The Ghost Pirates

  XII

  _The Council_

  A few minutes later, the Second Mate came forrard again. I was stillstanding near the rigging, holding the lantern, in an aimless sort ofway.

  "That you, Plummer?" he asked.

  "No, Sir," I said. "It's Jessop."

  "Where's Plummer, then?" he inquired.

  "I don't know, Sir," I answered. "I expect he's gone forrard. Shall I goand tell him you want him?"

  "No, there's no need," he said. "Tie your lamp up in the rigging--on thesheerpole there. Then go and get his, and shove it up on the starboardside. After that you'd better go aft and give the two 'prentices a handin the lamp locker."

  "i, i, Sir," I replied, and proceeded to do as he directed. After I hadgot the light from Plummer, and lashed it up to the starboard sherpole,I hurried aft. I found Tammy and the other 'prentice in our watch, busyin the locker, lighting lamps.

  "What are we doing?" I asked.

  "The Old Man's given orders to lash all the spare lamps we can find, inthe rigging, so as to have the decks light," said Tammy. "And a damnedgood job too!"

  He handed me a couple of the lamps, and took two himself.

  "Come on," he said, and stepped out on deck. "We'll fix these in themain rigging, and then I want to talk to you."

  "What about the mizzen?" I inquired.

  "Oh," he replied. "He" (meaning the other 'prentice) "will see to that.Anyway, it'll be daylight directly."

  We shoved the lamps up on the sherpoles--two on each side. Then he cameacross to me.

  "Look here, Jessop!" he said, without any hesitation. "You'll have tojolly well tell the Skipper and the Second Mate all you know about allthis."

  "How do you mean?" I asked.

  "Why, that it's something about the ship herself that's the cause ofwhat's happened," he replied. "If you'd only explained to the SecondMate when I told you to, this might never have been!"

  "But I don't _know_," I said. "I may be all wrong. It's only an idea ofmine. I've no proofs--"

  "Proofs!" he cut in with. "Proofs! what about tonight? We've had all theproofs ever I want!"

  I hesitated before answering him.

  "So have I, for that matter," I said, at length. "What I mean is, I'venothing that the Skipper and the Second Mate would consider as proofs.They'd never listen seriously to me."

  "They'd listen fast enough," he replied. "After what's happened thiswatch, they'd listen to anything. Anyway, it's jolly well your duty totell them!"

  "What could they do, anyway?" I said, despondently. "As things aregoing, we'll all be dead before another week is over, at this rate."

  "You tell them," he answered. "That's what you've got to do. If you canonly get them to realise that you're right, they'll be glad to put intothe nearest port, and send us all ashore."

  I shook my head.

  "Well, anyway, they'll have to do something," he replied, in answer tomy gesture. "We can't go round the Horn, with the number of men we'velost. We haven't enough to handle her, if it comes on to blow."

  "You've forgotten, Tammy," I said. "Even if I could get the Old Man tobelieve I'd got at the truth of the matter, he couldn't do anything.Don't you see, if I'm right, we couldn't even see the land, if we madeit. We're like blind men...."

  "What on earth do you mean?" he interrupted. "How do you make out we'relike blind men? Of course we could see the land--"

  "Wait a minute! wait a minute!" I said. "You don't understand. Didn't Itell you?"

  "Tell what?" he asked.

  "About the ship I spotted," I said. "I thought you knew!"

  "No," he said. "When?"

  "Why," I replied. "You know when the Old Man sent me away from thewheel?"

  "Yes," he answered. "You mean in the morning watch, day beforeyesterday?"

  "Yes," I said. "Well, don't you know what was the matter?"

  "No," he replied. "That is, I heard you were snoozing at the wheel, andthe Old Man came up and caught you."

  "That's all a darned silly yarn!" I said. And then I told him the wholetruth of the affair. After I had done that, I explained my idea aboutit, to him.

  "Now you see what I mean?" I asked.

  "You mean that this strange atmosphere--or whatever it is--we're in,would not allow us to see another ship?" he asked, a bit awestruck.

  "Yes," I said. "But the point I wanted you to see, is that if we can'tsee another vessel, even when she's quite close, then, in the same way,we shouldn't be able to see land. To all intents and purposes we'reblind. Just you think of it! We're out in the middle of the briny, doinga sort of eternal blind man's hop. The Old Man couldn't put into port,even if he wanted to. He'd run us bang on shore, without our ever seeingit."

  "What are we going to do, then?" he asked, in a despairing sort of way."Do you mean to say we can't do anything? Surely something can be done!It's terrible!"

  For perhaps a minute, we walked up and down, in the light from thedifferent lanterns. Then he spoke again.

  "We might be run down, then," he said, "and never even see the othervessel?"

  "It's possible," I replied. "Though, from what I saw, it's evident that_we're_ quite visible; so that it would be easy for them to see us, andsteer clear of us, even though we couldn't see them."

  "And we might run into something, and never see it?" he asked me,following up the train of thought.

  "Yes," I said. "Only there's nothing to stop the other ship from gettingout of our way."

  "But if it wasn't a vessel?" he persisted. "It might be an iceberg, or arock, or even a derelict."

  "In that case," I said, putting it a bit flippantly, naturally, "we'dprobably damage it."

  He made no answer to this and for a few moments, we were quiet.

  Then he spoke abruptly, as though the idea had come suddenly to him.

  "Those lights the other night!" he said. "Were they a ship's lights?"

  "Yes," I replied. "Why?"

  "Why," he answered. "Don't you see, if they were really lights, we_could_ see them?"

  "Well, I should think I ought to know that," I replied. "You seem toforget that the Second Mate slung me off the look-out for daring to dothat very thing."

  "I don't mean that," he said. "Don't you see that if we could see themat all, it showed that the atmosphere-thing wasn't round us then?"

  "Not necessarily," I answered. "It may have been nothing more than arift in it; though, of course, I may be all wrong. But, anyway, the factthat the lights disappeared almost as soon as they were seen, shows thatit was very much round the ship."

  That made him feel a bit the way I did, and when next he spoke, his tonehad lost its hopefulness.

  "Then you think it'll be no use telling the Second Mate and the Skipperanything?" he asked.

  "I don't know," I replied. "I've been thinking about it, and it can't doany harm. I've a very good mind to."

  "I should," he said. "You needn't be afraid of anybody laughing at you,now. It might do some good. You've seen more than anyone else."

  He stopped in his walk, and looked round.

  "Wait a minute," he said, and ran aft a few steps. I saw him look up atthe break of the poop; then he came back.

  "Come along now," he said. "The Old Man's up on the poop, talking to theSecond Mate. You'll never get a better chance."

  Still I hesitated; but he caught me by the sleeve, and almost dragged meto the lee ladder.

  "All right," I said, when I got there. "All right, I'll come. Only I'mhanged if I know what to say when I get there."

  "Just tell them you want to speak to them," he said. "They'll ask whatyou want, and then you spit out all you know. They'll find itinteresting enough."

  "You'd better come too," I suggested. "You'll be able to back me up inlots of things."

  "I'll come, fast enough," he replied. "You go up."

  I went up the ladder, and walked across to where the Skipper and theSecond Mate stood talking earnestly, by the rail. Tammy kept behind. AsI came near to them, I caught two or th
ree words; though I attached nomeaning then to them. They were: "...send for him." Then the two of themturned and looked at me, and the Second Mate asked what I wanted.

  "I want to speak to you and the Old M--Captain, Sir," I answered.

  "What is it, Jessop?" the Skipper inquired.

  "I scarcely know how to put it, Sir," I said. "It's--it's about these--these things."

  "What things? Speak out, man," he said.

  "Well, Sir," I blurted out. "There's some dreadful thing or things comeaboard this ship, since we left port."

  I saw him give one quick glance at the Second Mate, and the Secondlooked back.

  Then the Skipper replied.

  "How do you mean, come aboard?" he asked.

  "Out of the sea, Sir," I said. "I've seen them. So's Tammy, here."

  "Ah!" he exclaimed, and it seemed to me, from his face, that he wasunderstanding something better. "Out of the Sea!"

  Again he looked at the Second Mate; but the Second was staring at me.

  "Yes Sir," I said. "It's the _ship_. She's not safe! I've watched. Ithink I understand a bit; but there's a lot I don't."

  I stopped. The Skipper had turned to the Second Mate. The Second nodded,gravely. Then I heard him mutter, in a low voice, and the Old Manreplied; after which he turned to me again.

  "Look here, Jessop," he said. "I'm going to talk straight to you. Youstrike me as being a cut above the ordinary shellback, and I thinkyou've sense enough to hold your tongue."

  "I've got my mate's ticket, Sir," I said, simply.

  Behind me, I heard Tammy give a little start. He had not known about ituntil then.

  The Skipper nodded.

  "So much the better," he answered. "I may have to speak to you aboutthat, later on."

  He paused, and the Second Mate said something to him, in an undertone.

  "Yes," he said, as though in reply to what the Second had been saying.Then he spoke to me again.

  "You've seen things come out of the sea, you say?" he questioned. "Nowjust tell me all you can remember, from the very beginning."

  I set to, and told him everything in detail, commencing with the strangefigure that had stepped aboard out of the sea, and continuing my yarn,up to the things that had happened in that very watch.

  I stuck well to solid facts; and now and then he and the Second Matewould look at one another, and nod. At the end, he turned to me with anabrupt gesture.

  "You still hold, then, that you saw a ship the other morning, when Isent you from the wheel?" he asked.

  "Yes, Sir," I said. "I most certainly do."

  "But you knew there wasn't any!" he said.

  "Yes, Sir," I replied, in an apologetic tone. "There was; and, if youwill let me, I believe that I can explain it a bit."

  "Well," he said. "Go on."

  Now that I knew he was willing to listen to me in a serious manner allmy funk of telling him had gone, and I went ahead and told him my ideasabout the mist, and the thing it seemed to have ushered, you know. Ifinished up, by telling him how Tammy had worried me to come and tellwhat I knew.

  "He thought then, Sir," I went on, "that you might wish to put into thenearest port; but I told him that I didn't think you could, even if youwanted to."

  "How's that?" he asked, profoundly interested.

  "Well, Sir," I replied. "If we're unable to see other vessels, weshouldn't be able to see the land. You'd be piling the ship up, withoutever seeing where you were putting her."

  This view of the matter, affected the Old Man in an extraordinarymanner; as it did, I believe, the Second Mate. And neither spoke for amoment. Then the Skipper burst out.

  "By Gad! Jessop," he said. "If you're right, the Lord have mercy on us."

  He thought for a couple of seconds. Then he spoke again, and I could seethat he was pretty well twisted up:

  "My God!... if you're right!"

  The Second Mate spoke.

  "The men mustn't know, Sir," he warned him. "It'd be a mess if theydid!"

  "Yes," said the Old Man.

  He spoke to me.

  "Remember that, Jessop," he said. "Whatever you do, don't go yarningabout this, forrard."

  "No, Sir," I replied.

  "And you too, boy," said the Skipper. "Keep your tongue between yourteeth. We're in a bad enough mess, without your making it worse. Do youhear?"

  "Yes, Sir," answered Tammy.

  The Old Man turned to me again.

  "These things, or creatures that you say come out of the sea," he said."You've never seen them, except after nightfall?" he asked.

  "No, Sir," I replied. "Never."

  He turned to the Second Mate.

  "So far as I can make out, Mr. Tulipson," he remarked, "the danger seemsto be only at night."

  "It's always been at night, Sir," the Second answered.

  The Old Man nodded.

  "Have you anything to propose, Mr. Tulipson?" he asked.

  "Well, Sir," replied the Second Mate. "I think you ought to have hersnugged down every night, before dark!"

  He spoke with considerable emphasis. Then he glanced aloft, and jerkedhis head in the direction of the unfurled t'gallants.

  "It's a damned good thing, Sir," he said, "that it didn't come on toblow any harder."

  The Old Man nodded again.

  "Yes," he remarked. "We shall have to do it; but God knows when we'llget home!"

  "Better late than not at all," I heard the Second mutter, under hisbreath.

  Out loud, he said:

  "And the lights, Sir?"

  "Yes," said the Old Man. "I will have lamps in the rigging every night,after dark."

  "Very good, Sir," assented the Second. Then he turned to us.

  "It's getting daylight, Jessop," he remarked, with a glance at the sky."You'd better take Tammy with you, and shove those lamps back again intothe locker."

  "i, i, Sir," I said, and went down off the poop with Tammy.