Although they had not been called yet, for it was only `six bells,' the
watch below had been roused out by the commotion and wild cries and
yells that rang about the deck. Every man Jack had tumbled up from
below, and they were all grouped about the fo'c's'le, hiding behind the
galley like myself, and watching the weird scene going on aft, which,
but for the maniacal rage of the captain and his murderous fury, would
have been almost comical in its main incidents.
It was a regular steeplechase: the frenzied man hunted those he was
after in and out of the cabin, and up the poop ladder, and down the
companion stairs, in turn, to begin again anew the same strange game,
that was amusing enough save to those personally concerned!
One of the hands, though, had his wits at work besides watching what was
going on; and this was Tom Bullover, my friend the carpenter.
He recollected what the steward had said on a former occasion of the
captain having had a fit of the horrors from excessive drinking; and,
although it was too late now to take away the skipper's revolver before
he could effect any mischief with it, there was still time to prevent
his doing any further harm.
So, Tom, with a coil of rope over his arm, stealthily made his way aft,
and just as Captain Snaggs aimed at the prostrate body of the steward
the carpenter threw a running bowline he had made in the rope round the
captain's shoulders, jerking him backwards at the very moment he fired
the revolver. This caused the bullet to be diverted from its aim, for
it passed through the bulwarks, instead of perforating Morris Jones'
somewhat corpulent person.
The next instant, two or three more of the men going to Tom's
assistance, Captain Snaggs was dragged down on the deck, raging and
foaming at the mouth; when, binding him securely hand and foot, they
lifted him up and carried him into his cabin, where they strapped him
down in his cot, powerless to do any more injury to himself or anyone
else, until his delirium should be over.
As for the steward, he fainted dead away from fright; and it required a
good deal of shaking and rubbing on the part of Tom Bullover and Jan
Steenbock to bring him back to life again--the latter now coming out of
the cabin, holding a slip noose similar to that used by the carpenter in
snaring the skipper with, and evidently intended for the same purpose,
although a trifle too late to be of service then.
Captain Snaggs himself recovered his consciousness about noon the same
day, but did not have the slightest recollection of his mad orgy, the
only actual sufferers from which were Morris Jones, who really had been
more frightened than hurt, and the helmsman, Jim Chowder, who, in lieu
of having his arm broken, as he had at first cried out, had only a
slight bullet graze through the fleshy part of it; so, considering the
skipper fired off no less than five shots out of the six which his
revolver contained, it was a wonder more were not grievously wounded, if
not killed, when he ran a-muck like that!
When Hiram Bangs and I met in the galley, shortly after the row was
over, we both compared notes, the American saying that he'd been roused
up from sleep, not by the noise of the shooting or rampaging about the
deck, but by the sound of Sam's voice singing in the hold, and he knew
at once that some mischief was going to happen, "ez it allers did when
he heerd the durned ghostess afore!"
I declare he made me feel more alarmed by this remark than all that had
previously occurred, and I had to raise my eyes to assure myself that
Sam's banjo was yet hanging in its accustomed place over the door of the
galley, before I could go on with my task of getting the men's early
coffee ready, to serve out as soon as the watch was changed, `eight
bells' having been struck shortly before.
Tom Bullover, though, when presently he lounged up forward, and I told
him what Hiram said, only laughed.
"It's all stuff and nonsense, Charley," he chuckled out; "you an' Hiram
'll be the death of me some day, with your yarns o' ghostesses an' such
like. The skipper didn't see no sperrit as you thinks when he got mad
this mornin'; it's all that cussed rum he took because he got round Cape
Horn. Guess, as our mate here says, the rum `got round' him!"
Hiram laughed, too, at this.
"Heave ahead an' carry on, old hoss," he said; "I reckon ye won't riz my
dander, fur what I tells Cholly I knows for true, an' nuthin' 'll turn
me agen it. Why, Tom, when I wer down Chicopee way--"
"Avast there, mate, an' give us some coffee," cried Tom, interrupting
him at this point, and some others of the crew coming up at the moment,
the conversation was not renewed, which I was not sorry for, Hiram's
talk about ghosts not being very cheerful.
During the day, as I've said, Captain Snaggs got better, and came on
deck again, looking like himself, but very pale. His face, however,
seemed to have become wonderfully thinner in such a short space of time,
so thin indeed that he appeared to be all nose and beard, the two
meeting each other in the middle, like a pair of nut-crackers!
He was much quieter, too, for he did not swear a bit, as he would have
done before, at the man at the wheel, who, startled by his coming softly
up the companion without previous notice, when he fancied he was lying
in his cot, let the ship fall off so that she almost broached-to, in
such a way as almost to carry her spars by the board!
No, he did not utter a single harsh word.
"Steady thaar!" was all he called out; "kip her full an' by, an' steer
ez naar north ez ye ken!"
This was about the beginning of July, and we had from then bright
weather, with westerly and nor'-west winds all the way up the Pacific,
past the island of Juan Fernandez, which we saw like a haze of green in
the distance.
After this, making to cross the Equator for the second time--our first
time being in the Atlantic Doldrums--somewhere between the meridians 100
degrees to 102 degrees, we proceeded on steadily northward, picking up
the south-east trade-winds in about latitude 20 degrees South, when
nearly opposite Arica on the chart, although, of course, out of sight of
land, being more than a couple of hundred leagues away from the nearest
part of the coast.
In about twenty days' time we got near the Equator, when we met with
variable winds and calms, while a strong indraught sucked us out of our
course into the Bay of Panama.
The temperature just then grew very hot, and the captain, taking to
drinking again, soon recovered his spirits and his temper, which had
latterly grown so smooth and equable that we hardly knew him for the
same man.
In a short space, however, the rum fully restored him to his old
quarrelsome self, and he and the first-mate, Mr Flinders, had an awful
row one night, when the skipper threatened to send the mate forward and
promote Jan Steenbock in his place. Captain Snaggs had never forgiven
him for the cowardice and want of sailorly instinct he displayed at the
time of the alarm of fire in the forepeak; and the fact also of Mr
Flinders having lain for two days drunk in his bunk after their
jollification on rounding Cape Horn, did not tend to impress the skipper
any the more strongly in his favour.