“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.