“What is it, Jessop?” the Skipper inquired.

“I scarcely 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 blurted out.  “There’s some dreadful thing or things come aboard this ship, since we left port.”

I saw him give one quick glance 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 seen them.  So’s Tammy, here.”

“Ah!” he exclaimed, and it seemed to me, from his face, that he was understanding something better.  “Out of the Sea!”

Again he looked at the Second Mate; but the Second was staring at me.

“Yes Sir,” I said.  “It’s the ship.  She’s not safe!  I’ve watched.  I think I understand a bit; but there’s a lot I don’t.”

I stopped.  The Skipper had turned to the Second Mate.  The Second nodded, gravely.  Then I heard him mutter, in a low voice, and the Old Man replied; after which he turned to me again.

“Look here, Jessop,” he said.  “I’m going to talk straight to you.  You strike me as being a cut above the ordinary shellback, and I think you’ve sense enough to hold your tongue.”

“I’ve got my mate’s ticket, Sir,” I said, simply.

Behind me, I heard Tammy give a little start.  He had not known 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 seen things 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 everything in detail, commencing with the strange figure that had stepped aboard out of the sea, and continuing my yarn, up to the things that had happened in that very watch.

I stuck well to solid facts; and now and then he and the Second Mate would look at one another, and nod.  At the end, he turned to me with an abrupt 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 certainly do.”

“But you knew there wasn’t any!” he said.

“Yes, Sir,” I replied, in an apologetic tone.  “There was; and, if you will let me, I believe that I can explain it a bit.”

“Well,” he said.  “Go on.”

Now that I knew he was willing to listen to me in a serious manner all my funk of telling him had gone, and I went ahead and told him my ideas about the mist, and the thing it seemed to have ushered, you know.  I finished up, by telling him how Tammy had worried me to come and tell what I knew.