Part 29 (1/2)

”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 s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+p?” 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 sh.o.r.e, 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 s.h.i.+p 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.