bserved the latter to me, as I stood
there awaiting my orders from the skipper, or to hear anything he might
have to say to me. "I said as how summut was sure to happen. That
there ship--the ghost-ship--didn't come athwart our hawser for nothink,
I knowed!"

Just then there was a call up the voicepipe communicating between the
wheel-house on the bridge and the engine-room.

The skipper bent his ear to the pipe, listening to what those below had
to say, and then came to the top of the ladder.

"Below there!" he sang out. "Is Mr Spokeshave anywhere about?"

"No, sir," I answered. "He went off duty at eight bells."

"The devil he did, and me in such a plight, too, with that awful
accident below!" cried Captain Applegarth angrily. "I suppose he's
thinking of his belly again, the gourmandising little beast! He isn't
half a sailor or worth a purser's parings! I'll make him pay for his
skulking presently, by Jingo! However, I can't waste the time now to
send after him, and you'll do as well, Haldane--better, indeed, I
think!"

"All right, sir," said I, eager for action. "I'm ready to do anything."

"That's a willing lad," cried the skipper. "Now run down into Garry
O'Neil's cabin and get some lint bandages he says he forgot to take with
him in his hurry, leaving them on the top of his bunk by the doorway;
and tell Weston, the steward, to have a couple of spare bunks ready for
the injured men--in one of the state rooms aft will be best."

"All right, sir," said I, adding, as he seemed to hesitate, "anything
else, sir?"

"Yes, my boy; take down a loose hammock with you, and some lashings, so
as to make a sort of net with which to lift and carry poor Jackson.
He's the only chap badly hurt and unable to shift for himself, so O'Neil
says. Look sharp, Haldane, there's no time to lose; the poor fellow's
in a very ticklish state and they want to get him up on deck in order to
examine his injuries better than they can below in the stoke-hold!"

"Aye, aye, sir!" I answered, darting aft immediately, to avoid further
debation, towards the saloon door under the poop. "I'm _off_, sir, at
once!"

Here I soon got what the Irishman had asked for out of his cabin, and,
giving Weston his order about the state room, unslinging the while my
own hammock from its hooks and rolling it up, blankets and all, in a
roll, I kicked it before me as I made my way down the engine-room
hatchway as quickly as I could.

The machinery,