On the break, I heard him call Tammy's name, and then
for some minutes he was talking to him; though what he was saying, I
could not possibly hear. For my part, I was tremendously curious to know
why the Second Mate had taken the wheel. I knew that if it were just a
matter of bad steering on Tammy's part, he would not have dreamt of
doing such a thing. There had been something queer happening, about
which I had yet to learn; of this, I felt sure. Presently, the Second Mate left Tammy, and commenced to walk the weather
side of the deck. Once he came right aft, and, stooping down, peered
under the wheel-box; but never addressed a word to me. Sometime later,
he went down the weather ladder on to the main-deck. Directly
afterwards, Tammy came running up to the lee side of the wheel-box. "I've seen it again!" he said, gasping with sheer nervousness. "What?" I said. "That _thing_," he answered. Then he leant across the wheel-box, and
lowered his voice. "It came over the lee rail--_up out of the sea_," he added, with an air
of telling something unbelievable. I turned more towards him; but it was too dark to see his face with any
distinctness. I felt suddenly husky. "My God!" I thought. And then I
made a silly effort to protest; but he cut me short with a certain
impatient hopelessness. "For God's sake, Jessop," he said, "do stow all that! It's no good. I
must have someone to talk to, or I shall go dotty." I saw how useless it was to pretend any sort of ignorance. Indeed,
really, I had known it all along, and avoided the youngster on that very
account, as you know. "Go on," I said. "I'll listen; but you'd better keep an eye for the
Second Mate; he may pop up any minute." For a moment, he said nothing, and I saw him peering stealthily about
the poop. "Go on," I said. "You'd better make haste, or he'll be up before you're
half-way through. What was he doing at the wheel when I came up to
relieve it? Why did he send you away from it?" "He didn't," Tammy replied, turning his face towards me. "I bunked away
from it." "What for?" I asked. "Wait a minute," he answered, "and I'll tell you the whole business. You
know the Second Mate sent me to the wheel, after _that_--" He nodded his
head forrard. "Yes," I said. "Well, I'd been here about ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, and I
was feeling rotten about Williams, and trying to forget it all and keep
the ship on her course, and all that; when, all at once, I happened to
glance to loo'ard, and there I saw it climbing over the rail. My God! I
didn't know what to do. The Second Mate was standing forrard on the
break of the poop, and I was here all by myself. I felt as if I were
frozen stiff. When it came towards me, I let go of the wheel, and yelled
and bunked forrard to the Second Mate. He caught hold of me and shook
me; but I was so jolly frightened, I couldn't say a word. I could only
keep on pointing. The Second kept asking me 'Where?' And then, all at
once, I found I couldn't see the thing. I don't know whether he saw it. I'm not at all certain he did. He just told me to damn well get back to
the wheel, and stop making a damned fool of myself. I said out straight
I wouldn't go. So he blew his whistle, and sung out for someone to come
aft and take it. Then he ran and got hold of the wheel himself. You know
the rest." "You're quite sure it wasn't thinking about Williams made you imagine
you saw something?" I said, more to gain a moment to think, than because
I believed that it was the case. "I thought you were going to listen to me, seriously!" he said,
bitterly. "If you won't believe me; what about the chap the Second Mate
saw? What about Tom? What about Williams? For goodness sake! don't try
to put me off like you did last time. I nearly went cracked with wanting
to tell someone who would listen to me, and wouldn't laugh. I could
stand anything, but this being alone. There's a good chap, don't pretend
you don't understand. Tell me what it all means. What is this horrible
man that I've twice seen? You know you know something, and I believe
you're afraid to tell anyone, for fear of being laughed at. Why don't
you tell me? You needn't be afraid of my laughing." He stopped, suddenly. For the moment, I said nothing in reply. "Don't treat me like a kid, Jessop!" he exclaimed, quite passionately. "I won't," I said, with a sudden resolve to tell him everything. "I need
someone to talk to, just as badly as you do." "What does it all mean, then?" he burst out. "Are they real? I always
used to think it was all a yarn about such things." "I'm sure I don't know what it all means, Tammy," I answered. "I'm just
as much in the dark, there, as you are. And I don't know whether they're
real--that is, not as we consider things real. You don't know that I saw
a queer figure down on the maindeck, several nights before you saw that
thing up here." "Didn't you see this one?" he cut in, quickly. "Yes," I answered. "Then, why did you pretend not to have?" he said, in a reproachful
voice. "You don't know what a state you put me into, what with my being
certain that I had seen it and then you being so jolly positive that
there had been nothing. At one time I thought I was going clean off my
dot--until the Second Mate saw that man go up the main. Then, I knew
that there must be something in the thing I was certain I'd seen." "I thought, perhaps, that if I told you I hadn't seen it, you would
think you'd been mistaken," I said. "I wanted you to think it was
imagination, or a dream, or something of that sort." "And all the time, you knew about that other thing you'd seen?" he
asked. "Yes," I replied. "It was thundering decent of you," he said. "But it wasn't any good." He paused a moment. Then he went on:

"It's terrible about Williams. Do you think he saw something, up aloft?" "I don't know, Tammy," I said. "It's impossible to say. It _may_ have
been only an accident." I hesitated to tell him what I really thought. "What was he saying about his pay-day? Who was he saying it to?" "I don't know," I said, again. "He was always cracked about taking a
pay-day out of her. You know, he stayed in her, on purpose, when all the
others left. He told me that he wasn't going to be done out of it, for
anyone." "What did the other lot leave for?" he asked. Then, as the idea seemed
to strike him--"Jove! do you think they saw something, and got scared? It's quite possible. You know, we only joined her in 'Frisco. She had no
'prentices on the passage out. Our ship was sold; so they sent us aboard
here to come home." "They may have," I said. "Indeed, from things I've heard Williams say,
I'm pretty certain, he for one, guessed or knew a jolly sight more than
we've any idea of." "And now he's dead!" said Tammy, solemnly. "We'll never be able to find
out from him now." For a few moments, he was silent. Then he went off on another track. "Doesn't anything ever happen in the Mate's watch?" "Yes," I answered. "There's several things happened lately, that seem
pretty queer.