"I won't go, Sir, till there's a light," I said.
The Skipper stamped his foot, angrily; but the Second Mate stepped
forward.
"Come! Come, Jessop!" he exclaimed. "This won't do, you know! You'd
better get back to the wheel without further bother."
"Wait a minute," said the Skipper, at this juncture. "What objection
have you to going back to the wheel?" he asked.
"I saw something," I said. "It was climbing over the taffrail, Sir--"
"Ah!" he said, interrupting me with a quick gesture. Then, abruptly:
"Sit down! sit down; you're all in a shake, man."
I flopped down on to the skylight seat. I was, as he had said, all in a
shake, and the binnacle lamp was wobbling in my hand, so that the light
from it went dancing here and there across the deck.
"Now," he went on. "Just tell us what you saw."
I told them, at length, and while I was doing so, the time-keeper
brought up the lights and lashed one up on the sheerpole in each
rigging.
"Shove one under the spanker boom," the Old Man sung out, as the boy
finished lashing up the other two. "Be smart now."
"i, i, Sir," said the 'prentice, and hurried off.
"Now then," remarked the Skipper when this had been done "You needn't be
afraid to go back to the wheel. There's a light over the stern, and the
Second Mate or myself will be up here all the time."