"What do you think about it, _now_?" I asked him.
"Well," he said. "I'll admit I thought at first 'twere somethin' an'
nothin'. I thought yer was mistaken; but it seems yer did see
somethin'."
Away aft, we heard the sound of steps, along the deck.
"Ther Second's comin' forrard for a hexplanation, Jaskett," Stubbins
sung out. "You'd better go down an' change yer breeks."
The Second Mate passed us, and went up the starboard ladder.
"What's up now, Jaskett?" he said quickly. "Where is this light? Neither
the 'prentice nor I can see it!"
"Ther damn thing's clean gone, Sir," Jaskett replied.
"Gone!" the Second Mate said. "Gone! What do you mean?"
"She were there one minnit, Sir, as plain as me 'att, an' ther next,
she'd gone."
"That's a damn silly yarn to tell me!" the Second replied. "You don't
expect me to believe it, do you?"
"It's Gospel trewth any'ow, Sir," Jaskett answered. "An' Jessop seen it
just ther same."
He seemed to have added that last part as an afterthought. Evidently,
the old beggar had changed his opinion as to my need for sleep.
"You're an old fool, Jaskett," the Second said, sharply. "And that idiot
Jessop has been putting things into your silly old head."
He paused, an instant. Then he continued:
"What the devil's the matter with you all, that you've taken to this
sort of game? You know very well that you saw no light! I sent Jessop
off the look-out, and then you must go and start the same game."
"We 'aven't--" Jaskett started to say; but the Second silenced him.
"Stow it!" he said, and turned and went down the ladder, passing us
quickly, without a word.
"Doesn't look to _me_, Stubbins," I said, "as though the Second did
believe we've seen the light."
"I hain't so sure," he answered. "He's a puzzler."
The rest of the watch passed away quietly; and at eight bells I made
haste to turn-in, for I was tremendously tired.
When we were called again for the four to eight watch on deck, I learnt
that one of the men in the Mate's watch had seen a light, soon after we
had gone below, and had reported it, only for it to disappear
immediately. This, I found, had happened twice, and the Mate had got so
wild (being under the impression that the man was playing the fool) that
he had nearly came to blows with him--finally ordering him off the
look-out, and sending another man up in his place. If this last man saw
the light, he took good care not to let the Mate know; so that the
matter had ended there.
And then, on the following night, before we had ceased to talk about the
matter of the vanishing lights, something else occurred that temporarily
drove from my mind all memory of the mist, and the extraordinary, blind
atmosphere it had seemed to usher.