XVI
_The Ghost Pirates_
At the moment when eight bells actually went, I was in the fo'cas'le,talking to four of the other watch. Suddenly, away aft, I heardshouting, and then on the deck overhead, came the loud thudding ofsomeone pomping with a capstan-bar. Straightway, I turned and made a runfor the port doorway, along with the four other men. We rushed outthrough the doorway on to the deck. It was getting dusk; but that didnot hide from me a terrible and extraordinary sight. All along the portrail there was a queer, undulating greyness, that moved downwardsinboard, and spread over the decks. As I looked, I found that I saw moreclearly, in a most extraordinary way. And, suddenly, all the movinggreyness resolved into hundreds of strange men. In the half-light, theylooked unreal and impossible, as though there had come upon us theinhabitants of some fantastic dream-world. My God! I thought I was mad.They swarmed in upon us in a great wave of murderous, living shadows.From some of the men who must have been going aft for roll-call, thererose into the evening air a loud, awful shouting.
"Aloft!" yelled someone; but, as I looked aloft, I saw that the horriblethings were swarming there in scores and scores.
"Jesus Christ--!" shrieked a man's voice, cut short, and my glancedropped from aloft, to find two of the men who had come out from thefo'cas'le with me, rolling upon the deck. They were twoindistinguishable masses that writhed here and there across the planks.The brutes fairly covered them. From them, came muffled little shrieksand gasps; and there I stood, and with me were the other two men. A mandarted past us into the fo'cas'le, with two grey men on his back, and Iheard them kill him. The two men by me, ran suddenly across the forehatch, and up the starboard ladder on to the fo'cas'le head. Yet, almostin the same instant, I saw several of the grey men disappear up theother ladder. From the fo'cas'le head above, I heard the two mencommence to shout, and this died away into a loud scuffling. At that, Iturned to see whether I could get away. I stared round, hopelessly; andthen with two jumps, I was on the pigsty, and from there upon the top ofthe deckhouse. I threw myself flat, and waited, breathlessly.
All at once, it seemed to me that it was darker than it had been theprevious moment, and I raised my head, very cautiously. I saw that theship was enveloped in great billows of mist, and then, not six feet fromme, I made out someone lying, face downwards. It was Tammy. I felt safernow that we were hidden by the mist, and I crawled to him. He gave aquick gasp of terror when I touched him; but when he saw who it was, hestarted to sob like a little kid.
"Hush!" I said. "For God's sake be quiet!" But I need not have troubled;for the shrieks of the men being killed, down on the decks all aroundus, drowned every other sound.
I knelt up, and glanced round and then aloft. Overhead, I could make outdimly the spars and sails, and now as I looked, I saw that thet'gallants and royals had been unloosed and were hanging in thebuntlines. Almost in the same moment, the terrible crying of the poorbeggars about the decks, ceased; and there succeeded an awful silence,in which I could distinctly hear Tammy sobbing. I reached out, and shookhim.
"Be quiet! Be quiet!" I whispered, intensely. "THEY'LL hear us!"
At my touch and whisper, he struggled to become silent; and then,overhead, I saw the six yards being swiftly mast-headed. Scarcely werethe sails set, when I heard the swish and flick of gaskets being castadrift on the lower yards, and realised that ghostly things were at workthere.
For a moment or so there was silence, and I made my way cautiously tothe after end of the house, and peered over. Yet, because of the mist, Icould see nothing. Then, abruptly, from behind me, came a single wail ofsudden pain and terror from Tammy. It ended instantly in a sort ofchoke. I stood up in the mist and ran back to where I had left the kid;but he had gone. I stood dazed. I felt like shrieking out loud. Above meI heard the flaps of the course being tumbled off the yards. Down uponthe decks, there were the noises of a multitude working in a weird,inhuman silence. Then came the squeal and rattle of blocks and bracesaloft. They were squaring the yards.
I remained standing. I watched the yards squared, and then I saw thesails fill suddenly. An instant later, the deck of the house upon whichI stood, became canted forrard. The slope increased, so that I couldscarcely stand, and I grabbed at one of the wire-winches. I wondered, ina stunned sort of way, what was happening. Almost directly afterwards,from the deck on the port side of the house, there came a sudden, loud,human scream; and immediately, from different parts of the decks, thererose, afresh, some most horrible shouts of agony from odd men. This grewinto an intense screaming that shook my heart up; and there came again anoise of desperate, brief fighting. Then a breath of cold wind seemed toplay in the mist, and I could see down the slope of the deck. I lookedbelow me, towards the bows. The jibboom was plunged right into thewater, and, as I stared, the bows disappeared into the sea. The deck ofthe house became a wall to me, and I was swinging from the winch, whichwas now above my head. I watched the ocean lap over the edge of thefo'cas'le head, and rush down on to the maindeck, roaring into the emptyfo'cas'le. And still all around me came crying of the lost sailor-men. Iheard something strike the corner of the house above me, with a dullthud, and then I saw Plummer plunge down into the flood beneath. Iremembered that he had been at the wheel. The next instant, the waterhad leapt to my feet; there came a drear chorus of bubbling screams, aroar of waters, and I was going swiftly down into the darkness. I let goof the winch, and struck out madly, trying to hold my breath. There wasa loud singing in my ears. It grew louder. I opened my mouth. I felt Iwas dying. And then, thank God! I was at the surface, breathing. For themoment, I was blinded with the water, and my agony of breathlessness.Then, growing easier, I brushed the water from my eyes and so, not threehundred yards away, I made out a large ship, floating almost motionless.At first, I could scarcely believe I saw aright. Then, as I realisedthat indeed there was yet a chance of living, I started to swim towardsyou.
You know the rest----
"And you think--?" said the Captain, interrogatively, and stopped short.
"No," replied Jessop. "I don't think. I _know. None of us _think_. It'sa gospel fact. People _talk_ about queer things happening at sea; butthis isn't one of them. This is one of the _real_ things. You've allseen queer things; perhaps more than I have. It depends. But they don'tgo down in the log. These kinds of things never do. This one won't; atleast, not as it's really happened."
He nodded his head, slowly, and went on, addressing the Captain moreparticularly.
"I'll bet," he said, deliberately, "that you'll enter it in thelog-book, something like this:
"'May l8th. Lat.--S. Long.--W. 2 p.m. Light winds from the South andEast. Sighted a full-rigged ship on the starboard bow. Overhauled her inthe first dog-watch. Signalled her; but received no response. During thesecond dog-watch she steadily refused to communicate. About eight bells,it was observed that she seemed to be settling by the head, and a minutelater she foundered suddenly, bows foremost, with all her crew. Put outa boat and picked up one of the men, an A.B. by the name of Jessop. Hewas quite unable to give any explanation of the catastrophe.'
"And you two," he made a gesture at the First and Second Mates, "willprobably sign your names to it, and so will I, and perhaps one of yourA.B.s. Then when we get home they'll print a report of it in thenewspapers, and people will talk about the unseaworthy ships. Maybe someof the experts will talk rot about rivets and defective plates and soforth."
He laughed, cynically. Then he went on.
"And you know, when you come to think of it, there's no one except ourown selves will ever know how it happened--really. The shellbacks don'tcount. They're only 'beastly, drunken brutes of _common sailors_'--poordevils! No one would think of taking anything they said, as anythingmore than a damned cuffer. Besides, the beggars only tell these thingswhen they're half-boozed. They wouldn't then (for fear of being laughedat), only they're not responsible--"
He broke off, and looked round at us.
The Skipper and the two Mates nodded their heads, in
silent assent.