Sail Ho! Part 69

"Yes; what is it?"

"All gone mad wi' being so much out in the sun."

"You may be mad, Neb, I arn't, and I don't mean to. I'll take my trick at the wheel and box the compa.s.s with any on yer. Wheel--wheel," he added, thoughtfully--"steering. Why arn't I at the wheel now?"

"'Cause you're here, messmate," said Dumlow.

"But I was a-steering when you comes, Mr Dale, sir, and brings me a plate o' wittles, and you says, says you--"

"Oh!" I cried excitedly.

"No, you didn't, sir, beggin' your parding; you says something about could I steer and eat too, and I says--no, you says--no, it was I says; well, it was one or t'other of us, I can't quite 'member which says, 'put it on the binnacle,'--and it was put there, and I ate it, and it was very good."

"Oh!" I cried again, as I pressed my temples with my hands, for I could see a faint gleam of light peeping through into my head, or so it seemed; but it kept on dying out again, and I was blank of memory again as ever.

"Did you say wittles?" cried Dumlow, suddenly.

"Ay, mate, I did."

"Why, I 'members something 'bout wittles. O' course. Me and you, Bob."

"When? Where?"

"Ah, I dunno when it was, nor wheer it was, but--"

"She's dying--she's dying," I cried; for those words came cutting through the black silence, and gave me quite a pang.

"Who's she? And what's she a-dying for?" growled Bob Hampton.

"Toe be sure, mate," said Dumlow, "that's what Mr Denning says as he come out of his cabin. 'She's dying,' he says, and you and me got up and sat down again feeling as silly as two b.o.o.by birds."

"Here, you don't know what you're talking about, messmate," said Bob Hampton.

"Yes, he does," I cried excitedly, for a greater light seemed to have now flashed into my brain. "You did go into the saloon to have--Oh, Bob Hampton, I recollect it all now."

"Do you, sir? Then let's have it," he said gruffly.

"There was a great mistake made," I cried.

"Seems like it, sir."

"And, yes," I continued, "I know Barney went to sleep at the wheel."

"That's a lie!" he rapped out. "Leastwise, I beg your pardon, sir; I mean I arn't the sort o' man to go to sleep on duty."

"No, no; of course not, Barney," I said piteously; "but you did, and Bob Hampton and Neb Dumlow came and laid down on the deck, and I saw it all, and heard it, and, oh dear, oh dear! what a terrible mess!"

"Arn't he going off his head, matey?" whispered Dumlow; but I heard him.

"No, no, man; it's all coming back now. You don't know, but you must now; it was a plan to give the mutineers stuff to send them all to sleep, and it was changed and given to us instead."

"Beg pardon, sir," said Bob Hampton; "but hadn't you better lie down and go to sleep again?"

"Why, Bob?"

"'Cause, to speak plain English, you're talking nonsense, sir."

"No, man; it's sense. That fellow Dean heard all, and changed the tins."

"Now, do lie down, sir; it's o' no use for you to go on worrying yourself about tins."

"I tell you I can see it all now, man," I cried angrily. "We took the stuff, and the prisoners got off. They're out now, and we're prisoners.

Don't you see?"

"No, sir; it's too dark. But--"

"I tell you I'm all right. My head is come clear again, and I can think. We were all confused through taking Mr Frewen's stuff."

"I never took none o' the doctor's stuff," growled Dumlow. "And I don't never mean to."

"Are you sure o' what you're saying, sir?" said Bob Hampton.

"Certain, Bob."

"I arn't."

"You hold your tongue, and don't be sarcy, Neb," growled Bob. "I'm a-beginning to see now. Mr Dale's right. If he warn't, how could we be shut up down here with our heads as thick as if we'd been having 'em stuffed? That's it, sir, though I don't half understand what you say.

Then we've all been hocussed, and Jarette's got the upper hand again?"

"Yes, Bob, I'm afraid so."

"Well, that's ugly, my lad; but there's no help for it now, and the sooner we get to work and take the ship again, I suppose, the better."

"Yes, Bob," I said. "Of course."

"Very well, my lad, then here goes. I'm glad it's how you say, for I was beginning to think I'd got crazed, and been shut up for being violent. That's a comfort anyhow, for I don't hold with a man going off his head."

"Then it's all right, messmate?" growled Dumlow.

"Right as it can be in a place like this, matey. Yer can't breathe, nor you can't see, and--well now, that's queer. You seem to ha' set my head working again, Mr Dale, sir; and I recklect sittin' in the s'loon eating our dinner arter you gents had done, and then coming over all pleasant and comfble like, and then I don't seem to 'member no more till I woke up down here."

"And that knocking we heard must be some of the others," I cried excitedly.

"That's sartain, sir."

"Is there any one else here beside us four?"

"If there be," says Barney, "we're a-lying on 'em, for there arn't no room without as I can see."