The Council
A minutes later, the Second Mate came again. I was still near the rigging, the lantern, in an 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 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 there. Then go and his, and it up on the side. After that you'd go and give the two 'prentices a hand in the lamp locker."
"i, i, Sir," I replied, and to do as he directed. After I had got the light from Plummer, and it up to the sherpole, I aft. I Tammy and the other 'prentice in our watch, in the locker, lamps.
"What are we doing?" I asked.
"The Old Man's orders to all the we can find, in the rigging, so as to have the light," said Tammy. "And a good job too!"
He me a of the lamps, and took two himself.
"Come on," he said, and out on deck. "We'll 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 directly."
We the 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 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 of what's happened," he replied. "If you'd only to the Second Mate when I told you to, this might 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 I want!"
I him.
"So have I, for that matter," I said, at length. "What I is, I've nothing that the Skipper and the Second Mate would as proofs. They'd to me."
"They'd fast enough," he replied. "After what's this watch, they'd to anything. Anyway, it's well your to tell them!"
"What they do, anyway?" I said, despondently. "As are going, we'll all be another week is over, at this rate."
"You tell them," he answered. "That's what you've got to do. If you can only them to that you're right, they'll be to put into the nearest port, and send us all ashore."
I my head.
"Well, anyway, they'll have to do something," he replied, in answer to my gesture. "We can't go the Horn, with the number of men we've lost. We haven't to her, if it comes on to blow."
"You've forgotten, Tammy," I said. "Even if I the Old Man to 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 see the land, if we it. We're like men…."
"What on earth do you mean?" he interrupted. "How do you make out we're like men? Of we 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 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 in the watch, day yesterday?"
"Yes," I said. "Well, don't you know what was the matter?"
"No," he replied. "That is, I you were at the wheel, and the Old Man came up and you."
"That's all a yarn!" I said. And then I told him the whole truth of the affair. After I had done that, I my idea about it, to him.
"Now you see what I mean?" I asked.
"You that this atmosphere—or it is—we're in, would not allow us to see another ship?" he asked, a awestruck.
"Yes," I said. "But the point I wanted you to see, is that if we can't see another vessel, when she's close, then, in the same way, we shouldn't be able to see land. To all and purposes we're blind. Just you think of it! We're out in the middle of the briny, doing a of man's hop. The Old Man couldn't put into port, if he wanted to. He'd us on shore, without our it."
"What are we going to do, then?" he asked, in a of way.
"Do you to say we can't do anything? Surely something can be done!
It's terrible!"
For a minute, we walked up and down, in the light from the different lanterns. Then he spoke again.
"We might be down, then," he said, "and see the other vessel?"
"It's possible," I replied. "Though, from what I saw, it's that we're visible; so that it would be easy for them to see us, and clear of us, though we couldn't see them."
"And we might into something, and see it?" he asked me, up the train of thought.
"Yes," I said. "Only there's nothing to stop the other ship from out of our way."
"But if it wasn't a vessel?" he persisted. "It might be an iceberg, or a rock, or a derelict."
"In that case," I said, it a flippantly, naturally, "we'd it."
He no answer to this and for a moments, we were quiet.
Then he spoke abruptly, as though the idea had come 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 lights, we see them?"
"Well, I should think I ought to know that," I replied. "You to that the Second Mate me off the look-out for to do that very thing."
"I don't that," he said. "Don't you see that if we see them at all, it that the atmosphere-thing wasn't us then?"
"Not necessarily," I answered. "It may have been nothing more than a in it; though, of course, I may be all wrong. But, anyway, the that the lights almost as soon as they were seen, that it was very much the ship."
That him a the way I did, and when next he spoke, his had its hopefulness.
"Then you think it'll be no use telling the Second Mate and the Skipper anything?" he asked.
"I don't know," I replied. "I've been about it, and it can't do any harm. I've a very good mind to."
"I should," he said. "You needn't be of laughing at you, now. It might do some good. You've more than anyone else."
He stopped in his walk, and looked round.
"Wait a minute," he said, and ran a steps. I saw him look up at the of the poop; then he came back.
"Come along now," he said. "The Old Man's up on the poop, talking to the
Second Mate. You'll a chance."
Still I hesitated; but he me by the sleeve, and almost me to the ladder.
"All right," I said, when I got there. "All right, I'll come. Only I'm if I know what to say when I there."
"Just tell them you want to speak to them," he said. "They'll ask what you want, and then you out all you know. They'll it enough."
"You'd come too," I suggested. "You'll be able to me up in of things."
"I'll come, fast enough," he replied. "You go up."
I up the ladder, and walked across to where the Skipper and the Second Mate talking earnestly, by the rail. Tammy behind. As I came near to them, I two or three words; though I no meaning then to them. They were: "…send for him." Then the two of them and looked at me, and the Second Mate asked what I wanted.
"I want to speak to you and the Old M—Captain, Sir," I answered.
"What is it, Jessop?" the Skipper inquired.
"I know how to put it, Sir," I said. "It's—it's about these— these things."
"What things? Speak out, man," he said.
"Well, Sir," I out. "There's some thing or come this ship, since we left port."
I saw him give one quick at the Second Mate, and the Second looked back.
Then the Skipper replied.
"How do you mean, come aboard?" he asked.
"Out of the sea, Sir," I said. "I've them. So's Tammy, here."
"Ah!" he exclaimed, and it to me, from his face, that he was something better. "Out of the Sea!"
Again he looked at the Second Mate; but the Second was at me.
"Yes Sir," I said. "It's the ship. She's not safe! I've watched. I think I a bit; but there's a I don't."
I stopped. The Skipper had to the Second Mate. The Second nodded, gravely. Then I him mutter, in a low voice, and the Old Man replied; after which he to me again.
"Look here, Jessop," he said. "I'm going to talk to you. You me as being a cut above the ordinary shellback, and I think you've to your tongue."
"I've got my mate's ticket, Sir," I said, simply.
Behind me, I Tammy give a little start. He had not about it until then.
The Skipper nodded.
"So much the better," he answered. "I may have to speak to you about that, later on."
He paused, and the Second Mate said something to him, in an undertone.
"Yes," he said, as though in reply to what the Second had been saying.
Then he spoke to me again.
"You've come out of the sea, you say?" he questioned. "Now just tell me all you can remember, from the very beginning."
I set to, and told him in detail, with the that had out of the sea, and my yarn, up to the that had in that very watch.
I well to solid facts; and now and then he and the Second Mate would look at one another, and nod. At the end, he to me with an gesture.
"You still hold, then, that you saw a ship the other morning, when I sent you from the wheel?" he asked.
"Yes, Sir," I said. "I most do."
"But you there wasn't any!" he said.
"Yes, Sir," I replied, in an tone. "There was; and, if you will let me, I that I can it a bit."
"Well," he said. "Go on."
Now that I he was to to me in a manner all my of telling him had gone, and I ahead and told him my ideas about the mist, and the thing it to have ushered, you know. I up, by telling him how Tammy had me to come and tell what I knew.
"He then, Sir," I on, "that you might wish to put into the nearest port; but I told him that I didn't think you could, if you wanted to."
"How's that?" he asked, interested.
"Well, Sir," I replied. "If we're unable to see other vessels, we shouldn't be able to see the land. You'd be the ship up, without where you were her."
This view of the matter, the Old Man in an manner; as it did, I believe, the Second Mate. And neither spoke for a moment. Then the Skipper out.
"By Gad! Jessop," he said. "If you're right, the Lord have on us."
He for a of seconds. Then he spoke again, and I see that he was well up:
"My God!… if you're right!"
The Second Mate spoke.
"The men mustn't know, Sir," he him. "It'd be a if they did!"
"Yes," said the Old Man.
He spoke to me.
"Remember that, Jessop," he said. "Whatever you do, don't go about this, forrard."
"No, Sir," I replied.
"And you too, boy," said the Skipper. "Keep your your teeth. We're in a mess, without your making it worse. Do you hear?"
"Yes, Sir," answered Tammy.
The Old Man to me again.
"These things, or that you say come out of the sea," he said.
"You've them, after nightfall?" he asked.
"No, Sir," I replied. "Never."
He to the Second Mate.
"So as I can make out, Mr. Tulipson," he remarked, "the to be only at night."
"It's always been at night, Sir," the Second answered.
The Old Man nodded.
"Have you anything to propose, Mr. Tulipson?" he asked.
"Well, Sir," the Second Mate. "I think you ought to have her every night, dark!"
He spoke with emphasis. Then he aloft, and his in the direction of the t'gallants.
"It's a good thing, Sir," he said, "that it didn't come on to any harder."
The Old Man again.
"Yes," he remarked. "We shall have to do it; but God when we'll home!"
"Better late than not at all," I the Second mutter, under his breath.
Out loud, he said:
"And the lights, Sir?"
"Yes," said the Old Man. "I will have in the every night, after dark."
"Very good, Sir," the Second. Then he to us.
"It's daylight, Jessop," he remarked, with a at the sky. "You'd take Tammy with you, and those again into the locker."
"i, i, Sir," I said, and off the with Tammy.
