But, instead of letting me pass, I found that he was beginning to make his way down.  At that, I caught him by the slack of his trousers, near the stern, with my right hand, and with the other, I got hold of the after shroud somewhere above his left hip; by these means, I fairly hoisted myself up on to the old fellow’s back.  Then, with my right, I could reach to the forrard shroud, over his right shoulder, and having got a grip, I shifted my left to a level with it; at the same moment, I was able to get my foot on to the splice of a ratline and so give myself a further lift.  Then I paused an instant, and glanced up.

“Stubbins!  Stubbins!” I shouted.  “Plummer!  Plummer!”

And even as I called, Plummer’s foot—­reaching down through the gloom—­ alighted full on my upturned face.  I let go from the rigging with my right hand, and struck furiously at his leg, cursing him for his clumsiness.  He lifted his foot, and in the same instant a sentence from Stubbins floated down to me, with a strange distinctness: 

“For God’s sake tell ’em to get down hon deck!” he was shouting.

Even as the words came to me, something in the darkness gripped my waist.  I made a desperate clutch at the rigging with my disengaged right hand, and it was well for me that I secured the hold so quickly, for the same instant, I was wrenched at with a brutal ferocity that appalled me.  I said nothing, but lashed out into the night with my left foot.  It is queer, but I cannot say with certainty that I struck anything; I was too downright desperate with funk, to be sure; and yet it seemed to me that my foot encountered something soft, that gave under the blow.  It may have been nothing more than an imagined sensation; yet I am inclined to think otherwise; for, instantly, the hold about my waist was released; and I commenced to scramble down, clutching the shrouds pretty desperately.

I have only a very uncertain remembrance of that which followed.  Whether I slid over Jaskett, or whether he gave way to me, I cannot tell.  I know only that I reached the deck, in a blind whirl of fear and excitement, and the next thing I remember, I was among a crowd of shouting, half-mad sailor-men.

XI

The Search for Stubbins

In a confused way, I was conscious that the Skipper and the Mates were down among us, trying to get us into some state of calmness.  Eventually they succeeded, and we were told to go aft to the Saloon door, which we did in a body.  Here, the Skipper himself served out a large tot of rum to each of us.  Then, at his orders, the Second Mate called the roll.

He called over the Mate’s watch first, and everyone answered.  Then he came to ours, and he must have been much agitated; for the first name he sung out was Jock’s.

Among us there came a moment of dead silence, and I noticed the wail and moan of the wind aloft, and the flap, flap of the three unfurled t’gallan’s’ls.