The Ghost Ship | Page 8

leeward of us just
now as clearly as I can see you at this moment; aye, clearer, sir!"
"Then that settles the matter. I've never had occasion to doubt your
word before during the years you've sailed with me, my boy, and I am
not going to doubt it now."

So saying, Captain Applegarth, putting his arm on my shoulder, faced
round towards the first mate and Spokeshave, as if challenging them
both to question my veracity after this testimony on his part in my
favour.
"This ship, you say, Haldane," then continued the skipper, proceeding
to interrogate me as to the facts of the case, now that my credulity had
been established, in his sharp, sailor-like way, "was flying a signal of
distress, eh?"
"Yes, sir," I answered with zest, all animation and excitement again at
his encouragement. "She had her flag, the French tricolour, I think, sir,
hoisted half-mast at her peak; and she appeared, sir, a good deal
battered about, as if she had been in bad weather and had made the
worst of it. Besides, cappen--"
I hesitated.
"Besides what, my boy?" he asked, on my pausing here, almost afraid
to mention the sight I had noticed on the deck of the ill-fated ship in the
presence of two such sceptical listeners as Mr Fosset and my more
immediate superior, the third officer, Spokeshave. "You need not be
afraid of saying anything you like before me. I'm captain of this ship."
"Well, sir," said I, speaking out, "just before that mass of clouds or fog
bank came down on the wind, shutting out the ship from view, she
yawed a bit off her course, and I saw somebody on her deck aft."
"What!" cried the skipper, interrupting me. "Was she so close as that?"
"Yes, sir," said I. "She did not seem to be a hundred yards away at the
moment, if that."
"And you saw somebody on the deck?"
"Yes, cap'en," I answered; "a woman."
He again interrupted me, all agog at the news.

"A woman?"
"Yes, sir," said I. "A woman, or rather, perhaps a girl, for she had a lot
of long hair streaming over her shoulders, all flying about in the wind."
"What was she doing?"
"She appeared to be waving a white handkerchief or something like
that, as if to attract our attention--asking us to help her, like."
The skipper drew himself up to his full height on my telling this and
turned round on Mr Fosset, his face blazing with passion.
"A ship in distress, a woman on board imploring our aid," he exclaimed
in keen, cold, cutting tones that pierced one like a knife, "and you
passed her by without rendering any assistance,--a foreigner too, of all.
We Englishmen, who pride ourselves on our humanity above all other
nations. What will they think of us?"
"I tell you, sir, we could not see any ship at all!" retorted the first mate
hotly, in reply to this reproach, which he felt as keenly as it was uttered.
"And if we couldn't see the ship, how could we know there was a
woman or anybody aboard?"
"Quite so," echoed Spokeshave, emphasising Mr Fosset's logical
argument in his own defence. "That's exactly what I say, sir."
"I would not have had it happen for worlds. We flying the old Union
jack, too, that boasts of never passing either friend or foe when in
danger and asking aid."
He spoke still more bitterly, as if he had not heard their excuses.
"But hang it, cap'en," cried Mr Fosset, "I tell you--"
Captain Applegarth waved him aside.
"Where did you last sight the ship, Haldane?" he said, turning round
abruptly to me. "How was she heading?"

"She bore about two points off our port quarter," I replied as laconically.
"I think, sir, she was running before the wind like ourselves, though
steering a little more to the southwards."
The skipper looked at the standard compass in front of the wheel-house
on the bridge, and then addressed the helmsman.
"How are we steering now, quartermaster? The same course as I set at
noon, eh?"
"Aye, aye, sir," replied Atkins, who still stood by the steam steering
gear singlehanded. If it had been the ordinary wheel, unaided by steam-
power, it would have required four men to move the rudder and keep
the vessel steady in such a sea as was now running. "We've kept her
pretty straight, sir, since eight bells on the same course, west by south,
sir, half south."
"Very good, quartermaster. Haldane, are you there?"
"Yes, sir," said I, stepping up to him again, having moved away into the
shadow under the lee of the wheel-house whilst he was speaking to
Atkins. "Here I am, sir."
"Was that vessel dropping us when we passed her,