Mate’s a fool!” I said, with some bitterness. “A confounded fool!”
“I hain’t so sure about that,” he replied. “It’s bound ter seem queer ter him. I don’t understand it myself —”
He lapsed into silence, and smoked.
“I carn’t understand ’ow it is ther Second Mate didn’t ’appen to spot it,” Quoin said, in a puzzled voice.
It seemed to me that Plummer nudged him to be quiet. It looked as if Plummer shared the Second Mate’s opinion, and the idea made me savage. But Stubbins’s next remark drew my attention.
“I don’t hunderstand it,” he said, again; speaking with deliberation. “All ther same, ther Second should have savvied enough not to have slung you hoff ther look-hout.”
He nodded his head, slowly, keeping his gaze fixed on my face.
“How do you mean?” I asked, puzzled; yet with a vague sense that the man understood more, perhaps, than I had hitherto thought.
“I mean what’s ther Second so blessed cocksure about?”
He took a draw at his pipe, removed it, and leant forward somewhat, over his bunk-board.
“Didn’t he say nothin’ ter you, after you came hoff ther look-hout?” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied; “he spotted me going aft. He told me I was getting to imagining things too much. He said I’d better come forrard and get a sleep.”
“An’ what did you say?”
“Nothing. I came forrard.”
“Why didn’t you bloomin’ well harsk him if he weren’t doin’ ther imaginin’ trick when he sent us chasin’ hup ther main, hafter that bogyman of his?”
“I never thought of it,” I told him.
“Well, yer ought ter have.”
He paused, and sat up in his bunk, and asked for a match.
As I passed him my box, Quoin looked up from his game.
“It might ’ave been a stowaway, yer know. Yer carn’t say as it’s ever been proved as it wasn’t.”
Stubbins passed the box back to me, and went on without noticing Quoin’s remark:
“Told you to go an’ have a snooze, did he? I don’t hunderstand what he’s bluffin’ at.”
“How do you mean, bluffing?” I asked.
He nodded his head, sagely.
“It’s my hidea he knows you saw that light, just as bloomin’ well as I do.”
Plummer looked up from his game, at this speech; but said nothing.
“Then you don’t doubt that I really saw it?” I asked, with a certain surprise.
“Not me,” he remarked, with assurance. “You hain’t likely ter make that kind of mistake three times runnin’.”
“No,” I said. “I know I saw the light, right enough; but”— I hesitated a moment —“it’s blessed queer.”
“It is blessed queer!” he agreed. “It’s damned queer! An’ there’s a lot of other damn queer things happenin’ aboard this packet lately.”
He was silent for a few seconds. Then he spoke suddenly:
“It’s not nat’ral, I’m damned sure of that much.”
He took a couple of draws at his pipe, and in the momentary silence, I caught Jaskett’s voice, above us. He was hailing the poop.
“Red light on the starboard quarter, Sir,” I heard him sing out.
“There you are,” I said with a jerk of my head. “That’s about where that packet I spotted, ought to be by now. She couldn’t cross our bows, so she up helm, and let us pass, and now she’s hauled up again and gone under our stern.”
I got up from the chest, and went to the door, the other three following. As we stepped out on deck, I heard the Second Mate shouting out, away aft, to know the whereabouts of the light.
“By Jove! Stubbins,” I said. “I believe the blessed thing’s gone again.”
We ran to the starboard side, in a body, and looked over; but there was no sign of a light in the darkness astern.
“I carn’t say as I see any light,” said Quoin.
Plummer said nothing.
I looked up at the fo’cas’le head. There, I could faintly distinguish the outlines of Jaskett. He was standing by the starboard rail, with his hands up, shading his eyes, evidently staring towards the place where he had last seen the light.
“Where’s she got to, Jaskett?” I called out.
“I can’t say, mate,” he answered. “It’s the most ’ellishly funny thing I’ve ever comed across. She were there as plain as me ’att one minnit, an’ ther next she were gone — clean gone.”
I turned to Plummer.
“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