Part 11 (1/2)
”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.'”