ng
the poop. In the dark and on all fours he resembled some carnivorous
animal prowling amongst corpses. At the break, propped to windward of
a stanchion, he looked down on the main deck. It seemed to him that
the ship had a tendency to stand up a little more. The wind had eased
a little, he thought, but the sea ran as high as ever. The waves foamed
viciously, and the lee side of the deck disappeared under a hissing
whiteness as of boiling milk, while the rigging sang steadily with a
deep vibrating note, and, at every upward swing of the ship, the wind
rushed with a long-drawn clamour amongst the spars. Mr. Baker watched
very still. A man near him began to make a blabbing noise with his
lips, all at once and very loud, as though the cold had broken brutally
through him. He went on:--"Ba--ba--ba--brrr--brr--ba--ba."--"Stop that!" cried
Mr. Baker, groping in the dark. "Stop it!" He went on shaking the leg he
found under his hand.--"What is it, sir?" called out Belfast, in the tone
of a man awakened suddenly; "we are looking after that 'ere Jimmy."--"Are
you? Ough! Don't make that row then. Who's that near you?"--"It's me--the
boatswain, sir," growled the West-country man; "we are trying to keep
life in that poor devil."--"Aye, aye!" said Mr. Baker. "Do it quietly,
can't you?"--"He wants us to hold him up above the rail," went on the
boatswain, with irritation, "says he can't breathe here under our
jackets."--"If we lift 'im, we drop 'im overboard," said another voice,
"we can't feel our hands with cold."--"I don't care. I am choking!"
exclaimed James Wait in a clear tone.--"Oh, no, my son," said the
boatswain, desperately, "you don't go till we all go on this
fine night."--"You will see yet many a worse," said Mr. Baker,
cheerfully.--"It's no child's play, sir!" answered the boatswain. "Some
of us further aft, here, are in a pretty bad way."--"If the blamed sticks
had been cut out of her she would be running along on her bottom now
like any decent ship, an' giv' us all a chance," said some one, with a
sigh.--"The old man wouldn't have it... much he cares for us," whispered
another.--"Care for you!" exclaimed Mr. Baker, angrily. "Why should he
care for you? Are you a lot of women passengers to be taken care of?
We are here to take care of the ship--and some of you ain't up to that.
Ough!... What have you done so very smart to be taken care of?
Ough!... Some of you can't stand a bit of a breeze without crying over
it."--"Com