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Two men slowly paced the brig's quarter-deck for some time in silence, as if the elemental quietude which prevailed above and below had infected them. Both men were broad, and apparently strong. One of them was tall; the other short. More than this the feeble light of the binnacle-lamp failed to reveal.
The men who speculated upon its appearance, rude as they were in a moral sense, were not so intellectually stupid as to mistake for a star that speck of yellowish hue, struggling to reveal itself against the almost kindred colour of the occidental sky. "It isn't a star, that's certain," confidently declared one of their number; "and if it be a light aboard ship, it's no binnacle-lamp, I say.
She was a dark and secret ship: not a light save for the glare of the binnacle-lamp; the only sound the creak of a block, the mutter of canvas, and the chatter of waters. It was a dirty night, a wet mist blowing landward. There was no moon; only here and there a star pierced the cloud-drift. The boy groped his way forward. In the bows a dark lantern on the deck shone on a group of sea-boots.
If he was clinging to the life-buoy he might be all right, but where that was, was the question. Minutes passed away, and still no one could discover Bill. The captain pulled out his watch and went to the binnacle-lamp. "Twenty minutes," he remarked to Mr Collinson. "A strong man could scarcely swim as long in such a sea as this."
Two men slowly paced the brig's quarterdeck for some time in silence, as if the elemental quietude which prevailed above and below had infected them. Both men were broad, and apparently strong. One of them was tall; the other short. More than this the feeble light of the binnacle-lamp failed to reveal.
There was, indeed, no night; the binnacle-lamp was not even lighted; and we were able to continue, without cessation, trying-out a whale, whose carcase floated alongside. Among other curious things I observed, were large masses of rock boulders they are called embedded in the base and centre of icebergs.
A boat pelted up under the counter of the sloop. The singer rose suddenly, clutched at a man-rope, and came swinging up the side. The light of the binnacle-lamp fell upon him. He was a tall fellow, with bushy black whiskers, a long tallowy nose that in some old-time battle had been broken, and eyes with a wild wet gleam in them. Now he sheered up against the bulwark, waving riotously.
But this isn't all, sir; for they does say, some'at has befallen the Carnatic, she having gone out of our line, like a binnacle-lamp at eight bells." "Ay, she is not visible, either." "Not so much as a hen-coop, Sir Jarvy! We all wonders what has become of Captain Parker; no sign of him or of his ship is to be found on the briny ocean.
Humph! there go some more splendid sights for her," he added, as what appeared to be chains of fire ascended from the volcano to the sky. Just then a soft rain began to fall. It was warm, and, on examination at the binnacle-lamp, turned out to be mud.
Then darkness came down over the sea, and it was desolate except for the sidelights of distant craft. The mate drew out his watch and by the light of the binnacle-lamp, saw that it was ten minutes to ten. At the same moment he heard somebody moving about forward. "Who's that for'ard?" he cried, smartly. "Me, sir," answered Joe's voice. "I'm a bit wakeful, and it's stiflin' 'ot down below."
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