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Neither had we of the afterguard, for that matter, and I have no doubt that I should have been very much more seriously alarmed than I was at the spectacle, had I not read somewhere the description of a hurricane that had been similarly heralded.
Now they were fairly shrewd men, even if they were damned rascals, and one would have thought they possessed sufficient insight to at least be suspicious of the skipper's sudden 'bout-face. But they were not. They were just as convinced as the rest of the stiffs that the afterguard had suddenly become afraid of the foc'sle.
The following morning saw the work going on as methodically as ever. During the night a very good head of water had gathered behind the lowered gate. The rear crew brought down the afterguard of logs to the pond. The sluicers with their long pike-poles thrust the logs into the chute.
"No one would acknowledge the gift; but the state of mind behind it was given in the remark of one, 'Now ye've got it again, use it! "I tucked it under my mattress, resolved not to use it; but a little later put it into my trousers pocket. Fear of the law, forward and aft, began to yield to fear of death. Men openly sharpened their knives, and the afterguard ostentatiously showed their pistols.
Dull, gray wisps of murk, the afterguard of the gaseous cloud, were twisting and spiraling in a witch-dance across the landscape, and, seen by snatches and glimpses through it, something flapped darkly in the breeze. Suddenly the veil parted and fled. A flag stood forth in the sharp gust, rigid, and appalling. It was black. "The Jolly Roger, by God! They've come back!" exclaimed Forsythe.
Sheila rode with Prudence on the rear seat of the carryall. "I'm berthed on the for'ard deck along o' you, Tunis," said the old man, hoisting himself with difficulty into the front seat. "If the afterguard is all ready, I be. Trip the anchor, boy, and set sail!" As they passed down through Portygee Town the denizens of that part of Big Wreck Cove were streaming to their own place of worship.
While there, however useful and active you may be, you are but a mongrel, a sort of afterguard and ``ship's cousin. You are immediately under the eye of the officers, cannot dance, sing, play, smoke, make a noise, or growl, or take any other sailor's pleasure; and you live with the steward, who is usually a go-between; and the crew never feel as though you were one of them.
It would be more comfortable in the sternsheets than in the narrow bow. And further, it would be well to be near the afterguard in whatever troubles that were sure to arise under such circumstances in the days to come. In the sternsheets were the mate, Walter Drake, the surgeon, Arnold Bentham, Aaron Northrup, and Captain Nicholl, who was steering.
Over the island, and raggedly clasping its sides, hung a cloud, the only one visible in the sky. I joined the afterguard. "You see?" the doctor was exclaiming. "It iss as I haf said. The island iss there. Everything iss as it should be!" He was quite excited. Percy Darrow, too, was shaken out of his ordinary calm. "The volcano is active," was his only comment, but it explained the ragged cloud.
Frank, wondering what new orders he was about to receive, ran down the ladder that led to the afterguard, reached the shore on a plank that extended from the stern of the vessel to the bank, and in a short time was in the presence of the admiral. That gentleman was so busy that he did not notice Frank, until one of his clerks exclaimed: "Admiral! here's Captain Nelson, sir."
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