptuously.
There was an assenting silence.
"I saw him myself," he continued. "Tammy, here, saw him. He wasn't over
the top when I first spotted him. There's no mistake about it. It's all
damned rot saying he's not there."
"Well, he's not, Sir," I answered. "Jock went right up to the royal
yard."
The Second Mate said nothing, in immediate reply; but went aft a few
steps and looked up the main. Then he turned to the two 'prentices.
"Sure you two boys didn't see anyone coming down from the main?" he
inquired, suspiciously.
"Yes, Sir," they answered together.
"Anyway," I heard him mutter to himself, "I'd have spotted him myself,
if he had."
"Have you any idea, Sir, who it was you saw?" I asked, at this juncture.
He looked at me, keenly.
"No!" he said.
He thought for a few moments, while we all stood about in silence,
waiting for him to let us go.
"By the holy poker!" he exclaimed, suddenly. "But I ought to have
thought of that before."
He turned, and eyed us individually.
"You're all here?" he asked.
"Yes, Sir," we said in a chorus. I could see that he was counting us.
Then he spoke again.
"All of you men stay here where you are. Tammy, you go into _your_ place
and see if the other fellows are in their bunks. Then come and tell me.
Smartly now!"
The boy went, and he turned to the other 'prentice.
"You get along forrard to the fo'cas'le," he said. "Count the other
watch; then come aft and report to me."
As the youngster disappeared along the deck to the fo'cas'le, Tammy
returned from his visit to the Glory Hole, to tell the Second Mate that
the other two 'prentices were sound asleep in their bunks. Whereupon,
the Second bundled him off to the Carpenter's and Sailmaker's berth, to
see whether they were turned-in.
While he was gone, the other boy came aft, and reported that all the men
were in their bunks, and asleep.
"Sure?" the Second asked him.
"Quite, Sir," he answered.
The Second Mate made a quick gesture.
"Go and see if the Steward is in his berth," he said, abruptly. It was
plain to me that he was tremendously puzzled.
"You've something to learn yet, Mr. Second Mate," I thought to myself.
Then I fell to wondering to what conclusions he would come.
A few seconds later, Tammy returned to say that the Carpenter, Sailmaker
and "Doctor" were all turned-in.
The Second Mate muttered something, and told him to go down into the
saloon to see whether the First and Third Mates, by any chance, were not
in their berths.
Tammy started off; then halted.
"Shall I have a look into the Old Man's place, Sir, while I'm down
there?" he inquired.
"No!" said the Second Mate. "Do what I told you, and then come and tell
me. If anyone's to go into the Captain's cabin, it's got to be me."
Tammy said "i, i, Sir," and skipped away, up on to the poop.
While he was gone, the other 'prentice came up to say that the Steward
was in his berth, and that he wanted to know what the hell he was
fooling round his part of the ship for.
The Second Mate said nothing, for nearly a minute. Then he turned to us,
and told us we might go forrard.
As we moved off in a body, and talking in undertones, Tammy came down
from the poop, and went up to the Second Mate. I heard him say that the
two Mates were in their berths, asleep. Then he added, as if it were an
afterthought--
"So's the Old Man."
"I thought I told you--" the Second Mate began.
"I didn't, Sir," Tammy said. "His cabin door was open."
The Second Mate started to go aft. I caught a fragment of a remark he
was making to Tammy.
"--accounted for the whole crew. I'm--"
He went up on to the poop. I did not catch the rest.
I had loitered a moment; now, however, I hurried after the others. As we
neared the fo'cas'le, one bell went, and we roused out the other watch,
and told them what jinks we had been up to.
"I rec'on 'e must be rocky," one of the men remarked.
"Not 'im," said another, "'e's bin 'avin' forty winks on the break, an'
dreemed 'is mother-en-lore 'ad come on 'er visit, friendly like."
There was some laughter at this suggestion, and I caught myself smiling
along with the rest; though I had no reason for sharing their belief,
that there was nothing in it all.
"Might 'ave been a stowaway, yer know," I heard Quoin, the one who had
suggested it before, remark to one of the A.B's named Stubbins--a short,
rather surly-looking chap.
"Might have been hell!" returned Stubbins. "Stowaways hain't such fools
as all that."
"I dunno," said the first. "I wish I 'ad arsked the Second what 'e
thought about it."
"I don't think it was a stowaway, somehow," I said, chipping in. "What
would a stowaway want aloft? I guess he'd be trying more for the
Steward's pantry."
"You bet he would, hevry time," said Stubbins. He lit his pipe, and
sucked at it, slowly.
"I don't hunderstand it, all ther same," he remarked, after a moment's
silence.
"Neither do I," I said. And after that I was quiet for a while,
listening to the run of conversation on the subject.
Presently, my glance fell upon Williams, the man who had spoken to me
about "shadders." He was sitting in his bunk, smoking, and making no
effort to join in the talk.