The Ghost Ship | Page 8

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, or were we going ahead of her?"
"She was running before the wind, sir, at a tangent to our course, and more to the southwards, moving through the water quicker than we were, until she luffed up just before that mist or fog bank shut her out from view. But--"
"Well?"
"I think, sir," I continued, "that was done merely to speak us; and if she bore away again, as she was probably forced to do, being at the mercy of the gale, she must be scudding even more to the southwards, almost due south, I should fancy, as the wind has backed again more to the nor'ard since this."
"I fancy the same, my boy. I see you have a sailor's eye and