Old Gold Part 11

"Boat was sent, sir, and the men say they brought him aboard. That's right, isn't it, Dellow?" and the captain turned round to his first officer.

"Quite," said the first mate, who looked very much disturbed, and kept on wiping his dewy forehead with the back of his hand.

"Tell 'em," said the captain. "Speak out."

"Tom Jinks was with the boat, gen'lemen," said the first mate slowly; "and he says Mr Lynton come down a bit rolly, as if he'd had too much dinner. He'd got his collar turned up and his straw hat rammed down over his eyes. Never said a single word, on'y grunted as he got into the boat, and give another grunt as he got out and up the side. Then he went below directly, and they've seen no more of him!"

"Tell 'em you didn't either," said the captain.

"No, I didn't neither," said the mate.

"To make it short, gentlemen," said the captain, "d.i.c.k Dellow here went on deck about one to cast off and go downstream in the moonlight, and sent the boy to rouse me up; and when I come on deck d.i.c.k says: 'Jem Lynton don't show his nose yet.' I didn't say anything then, for I was too busy thinking, being a bit sour and gruff about Jem, and with having to get up in the middle of the night; and then I was too busy over getting off with a bit o' sail on just for steering. Then I felt better and ready to excuse the poor chap, for I said, half-laughing like, to d.i.c.k Dellow here: 'Jem aren't used to going out to dinners. Let him sleep it off. He'll have a bad headache in the morning, and then I'll bully him. He won't want to go to any more dinners just before leaving port, setting a bad example to the men.'"

"Then, to make it shorter still," said Brace, "the second mate did not come back?"

"Didn't I tell you he did come back, sir?" said the mate huskily.

"Yes, but--" began Brace.

"You don't mean to say--" began Sir Humphrey.

"Yes, gentlemen, that's what I do mean to say," growled the captain.

"He came aboard right enough, and went below. n.o.body saw him come up again, and there's his bed all tumbled like. But he must have come up again and fallen overboard, for he isn't here now; and as soon as we found it out I give the order to drop anchor, and here we are."

"But how did you happen to find it out?" said Sir Humphrey.

"Tell him, d.i.c.k," said the captain.

The first mate shrugged his shoulders, and said gloomily:

"It was like this, gen'lemen. The skipper said one thing, but I says to myself another. 'Jem Lynton's no business to go off ash.o.r.e the night we're going to sail,' I says, 'and I shan't go on doing his work and leaving him sleeping below there like a pig.' So I waited till the skipper was busy forward talking to the look-out, and then I slips down below to get hold of poor old Jem by the hind leg and drop him on the floor."

"Yes?" said Brace, for the mate stopped.

"Well, sir, I goes to the side of his berth, holds out my right hand-- nay, I won't swear it was my right hand, because it might have been my left; but whichever it was, it stood out quite stiff, and me with it, for there was no Jem Lynton there: only the blanket pulled out like, and half of it on the floor."

"One moment," said Sir Humphrey. "The second mate slept in your cabin?"

"Yes, sir. I see what you mean. Did I see him? Yes, I did, fast asleep and snoring, with his back to me."

"And when you went down again he was not there?"

"That's it, gentlemen," said the captain, breaking in; "and he's not aboard now. There's only one way o' looking at it: the poor fellow must have been took bad in the night, got up and gone on deck, and fell overboard."

"Horrible!" exclaimed Brace.

"That's right, sir. Soon as Richard Dellow here found it out he come up to me on deck and give me a horrid turn. 'Poor Jem's drowned,' he says, 'for he aren't down below.'"

"But have you thoroughly searched the vessel?" cried Brace.

"Searched, squire?" replied the captain. "Where is there to search? He wasn't here, and as soon as I could think a bit I let go the anchor, for we must go back to Johnstown and give notice, so that an enquiry can be made. Not that there's anything to enquire about, for it's all as plain as a pikestaff. I don't know what I could be thinking about to let him go, when he ought to have been aboard at his work; but I didn't want to be hard. There, you know all we know, gen'lemen, and as soon as the tide begins to make we must run back to port, for we can't do anything more till that bit o' business is settled."

Sir Humphrey and his brother were silent, for there seemed to be nothing to say in face of such a terrible catastrophe; and, as if moved by a mutual desire to separate, while the brothers walked forward towards where the crew were gathered together watching them, the captain and mate went aft, the former shaking his head sadly, the latter looking terribly depressed and out of heart.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE MISSING MAN.

"This is a terrible business, Brace," said Sir Humphrey.

"Yes; it quite puts a damper upon our plans."

"Seems like a suggestion of unknown horrors of a similar kind which will dog our footsteps all through."

"Don't say that, Free," said Brace earnestly. "I know it is terrible; but it might have happened under any circ.u.mstances. You talk as if it was to do away with our expedition."

"I'm afraid it will as far as Captain Banes is concerned, my lad. He is sure to back out of it now."

"I'm afraid so too," said Brace sadly; "but only for a few days."

"I don't know, my boy: sailors are very superst.i.tious and fond of looking upon things as omens. It is very sad, for that second mate was a smart, intelligent fellow, and I looked forward to his taking an interest in our work and being our companion in many a pleasant trip."

"Oh, it's horrible," said Brace bitterly. "So well and strong only yesterday when seeing to our cases and luggage, and now--"

"Dead," said Sir Humphrey sadly, "and--"

"Boat ahoy!" shouted one of the men, drawing attention to a canoe paddled by a black, coming down with the tide in mid-stream, and only a few hundred yards above where the brig swung from her chain cable, which dipped down from her bows into the muddy water.

At the hail a second man; a white, with a coloured handkerchief tied about his head, rose up in the stern of the fragile vessel, s.n.a.t.c.hed off the handkerchief to wave it above his head, and nearly capsized the canoe, only saving it by dropping down at once.

"Ugh!" yelled one of the crew, a big bronzed fellow of six- or seven-and-twenty, and, turning sharply round, he upset one of his mates as he made for the forecastle hatch, but was hindered from going below by the brothers, who were standing between him and the opening.

"What is it, Tommy, mate?" shouted one of the men.

"Look, look!" groaned the scared sailor. "His ghost--his ghost!"

In an instant the rest of the men took fright and shrank away from the bows, to hang together in a scared-looking group, the first man, addressed as Tommy, holding one hand to his mouth as if to check his chattering teeth.

"Stand by there with a rope," came from the boat; but not a man stirred, and just then the captain and mate came trotting up from aft.

"Here, what's the matter, my lads?" cried the former.

"Master Lynton's ghost, sir," stammered the trembling sailors.

"Mr Lynton's grandmother!" roared the captain, s.n.a.t.c.hing up a coil of rope and flinging it to the bareheaded man in the boat, who caught it deftly as it opened out in rings. "Here, what do you mean by that c.o.c.k-and-bull story, d.i.c.k Dellow?"