“That settles it, then,” I replied.  “You wouldn’t go, nor would any one else.”

At this moment the Second Mate came along.

“Shove that mat and that sinnet away, you two,” he said.  “Then get your brooms and clear up.”

“i, i, Sir,” we said, and he went on forrard.

“Jump on the house, Tammy,” I said.  “And let go the other end of this rope, will you?”

“Right” he said, and did as I had asked him.  When he came back, I got him to give me a hand to roll up the mat, which was a very large one.

“I’ll finish stopping it,” I said.  “You go and put your sinnet away.”

“Wait a minute,” he replied, and gathered up a double handful of shakins from the deck, under where I had been working.  Then he ran to the side.

“Here!” I said.  “Don’t go dumping those.  They’ll only float, and the Second Mate or the Skipper will be sure to spot them.”

“Come here, Jessop!” he interrupted, in a low voice, and taking no notice of what I had been saying.

I got up off the hatch, where I was kneeling.  He was staring over the side.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“For God’s sake, hurry!” he said, and I ran, and jumped on to the spar, alongside of him.

“Look!” he said, and pointed with a handful of shakins, right down, directly beneath us.

Some of the shakins dropped from his hand, and blurred the water, momentarily, so that I could not see.  Then, as the ripples cleared away, I saw what he meant.

“Two of them!” he said, in a voice that was scarcely above a whisper.  “And there’s another out there,” and he pointed again with the handful of shakins.

“There’s another a little further aft,” I muttered.

“Where?—­where?” he asked.

“There,” I said, and pointed.

“That’s four,” he whispered.  “Four of them!”

I said nothing; but continued to stare.  They appeared to me to be a great way down in the sea, and quite motionless.  Yet, though their outlines were somewhat blurred and indistinct, there was no mistaking that they were very like exact, though shadowy, representations of vessels.  For some minutes we watched them, without speaking.  At last Tammy spoke.

“They’re real, right enough,” he said, in a low voice.

“I don’t know,” I answered.

“I mean we weren’t mistaken this morning,” he said.

“No,” I replied.  “I never thought we were.”

Away forrard, I heard the Second Mate, returning aft.  He came nearer, and saw us.

“What’s up now, you two?” he called, sharply.  “This isn’t clearing up!”

I put out my hand to warn him not to shout, and draw the attention of the rest of the men.

He took several steps towards me.

“What is it? what is it?” he said, with a certain irritability; but in a lower voice.

“You’d better take a look over the side, Sir,” I replied.