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Updated: May 17, 2025
I noticed at the moment a telescope lying on the top of the saloon skylight, which Mr Fosset must have left behind him in his haste, when he came from the bridge to hail the skipper and then hurried back to his post; so, quickly catching up the glass, I scanned the distant sail, which grew more perceptible every minute. Yes, there was no doubt about it.
"Oh no, sir; he's on the bridge now, and I ought to have relieved him before this," I replied, only thinking of poor "Conky" and his tea then for the first time. "I wasn't even dreaming of him; I'm sure I beg his pardon!" "Well, you were dreaming of some one perhaps `nearer and dearer' than Spokeshave," rejoined Mr Fosset, with another genial laugh.
"Besides what, my boy?" he asked, on my pausing here, almost afraid to mention the sight I had noticed on the deck of the ill-fated ship in the presence of two such sceptical listeners as Mr Fosset and my more immediate superior, the third officer, Spokeshave. "You need not be afraid of saying anything you like before me. I'm captain of this ship."
"I will send a person to unpack your trunks, miss," the maid said, when she had listened with a deferential air to Clarissa's praise of the room. "I am very glad you like your rooms; my lady was most anxious you should be pleased. I'll send Fosset miss; she is a very handy young person, and will be always at your service to render you any assistance you may require."
"My first officer here, Mr Fosset, will remain on the bridge during our absence below," interposed Captain Applegarth, anticipating his last, unuttered objection. "He's quite competent to take charge, and I'm sure will let us know the moment the ship comes in sight, if she appears before we return on deck." "Aye, that I will, sir," cried out Mr Fosset.
"I `calculate, Fosset, as our Yankee friends would say, we may now cry spell O!" observed the skipper, who was highly pleased with the progress made in refitting the ship. "Tell the bo'sun to pipe the hands to dinner, and you and I had better go up on the bridge and see what we can do in the way of determining our position on the chart. That gulf-weed must have lost its bearings, I'm sure.
It was true enough about the cloud, or mist, or fog, or whatever it was; for, as Mr Fosset spoke, the darkness closed in around us like a wall and the ship that I swear I had seen the moment before vanished, sky and sea and everything else disappearing also at the same instant, leaving us, as it were, isolated in space, the veil of vapour being impenetrable!
"I didn't ask your opinion," growled the skipper, shutting him up in a twinkling; and then, turning to me again, he looked at me inquiringly. "Well, Haldane, have you thought it out?" "Yes, captain, I have," I replied firmly, though respectfully, the ill- timed interference of the objectionable Mr Spokeshave having made me as obstinate as Mr Fosset.
As Mr Fosset had said, there was a dead calm on the bosom of the deep, for the slight swell that remained after the gale on the previous evening, even up to the time of my going down below, had quite disappeared, the surface of the water being as smooth as glass as far as the horizon line and all aflash now with the rosy hue of sunrise to the eastward.
Just then Captain Applegarth appeared on the scene. He had gone down by the companion-way into the saloon below, after Mr Fosset had left the poop, to look at the barometer in his cabin, and now came along the upper deck and on to the bridge amidships, startling us with his sudden presence.
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