Part 27 (1/2)

”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 d.a.m.ned 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 G.o.d's sake, don't shoot!”

”Shoot be d.a.m.ned!” 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.

”G.o.d!” 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.