The Ghost Pirates - William Hope Hodgson
"i, i, Sir," said the 'prentice, and hurried off.
"Now then," remarked the Skipper when this had been done "You needn't be
afraid to go back to the wheel. There's a light over the stern, and the
Second Mate or myself will be up here all the time."
I stood up.
"Thank you, Sir," I said, and went aft. I replaced my lamp in the
binnacle, and took hold of the wheel; yet, time and again, I glanced
behind and I was very thankful when, a few minutes later, four bells
went, and I was relieved.
Though the rest of the chaps were forrard in the fo'cas'le, I did not go
there. I shirked being questioned about my sudden appearance at the foot
of the poop ladder; and so I lit my pipe and wandered about the
maindeck. I did not feel particularly nervous, as there were now two
lanterns in each rigging, and a couple standing upon each of the spare
top-masts under the bulwarks.
Yet, a little after five bells, it seemed to me that I saw a shadowy
face peer over the rail, a little abaft the fore lanyards. I snatched up
one of the lanterns from off the spar, and flashed the light towards it,
whereupon there was nothing. Only, on my mind, more than my sight, I
fancy, a queer knowledge remained of wet, peery eyes. Afterwards, when I
thought about them, I felt extra beastly. I knew then how brutal they
had been ... Inscrutable, you know. Once more in that same watch I had a
somewhat similar experience, only in this instance it had vanished even
before I had time to reach a light. And then came eight bells, and our
watch below.
XV
_The Great Ghost Ship_
When we were called again, at a quarter to four, the man who roused us
out, had some queer information.
"Toppin's gone--clean vanished!" he told us, as we began to turn out. "I
never was in such a damned, hair-raisin' hooker as this here. It ain't
safe to go about the bloomin' decks."
"'oo's gone?" asked Plummer, sitting up suddenly and throwing his legs
over his bunk-board.
"Toppin, one of the 'prentices," replied the man. "We've been huntin'
all over the bloomin' show. We're still at it--but we'll never find
him," he ended, with a sort of gloomy assurance.
"Oh, I dunno," said Quoin. "P'raps 'e's snoozin' somewheres 'bout."
"Not him," replied the man. "I tell you we've turned everythin' upside
down. He's not aboard the bloomin' ship.
"Where was he when they last saw him?" I asked.
"Someone must know something, you know!"
"Keepin' time up on the poop," he replied. "The Old Man's nearly shook
the life out of the Mate and the chap at the wheel. And they say they
don't know nothin'."
"How do you mean?" I inquired. "How do you mean, nothing?"
"Well," he answered. "The youngster was there one minute, and then the
next thing they knew, he'd gone. They've both sworn black an' blue that
there wasn't a whisper. He's just disappeared off of the face of the
bloomin' earth."
I got down on to my chest, and reached for my boots.
Before I could speak again, the man was saying something fresh.
"See here, mates," he went on. "If things is goin' on like this, I'd
like to know where you an' me'll be befor' long!"
"We'll be in 'ell," said Plummer.
"I dunno as I like to think 'bout it," said Quoin.
"We'll have to think about it!" replied the man. "We've got to think a
bloomin' lot about it. I've talked to our side, an' they're game."
"Game for what?" I asked.
"To go an' talk straight to the bloomin' Capting," he said, wagging his
finger at me. "It's make tracks for the nearest bloomin' port, an' don't
you make no bloomin' mistake."
I opened my mouth to tell him that the probability was we should not be
able to make it, even if he could get the Old Man to see the matter from
his point of view. Then I remembered that the chap had no idea of the
things I had seen, and _thought out_; so, instead, I said:
"Supposing he won't?"
"Then we'll have to bloomin' well make him," he replied.
"And when you got there," I said. "What then? You'd be jolly well locked
up for mutiny."
"I'd sooner be locked up," he said. "It don't kill you!"
There was a murmur of agreement from the others, and then a moment of
silence, in which, I know, the men were thinking.
Jaskett's voice broke into it.
"I never thought at first as she was 'aunted--" he commenced; but
Plummer cut in across his speech.
"We mustn't 'urt any one, yer know," he said. "That'd mean 'angin', an'
they ain't been er bad crowd.
"No," assented everyone, including the chap who had come to call us.
"All the same," he added. "It's got to be up hellum, an' shove her into
the nearest bloomin' port."
"Yes," said everyone, and then eight bells went, and we cleared out on
deck.
Presently, after roll-call--in which there had come a queer, awkward
little pause at Toppin's name--Tammy came over to me. The rest of the
men had gone forrard, and I guessed they were talking over mad plans for
forcing the Skipper's hand, and making him put into port--poor beggars!
I was leaning over the port rail, by the fore brace-lock, staring down
into the sea, when Tammy came to me. For perhaps a minute he said
nothing. When at last he spoke, it was to say that the shadow vessels
had not been there since daylight.
"What?" I said, in some surprise. "How do you know?"
"I woke up when they were searching for Toppin," he replied. "I've not
been asleep since. I came here, right away." He began to say something
further; but stopped short.
"Yes," I said encouragingly.
"I didn't know--" he began, and broke off. He caught my arm. "Oh,
Jessop!" he exclaimed. "What's going to be the end of it all? Surely
something can be done?"
I said nothing. I had a desperate feeling that there was very little we
could do to help ourselves.
"Can't we do something?" he asked, and shook my arm. "Anything's better
than _this_! We're being _murdered!"_
Still, I said nothing; but stared moodily down into the water. I could
plan nothing; though I would get mad, feverish fits of thinking.
"Do you hear?" he said. He was almost crying.
"Yes, Tammy," I replied. "But I don't know! I _don't_ know!"
"You don't know!" he exclaimed. "You don't know! Do you mean we're just
to give in, and be murdered, one after another?"
"We've done all we can," I replied. "I don't know what else we can do,
unless we go below and lock ourselves in, every night."
"That would be better than this," he said. "There'll be no one to go
below, or anything else, soon!"
"But what if it came on to blow?" I asked. "We'd be having the sticks
blown out of her."
"What if it came on to blow _now_?" he returned. "No one would go aloft,
if it were dark, you said, yourself! Besides, we could shorten her
_right_ down, first. I tell you, in a few days there won't be a chap
alive aboard this packet unless they jolly well do something!"
"Don't shout," I warned him. "You'll have the Old Man hearing you." But
the young beggar was wound up, and would take no notice.
"I will shout," he replied. "I want the Old Man to hear. I've a good
mind to go up and tell him."
He started on a fresh tack.
"Why don't the men do something?" he began. "They ought to damn well
make the Old Man put us into port! They ought--"
"For goodness sake, shut up, you little fool!" I said. "What's the good
of talking a lot of damned rot like that? You'll be getting yourself
into trouble."
"I don't care," he replied. "I'm not going to be murdered!"
"Look here," I said. "I told you before, that we shouldn't be able to
see the land, even if we made it."
"You've no proof," he answered. "It's only your idea."
"Well," I replied. "Proof, or no proof, the Skipper would only pile her
up, if he tried to make the land, with things as they are now."
"Let him pile her up," he answered. "Let him jolly well pile her up!
That would be better than staying out here to be pulled overboard, or
chucked down from aloft!"
"Look here, Tammy--" I began; but just then the Second Mate sung out for
him, and he had to go. When he came back, I had started to walk to and
from, across the fore side of the mainmast. He joined me, and after a
minute, he started his wild talk again.
"Look here, Tammy," I said, once more. "It's no use your talking like
you've been doing. Things are as they are, and it's no one's fault, and
nobody can help it. If you want to talk sensibly, I'll listen; if not,
then go and gas to someone else."
With that, I returned to the port side, and got up on the spar, again,
intending to sit on the pinrail and have a bit of a talk with him.
Before sitting down I glanced over, into the sea. The action had been
almost mechanical; yet, after a few instants, I was in a state of the
most intense excitement, and without withdrawing my gaze, I reached out
and caught Tammy's arm to attract his attention.
"My God!" I muttered. "Look!"
"What is it?" he asked, and bent over the rail, beside me. And this
is what we saw: a little distance below the surface there lay a
pale-coloured, slightly-domed disc. It seemed only a few feet down.
Below it, we saw quite clearly, after a few moment's staring, the shadow
of a royal-yard, and, deeper, the gear and standing-rigging of a great
mast. Far down among the shadows I thought, presently, that I could make
out the immense, indefinite stretch of vast decks.
"My God!" whispered Tammy, and shut up. But presently, he gave out a
short exclamation, as though an idea had come to him; and got down off
the spar, and ran forrard on to the fo'cas'le head. He came running
back, after a short look into the sea, to tell me that there was the
truck of another great mast coming up there, a bit off the bow, to
within a few feet of the surface of the sea.
In the meantime, you know, I had been staring like mad down through the
water at the huge, shadowy mast just below me. I had traced out bit by
bit, until now I could clearly see the jackstay, running along the top
of the royal mast; and, you know, the royal itself was _set_.
But, you know, what was getting at me more than anything, was a feeling
that there was movement down in the water there, among the rigging. I
_thought_ I could actually see, at times, things moving and glinting
faintly and rapidly to and fro in the gear. And once, I was practically
certain that something was on the royal-yard, moving in to the mast; as
though, you know, it might have come up the leech of the sail. And this
way, I got a beastly feeling that there were things swarming down there.
Unconsciously, I must have leant further and further out over the side,
staring; and suddenly--good Lord! how I yelled--I overbalanced. I made a
sweeping grab, and caught the fore brace, and with that, I was back in a
moment upon the spar. In the same second, almost, it seemed to me that
the surface of the water above the submerged truck was broken, and I am
sure _now,_ I saw something a moment in the air against the ship's side
--a sort of shadow in the air; though I did not realise it at the time.
Anyway, the next instant, Tammy gave out an awful scream, and was head
downwards over the rail, in a second. I had an idea _then_ that he was
jumping overboard. I collared him by the waist of his britchers, and one
knee, and then I had him down on the deck, and sat plump on him; for he
was struggling and shouting all the time, and I was so breathless and
shaken and gone to mush, I could not have trusted my hands to hold him.
You see, I never thought _then_ it was anything but some influence at
work on him; and that he was trying to get loose to go over the side.
But I know _now_ that I saw the shadow-man that had him. Only, at the
time, I was so mixed up, and with the one idea in my head, I was not
really able to notice anything, properly. But, afterwards, I
comprehended a bit (you can understand, can't you?) what I had seen at
the time without taking in.
And even now looking back, I know that the shadow was only like a
faint-seen greyness in the daylight, against the whiteness of the decks,
clinging against Tammy.
And there was I, all breathless and sweating, and quivery with my own
tumble, sitting on the little screeching beggar, and he fighting like a
mad thing; so that I thought I should never hold him.
And then I heard the Second Mate shouting and there came running feet
along the deck. Then many hands were pulling and hauling, to get me off
him.
"Bl--y cowyard!" sung out someone.
"Hold him! Hold him!" I shouted. "He'll be overboard!"
At that, they seemed to understand that I was not ill-treating the
youngster; for they stopped manhandling me, and allowed me to rise;
while two of them took hold of Tammy, and kept him safe.
"What's the matter with him?" the Second Mate was singing out. "What's
happened?"
"He's gone off his head, I think," I said.
"What?" asked the Second Mate. But before I could answer him, Tammy
ceased suddenly to struggle, and flopped down upon the deck.
"'e's fainted," said Plummer, with some sympathy. He looked at me, with
a puzzled, suspicious air. "What's 'appened? What's 'e been doin'?"
"Take him aft into the berth!" ordered the Second Mate, a bit abruptly.
It struck me that he wished to prevent questions. He must have tumbled
to the fact that we had seen something, about which it would be better
not to tell the crowd.
Plummer stooped to lift the boy.
"No," said the Second Mate. "Not you, Plummer. Jessop, you take him." He
turned to the rest of the men. "That will do," he told them and they
went forrard, muttering a little.
I lifted the boy, and carried him aft.
"No need to take him into the berth," said the Second Mate. "Put him
down on the after hatch. I've sent the other lad for some brandy."
Then the brandy came, we dosed Tammy and soon brought him round. He sat
up, with a somewhat dazed air. Otherwise, he seemed quiet and sane
enough.
"What's up?" he asked. He caught sight of the Second Mate. "Have I been
ill, Sir?" he exclaimed.
"You're right enough now, youngster," said the Second Mate. "You've been
a bit off. You'd better go and lie down for a bit."
"I'm all right now, Sir," replied Tammy. "I don't think--"
"You do as you're told!" interrupted the Second. "Don't always have to
be told twice! If I want you, I'll send for you."
Tammy stood up, and made his way, in rather an unsteady fashion, into
the berth. I fancy he was glad enough to lie down.
"Now then, Jessop," exclaimed the Second Mate, turning to me. "What's
been the cause of all this? Out with it now, smart!"
I commenced to tell him; but, almost directly, he put up his hand.
"Hold on a minute," he said. "There's the breeze!"
He jumped up the port ladder, and sung out to the chap at the wheel.
Then down again.
"Starboard fore brace," he sung out. He turned to me. "You'll have to
finish telling me afterwards," he said.
"i, i, Sir," I replied, and went to join the other chaps at the braces.
As soon as we were braced sharp up on the port tack, he sent some of the
watch up to loose the sails. Then he sung out for me.
"Go on with your yarn now, Jessop," he said.
I told him about the great shadow vessel, and I said something about
Tammy--I mean about my not being sure _now_ whether he _had_ tried to
jump overboard. Because, you see, I began to realise that I had seen the
shadow; and I remembered the stirring of the water above the submerged
truck. But the Second did not wait, of course, for any theories, but was
away, like a shot, to see for himself. He ran to the side, and looked
down. I followed, and stood beside him; yet, now that the surface of the
water was blurred by the wind, we could see nothing.
"It's no good," he remarked, after a minute. "You'd better get away from
the rail before any of the others see you. Just be taking those halyards
aft to the capstan."
From then, until eight bells, we were hard at work getting the sail upon
her, and when at last eight bells went, I made haste to swallow my
breakfast, and get a sleep.
At midday, when we went on deck for the afternoon watch, I ran to the
side; but there was no sign of the great shadow ship. All that watch,
the Second Mate kept me working at my paunch mat, and Tammy he put on to
his sinnet, telling me to keep an eye on the youngster. But the boy was
right enough; as I scarcely doubted now, you know; though--a most
unusual thing--he hardly opened his lips the whole afternoon. Then at
four o'clock, we went below for tea.
At four bells, when we came on deck again, I found that the light
breeze, which had kept us going during the day, had dropped, and we were
only just moving. The sun was low down, and the sky clear. Once or
twice, as I glanced across to the horizon, it seemed to me that I caught
again that odd quiver in the air that had preceded the coming of the
mist; and, indeed on two separate occasions, I saw a thin whisp of haze
drive up, apparently out of the sea. This was at some little distance on
our port beam; otherwise, all was quiet and peaceful; and though I
stared into the water, I could make out no vestige of that great shadow
ship, down in the sea.
It was some little time after six bells that the order came for all
hands to shorten sail for the night. We took in the royals and
t'gallants, and then the three courses. It was shortly after this, that
a rumour went round the ship that there was to be no look-out that night
after eight o'clock. This naturally created a good deal of talk among
the men; especially as the yarn went that the fo'cas'le doors were to be
shut and fastened as soon as it was dark, and that no one was to be
allowed on deck.
"'oo's goin' ter take ther wheel?" I heard Plummer ask.
"I s'pose they'll 'ave us take 'em as usual," replied one of the men.
"One of ther officers is bound ter be on ther poop; so we'll 'ave
company."
Apart from these remarks, there was a general opinion that--if it were
true--it was a sensible act on the part of the Skipper. As one of the
men said:
"It ain't likely that there'll be any of us missin' in ther mornin', if
we stays in our bunks all ther blessed night."
And soon after this, eight bells went.
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 heard
shouting, and then on the deck overhead, came the loud thudding of
someone pomping with a capstan-bar. Straightway, I turned and made a run
for the port doorway, along with the four other men. We rushed out
through the doorway on to the deck. It was getting dusk; but that did
not hide from me a terrible and extraordinary sight. All along the port
rail there was a queer, undulating greyness, that moved downwards
inboard, and spread over the decks. As I looked, I found that I saw more
clearly, in a most extraordinary way. And, suddenly, all the moving
greyness resolved into hundreds of strange men. In the half-light, they
looked unreal and impossible, as though there had come upon us the
inhabitants 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, there
rose into the evening air a loud, awful shouting.
"Aloft!" yelled someone; but, as I looked aloft, I saw that the horrible
things were swarming there in scores and scores.
"Jesus Christ--!" shrieked a man's voice, cut short, and my glance
dropped from aloft, to find two of the men who had come out from the
fo'cas'le with me, rolling upon the deck. They were two
indistinguishable masses that writhed here and there across the planks.
The brutes fairly covered them. From them, came muffled little shrieks
and gasps; and there I stood, and with me were the other two men. A man
darted past us into the fo'cas'le, with two grey men on his back, and I
heard them kill him. The two men by me, ran suddenly across the fore
hatch, and up the starboard ladder on to the fo'cas'le head. Yet, almost
in the same instant, I saw several of the grey men disappear up the
other ladder. From the fo'cas'le head above, I heard the two men
commence to shout, and this died away into a loud scuffling. At that, I
turned to see whether I could get away. I stared round, hopelessly; and
then with two jumps, I was on the pigsty, and from there upon the top of
the deckhouse. I threw myself flat, and waited, breathlessly.
All at once, it seemed to me that it was darker than it had been the
previous moment, and I raised my head, very cautiously. I saw that the
ship was enveloped in great billows of mist, and then, not six feet from
me, I made out someone lying, face downwards. It was Tammy. I felt safer
now that we were hidden by the mist, and I crawled to him. He gave a
quick gasp of terror when I touched him; but when he saw who it was, he
started 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 around
us, drowned every other sound.
I knelt up, and glanced round and then aloft. Overhead, I could make out
dimly the spars and sails, and now as I looked, I saw that the
t'gallants and royals had been unloosed and were hanging in the
buntlines. Almost in the same moment, the terrible crying of the poor
beggars about the decks, ceased; and there succeeded an awful silence,
in which I could distinctly hear Tammy sobbing. I reached out, and shook
him.
"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 were
the sails set, when I heard the swish and flick of gaskets being cast
adrift on the lower yards, and realised that ghostly things were at work
there.
For a moment or so there was silence, and I made my way cautiously to
the after end of the house, and peered over. Yet, because of the mist, I
could see nothing. Then, abruptly, from behind me, came a single wail of
sudden pain and terror from Tammy. It ended instantly in a sort of
choke. 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 me
I heard the flaps of the course being tumbled off the yards. Down upon
the decks, there were the noises of a multitude working in a weird,
inhuman silence. Then came the squeal and rattle of blocks and braces
aloft. They were squaring the yards.
I remained standing. I watched the yards squared, and then I saw the
sails fill suddenly. An instant later, the deck of the house upon which
I stood, became canted forrard. The slope increased, so that I could
scarcely stand, and I grabbed at one of the wire-winches. I wondered, in
a 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, there
rose, afresh, some most horrible shouts of agony from odd men. This grew
into an intense screaming that shook my heart up; and there came again a
noise of desperate, brief fighting. Then a breath of cold wind seemed to
play in the mist, and I could see down the slope of the deck. I looked
below me, towards the bows. The jibboom was plunged right into the
water, and, as I stared, the bows disappeared into the sea. The deck of
the house became a wall to me, and I was swinging from the winch, which
was now above my head. I watched the ocean lap over the edge of the
fo'cas'le head, and rush down on to the maindeck, roaring into the empty
fo'cas'le. And still all around me came crying of the lost sailor-men. I
heard something strike the corner of the house above me, with a dull
thud, and then I saw Plummer plunge down into the flood beneath. I
remembered that he had been at the wheel. The next instant, the water
had leapt to my feet; there came a drear chorus of bubbling screams, a
roar of waters, and I was going swiftly down into the darkness. I let go
of the winch, and struck out madly, trying to hold my breath. There was
a loud singing in my ears. It grew louder. I opened my mouth. I felt I
was dying. And then, thank God! I was at the surface, breathing. For the
moment, I was blinded with the water, and my agony of breathlessness.
Then, growing easier, I brushed the water from my eyes and so, not three
hundred yards away, I made out a large ship, floating almost motionless.
At first, I could scarcely believe I saw aright. Then, as I realised
that indeed there was yet a chance of living, I started to swim towards
you.
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's
a gospel fact. People _talk_ about queer things happening at sea; but
this isn't one of them. This is one of the _real_ things. You've all
seen queer things; perhaps more than I have. It depends. But they don't
go down in the log. These kinds of things never do. This one won't; at
least, not as it's really happened."
He nodded his head, slowly, and went on, addressing the Captain more
particularly.