Strange Tales of the High Seas

by Osie Turner, Morgan Robertson, William Hope Hodgson

  Then I heard the Old Man shouting to Jaskett.

  "Be careful with that flare there!" he sung out. "You'll be having that sail scorched!"

  He left the Second Mate, and came back on to the port side of the mast.

  To my right, Plummer's flares seemed to be dwindling. I glanced up at his face through the smoke. He was paying no attention to it; instead, he was staring up above his head.

  "Shove some paraffin on to it, Plummer," I called to him. "It'll be out in a minute."

  He looked down quickly to the light, and did as I suggested. Then he held it out at arm's length, and peered up again into the darkness.

  "See anything?" asked the Old Man, suddenly observing his attitude. Plummer glanced at him, with a start.

  "It's ther r'yal, Sir," he explained. "It's all adrift."

  "What!" said the Old Man.

  He was standing a few ratlines up the t'gallant rigging, and he bent his body outwards to get a better look.

  "Mr. Tulipson!" he shouted. "Do you know that the royal's all adrift?"

  "No, Sir," answered the Second Mate. "If it is, it's more of this devilish work!"

  "It's adrift right enough," said the Skipper, and he and the Second went a few ratlines higher, keeping level with one another.

  I had now got above the crosstrees, and was just at the Old Man's heels. Suddenly, he shouted out:

  "There he is!—Stubbins! Stubbins!"

  "Where, Sir?" asked the Second, eagerly. "I can't see him!"

  "There! there!" replied the Skipper, pointing.

  I leant out from the rigging, and looked up along his back, in the direction his finger indicated. At first, I could see nothing; then, slowly, you know, there grew upon my sight a dim figure crouching upon the bunt of the royal, and partly hidden by the mast. I stared, and gradually it came to me that there was a couple of them, and further out upon the yard, a hump that might have been anything, and was only visible indistinctly amid the flutter of the canvas.

  "Stubbins!" the Skipper sung out. "Stubbins, come down out of that! Do you hear me?"

  But no one came, and there was no answer.

  "There's two—" I began; but he was shouting again:

  "Come down out of that! Do you damned well hear me?"

  Still there was no reply.

  "I'm hanged if I can see him at all, Sir!" the Second Mate called out from his side of the mast.

  "Can't see him!" said the Old Man, now thoroughly angry. "I'll soon let you see him!"

  He bent down to me with the lantern.

  "Catch hold, Jessop," he said, which I did.

  Then he pulled the blue light from his pocket, and as he was doing so, I saw the Second peek round the back side of the mast at him. Evidently, in the uncertain light, he must have mistaken the Skipper's action; for, all at once, he shouted out in a frightened voice:

  "Don't shoot, Sir! For God's sake, don't shoot!"

  "Shoot be damned!" exclaimed the Old Man. "Watch!"

  He pulled off the cap of the light.

  "There's two of them, Sir," I called again to him.

  "What!" he said in a loud voice, and at the same instant he rubbed the end of the light across the cap, and it burst into fire.

  He held it up so that it lit the royal yard like day, and straightway, a couple of shapes dropped silently from the royal on to the t'gallant yard. At the same moment, the humped Something, midway out upon the yard, rose up. It ran in to the mast, and I lost sight of it.

  "God!" I heard the Skipper gasp, and he fumbled in his side pocket.

  I saw the two figures which had dropped on to the t'gallant, run swiftly along the yard—one to the starboard and the other to the port yard-arms.

  On the other side of the mast, the Second Mate's pistol cracked out twice, sharply. Then, from over my head the Skipper fired twice, and then again; but with what effect, I could not tell. Abruptly, as he fired his last shot, I was aware of an indistinct Something, gliding down the starboard royal backstay. It was descending full upon Plummer, who, all unconscious of the thing, was staring towards the t'gallant yard.

  "Look out above you, Plummer!" I almost shrieked.

  "What? where?" he called, and grabbed at the stay, and waved his flare, excitedly.

  Down on the upper topsail yard, Quoin's and Jaskett's voices rose simultaneously, and in the identical instant, their flares went out. Then Plummer shouted, and his light went utterly. There were left only the two lanterns, and the blue-light held by the Skipper, and that, a few seconds afterwards, finished and died out.

  The Skipper and the Second Mate were shouting to the men upon the yard, and I heard them answer, in shaky voices. Out on the crosstrees, I could see, by the light from my lantern, that Plummer was holding in a dazed fashion to the backstay.

  "Are you all right, Plummer?" I called.

  "Yes," he said, after a little pause; and then he swore.

  "Come in off that yard, you men!" the Skipper was singing out. "Come in! come in!"

  Down on deck, I heard someone calling; but could not distinguish the words. Above me, pistol in hand, the Skipper was glancing about, uneasily.

  "Hold up that light, Jessop," he said. "I can't see!"

  Below us, the men got off the yard, into the rigging.

  "Down on deck with you!" ordered the Old Man.

  "As smartly as you can!"

  "Come in off there, Plummer!" sung out the Second Mate. "Get down with the others!"

  "Down with you, Jessop!" said the Skipper, speaking rapidly. "Down with you!"

  I got over the crosstrees, and he followed. On the other side, the Second Mate was level with us. He had passed his lantern to Plummer, and I caught the glint of his revolver in his right hand. In this fashion, we reached the top. The man who had been stationed there with the blue-lights, had gone. Afterwards, I found that he went down on deck as soon as they were finished. There was no sign of the man with the flare on the starboard craneline. He also, I learnt later, had slid down one of the backstays on to the deck, only a very short while before we reached the top. He swore that a great black shadow of a man had come suddenly upon him from aloft. When I heard that, I remembered the thing I had seen descending upon Plummer. Yet the man who had gone out upon the port craneline—the one who had bungled with the lighting of his flare—was still where we had left him; though his light was burning now but dimly.

  "Come in out of that, you!" the Old Man sung out "Smartly now, and get down on deck!"

  "i, i, Sir," the man replied, and started to make his way in.

  The Skipper waited until he had got into the main rigging, and then he told me to get down out of the top. He was in the act of following, when, all at once, there rose a loud outcry on deck, and then came the sound of a man screaming.

  "Get out of my way, Jessop!" the Skipper roared, and swung himself down alongside of me.

  I heard the Second Mate shout something from the starboard rigging. Then we were all racing down as hard as we could go. I had caught a momentary glimpse of a man running from the doorway on the port side of the fo'cas'le. In less than half a minute we were upon the deck, and among a crowd of the men who were grouped round something. Yet, strangely enough, they were not looking at the thing among them; but away aft at something in the darkness.

  "It's on the rail!" cried several voices.

  "Overboard!" called somebody, in an excited voice. "It's jumped over the side!"

  "Ther' wer'n't nothin'!" said a man in the crowd.

  "Silence!" shouted the Old Man. "Where's the Mate? What's happened?"

  "Here, Sir," called the First Mate, shakily, from near the centre of the group. "It's Jacobs, Sir. He—he—"

  "What!" said the Skipper. "What!"

  "He—he's—he's—dead I think!" said the First Mate, in jerks.

  "Let me see," said the Old Man, in a quieter tone.

  The men had stood to one side to give him room, and he knelt beside the man upon the deck.

  "Pass the lant
ern here, Jessop," he said.

  I stood by him, and held the light. The man was lying face downwards on the deck. Under the light from the lantern, the Skipper turned him over and looked at him.

  "Yes," he said, after a short examination. "He's dead."

  He stood up and regarded the body a moment, in silence. Then he turned to the Second Mate, who had been standing by, during the last couple of minutes.

  "Three!" he said, in a grim undertone.

  The Second Mate nodded, and cleared his voice. He seemed on the point of saying something; then he turned and looked at Jacobs, and said nothing.

  "Three," repeated the Old Man. "Since eight bells!"

  He stooped and looked again at Jacobs.

  "Poor devil! poor devil!" he muttered.

  The Second Mate grunted some of the huskiness out of his throat, and spoke.

  "Where must we take him?" he asked, quietly. "The two bunks are full."

  "You'll have to put him down on the deck by the lower bunk," replied the Skipper.

  As they carried him away, I heard the Old Man make a sound that was almost a groan. The rest of the men had gone forrard, and I do not think he realised that I was standing by him

  "My God! O, my God!" he muttered, and began to walk slowly aft.

  He had cause enough for groaning. There were three dead, and Stubbins had gone utterly and completely. We never saw him again.

  Chapter XII - The Council

  A few minutes later, the Second Mate came forrard again. I was still standing near the rigging, holding the lantern, in an aimless sort of way.

  "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 go and tell him you want him?"

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

  "i, i, Sir," I replied, and proceeded to do as he directed. After I had got 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, busy in 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, in the rigging, so as to have the decks light," said Tammy. "And a damned good 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 the main 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 came across to me.

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

  "How do you mean?" I asked.

  "Why, that it's something about the ship herself that's the cause of what's happened," he replied. "If you'd only explained to the Second Mate 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 of mine. I've no proofs—"

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

  I hesitated before answering him.

  "So have I, for that matter," I said, at length. "What I mean is, I've nothing 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 this watch, they'd listen to anything. Anyway, it's jolly well your duty to tell them!"

  "What could they do, anyway?" I said, despondently. "As things are going, 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 can only get them to realise that you're right, they'll be glad to put into the nearest port, and send us all ashore."

  I shook my head.

  "Well, anyway, they'll have to do something," he replied, in answer to my gesture. "We can't go round the Horn, with the number of men we've lost. 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 to believe 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 made it. We're like blind men…."

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

  "Wait a minute! wait a minute!" I said. "You don't understand. Didn't I tell 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 the wheel?"

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

  "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, and the Old Man came up and caught you."

  "That's all a darned silly yarn!" I said. And then I told him the whole truth of the affair. After I had done that, I explained my idea about it, 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't see 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're blind. Just you think of it! We're out in the middle of the briny, doing a 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 seeing it."

  "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 the different lanterns. Then he spoke again.

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

  "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, and steer 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 getting out of our way."

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

  "In that case," I said, putting it a bit flippantly, naturally, "we'd probably 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 to forget that the Second Mate slung me off the look-out for daring to do that very thing."

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

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