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Later, as soon as I was relieved, I hurried down to the 'Prentice's berth. I was anxious to speak to Tammy. There were a dozen questions that worried me, and I was in doubt what I ought to do. I found him crouched on a sea-chest, his knees up to his chin, and his gaze fixed on the doorway, with a frightened stare.
She cowered in abject fear against the wall. She could not know that this officer was suffering a bad attack of shame for his shabby part in the affair. Satisfied that the little dog really did live in the kirkyard, he turned back to the bridge. When Tammy came out presently he found Ailie crumpled up in a limp little heap in the gateway alcove. In a moment the tale of Bobby's peril was told.
You'd better have another, in case it does." Tammy took the second light, and moved away. "Those flares all ready for lighting there, Mr. Grainge?" the Captain asked. "All ready, Sir," replied the Mate. The Old Man pushed one of the blue-lights into his coat pocket, and stood upright. "Very well," he said. "Give each of the men one apiece. And just see that they all have matches."
"Nothing, Sir," said Tammy, and went down on to the maindeck. The first man to wind'ard had reached the futtock shrouds; his head was above the top, and he was taking a preliminary look, before venturing higher. "See anythin', Jock?" asked Plummer, the man next above me. "Na'!" said Jock, tersely, and climbed over the top, and so disappeared from my sight. The fellow ahead of me, followed.
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.
I didna think to eat ma ain dinner. I hae so muckle to eat I canna eat it by ma lane." The idea of having too much to eat was so preposterously funny that Tammy doubled up with laughter and nearly tumbled over his crutches. Mr. Traill set him upright again. "Did ye ever gang on a picnic, bairnies?" And what was a picnic?
Under the foot of the topsail, I could see Tammy and the other 'prentice down on the maindeck, looking upwards. The fellows were a bit excited in a sort of subdued way; though I am inclined to think there was far more curiosity and, perhaps, a certain consciousness of the strangeness of it all. I know that, looking to leeward, there was a tendancy to keep well together, in which I sympathised.
But Tammy was usually pleased enough to see him, and would entertain the boy with many strange legends of the old house; for Tammy was shrewd and imaginative; his "want" exhibited itself in no outrageous manner, but rather in a kind of low cunning and feebleness of will. It was Tammy's talent for story-telling, and his skill as a player of the violin, which drew Yaspard to him.
"You're hiding something!" he continued, angrily, and glancing from one to another. "Out with it. Who was it?" "We're hiding nothing," I replied, speaking for the lot. "There's no one up there." The Second looked round upon us. "Am I a fool?" he asked, contemptuously. There was an assenting silence. "I saw him myself," he continued. "Tammy, here, saw him.
He stamped on the poop, and repeated his order, savagely. But there was no answer. I started to walk aft. What had happened? Who had gone aloft? Who would be fool enough to go, without being told? And then, all at once, a thought came to me. The figure Tammy and I had seen. Had the Second Mate seen something someone? I hurried on, and then stopped, suddenly.
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