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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11186 ***
+
+CAPTAINS ALL
+
+By W.W. Jacobs
+
+
+
+OVER THE SIDE
+
+[Illustration: "Over the Side."]
+
+Of all classes of men, those who follow the sea are probably the most
+prone to superstition.  Afloat upon the black waste of waters, at the
+mercy of wind and sea, with vast depths and strange creatures below them,
+a belief in the supernatural is easier than ashore, under the cheerful
+gas-lamps.  Strange stories of the sea are plentiful, and an incident
+which happened within my own experience has made me somewhat chary of
+dubbing a man fool or coward because he has encountered something he
+cannot explain.  There are stories of the supernatural with prosaic
+sequels; there are others to which the sequel has never been published.
+
+I was fifteen years old at the time, and as my father, who had a strong
+objection to the sea, would not apprentice me to it, I shipped before the
+mast on a sturdy little brig called the _Endeavour,_ bound for Riga.  She
+was a small craft, but the skipper was as fine a seaman as one could wish
+for, and, in fair weather, an easy man to sail under.  Most boys have a
+rough time of it when they first go to sea, but, with a strong sense of
+what was good for me, I had attached myself to a brawny, good-natured
+infant, named Bill Smith, and it was soon understood that whoever hit me
+struck Bill by proxy.  Not that the crew were particularly brutal, but a
+sound cuffing occasionally is held by most seamen to be beneficial to a
+lad's health and morals.  The only really spiteful fellow among them was
+a man named Jem Dadd.  He was a morose, sallow-looking man, of about
+forty, with a strong taste for the supernatural, and a stronger taste
+still for frightening his fellows with it.  I have seen Bill almost
+afraid to go on deck of a night for his trick at the wheel, after a few
+of his reminiscences.  Rats were a favourite topic with him, and he would
+never allow one to be killed if he could help it, for he claimed for them
+that they were the souls of drowned sailors, hence their love of ships
+and their habit of leaving them when they became unseaworthy.  He was a
+firm believer in the transmigration of souls, some idea of which he had,
+no doubt, picked up in Eastern ports, and gave his shivering auditors to
+understand that his arrangements for his own immediate future were
+already perfected.
+
+We were six or seven days out when a strange thing happened.  Dadd had
+the second watch one night, and Bill was to relieve him.  They were not
+very strict aboard the brig in fair weather, and when a man's time was
+up he just made the wheel fast, and, running for'ard, shouted down the
+fo'c's'le.  On this night I happened to awake suddenly, in time to see
+Bill slip out of his bunk and stand by me, rubbing his red eyelids with
+his knuckles.
+
+"Dadd's giving me a long time," he whispered, seeing that I was awake;
+"it's a whole hour after his time."
+
+He pattered up on deck, and I was just turning over, thankful that I was
+too young to have a watch to keep, when he came softly down again, and,
+taking me by the shoulders, shook me roughly.
+
+"Jack," he whispered.  "Jack."
+
+I raised myself on my elbows, and, in the light of the smoking lamp, saw
+that he was shaking all over.
+
+"Come on deck," he said, thickly.
+
+I put on my clothes, and followed him quietly to the sweet, cool air
+above.  It was a beautiful clear night, but, from his manner, I looked
+nervously around for some cause of alarm.  I saw nothing.  The deck was
+deserted, except for the solitary figure at the wheel.
+
+"Look at him," whispered Bill, bending a contorted face to mine.
+
+I walked aft a few steps, and Bill followed slowly.  Then I saw that Jem
+Dadd was leaning forward clumsily on the wheel, with his hands clenched
+on the spokes.
+
+"He's asleep," said I, stopping short.
+
+Bill breathed hard.  "He's in a queer sleep," said he; "kind o' trance
+more like.  Go closer."
+
+I took fast hold of Bill's sleeve, and we both went.  The light of the
+stars was sufficient to show that Dadd's face was very white, and that
+his dim, black eyes were wide open, and staring in a very strange and
+dreadful manner straight before him.
+
+"Dadd," said I, softly, "Dadd!"
+
+There was no reply, and, with a view of arousing him, I tapped one sinewy
+hand as it gripped the wheel, and even tried to loosen it.
+
+He remained immovable, and, suddenly with a great cry, my courage
+deserted me, and Bill and I fairly bolted down into the cabin and woke
+the skipper.
+
+Then we saw how it was with Jem, and two strong seamen forcibly loosened
+the grip of those rigid fingers, and, laying him on the deck, covered him
+with a piece of canvas.  The rest of the night two men stayed at the
+wheel, and, gazing fearfully at the outline of the canvas, longed for
+dawn.
+
+It came at last, and, breakfast over, the body was sewn up in canvas, and
+the skipper held a short service compiled from a Bible which belonged to
+the mate, and what he remembered of the Burial Service proper.  Then the
+corpse went overboard with a splash, and the men, after standing
+awkwardly together for a few minutes, slowly dispersed to their duties.
+
+For the rest of that day we were all very quiet and restrained; pity for
+the dead man being mingled with a dread of taking the wheel when night
+came.
+
+"The wheel's haunted," said the cook, solemnly; "mark my words, there's
+more of you will be took the same way Dadd was."
+
+The cook, like myself, had no watch to keep.
+
+The men bore up pretty well until night came on again, and then they
+unanimously resolved to have a double watch.  The cook, sorely against
+his will, was impressed into the service, and I, glad to oblige my
+patron, agreed to stay up with Bill.
+
+Some of the pleasure had vanished by the time night came, and I seemed
+only just to have closed my eyes when Bill came, and, with a rough shake
+or two, informed me that the time had come.  Any hope that I might have
+had of escaping the ordeal was at once dispelled by his expectant
+demeanour, and the helpful way in which he assisted me with my clothes,
+and, yawning terribly, I followed him on deck.
+
+The night was not so clear as the preceding one, and the air was chilly,
+with a little moisture in it.  I buttoned up my jacket, and thrust my
+hands in my pockets.
+
+"Everything quiet?" asked Bill as he stepped up and took the wheel.
+
+"Ay, ay," said Roberts, "quiet as the grave," and, followed by his
+willing mate, he went below.
+
+I sat on the deck by Bill's side as, with a light touch on the wheel,
+he kept the brig to her course.  It was weary work sitting there, doing
+nothing, and thinking of the warm berth below, and I believe that I
+should have fallen asleep, but that my watchful companion stirred me with
+his foot whenever he saw me nodding.
+
+I suppose I must have sat there, shivering and yawning, for about an
+hour, when, tired of inactivity, I got up and went and leaned over the
+side of the vessel.  The sound of the water gurgling and lapping by was
+so soothing that I began to doze.
+
+I was recalled to my senses by a smothered cry from Bill, and, running to
+him, I found him staring to port in an intense and uncomfortable fashion.
+At my approach, he took one hand from the wheel, and gripped my arm so
+tightly that I was like to have screamed with the pain of it.
+
+"Jack," said he, in a shaky voice, "while you was away something popped
+its head up, and looked over the ship's side."
+
+"You've been dreaming," said I, in a voice which was a very fair
+imitation of Bill's own.
+
+"Dreaming," repeated Bill, "dreaming!  Ah, look there!"
+
+He pointed with outstretched finger, and my heart seemed to stop beating
+as I saw a man's head appear above the side.  For a brief space it peered
+at us in silence, and then a dark figure sprang like a cat on to the
+deck, and stood crouching a short distance away.
+
+A mist came before my eyes, and my tongue failed me, but Bill let off a
+roar, such as I have never heard before or since.  It was answered from
+below, both aft and for'ard, and the men came running up on deck just as
+they left their beds.
+
+"What's up?" shouted the skipper, glancing aloft.
+
+For answer, Bill pointed to the intruder, and the men, who had just
+caught sight of him, came up and formed a compact knot by the wheel.
+
+"Come over the side, it did," panted Bill, "come over like a ghost out of
+the sea."
+
+The skipper took one of the small lamps from the binnacle, and, holding
+it aloft, walked boldly up to the cause of alarm.  In the little patch of
+light we saw a ghastly black-bearded man, dripping with water, regarding
+us with unwinking eyes, which glowed red in the light of the lamp.
+
+"Where did you come from?" asked the skipper.
+
+The figure shook its head.
+
+"Where did you come from?" he repeated, walking up, and laying his hand
+on the other's shoulder.
+
+Then the intruder spoke, but in a strange fashion and in strange words.
+We leaned forward to listen, but, even when he repeated them, we could
+make nothing of them.
+
+"He's a furriner," said Roberts.
+
+"Blest if I've ever 'eard the lingo afore," said Bill.  "Does anybody
+rekernize it?"
+
+Nobody did, and the skipper, after another attempt, gave it up, and,
+falling back upon the universal language of signs, pointed first to the
+man and then to the sea.  The other understood him, and, in a heavy,
+slovenly fashion, portrayed a man drifting in an open boat, and clutching
+and clambering up the side of a passing ship.  As his meaning dawned upon
+us, we rushed to the stern, and, leaning over, peered into the gloom, but
+the night was dark, and we saw nothing.
+
+"Well," said the skipper, turning to Bill, with a mighty yawn, "take him
+below, and give him some grub, and the next time a gentleman calls on
+you, don't make such a confounded row about it."
+
+He went below, followed by the mate, and after some slight hesitation,
+Roberts stepped up to the intruder, and signed to him to follow.  He came
+stolidly enough, leaving a trail of water on the deck, and, after
+changing into the dry things we gave him, fell to, but without much
+appearance of hunger, upon some salt beef and biscuits, regarding us
+between bites with black, lack-lustre eyes.
+
+"He seems as though he's a-walking in his sleep," said the cook.
+
+"He ain't very hungry," said one of the men; "he seems to mumble his
+food."
+
+"Hungry!" repeated Bill, who had just left the wheel.  "Course he ain't
+famished.  He had his tea last night."
+
+The men stared at him in bewilderment.
+
+"Don't you see?" said Bill, still in a hoarse whisper; "ain't you ever
+seen them eyes afore?  Don't you know what he used to say about dying?
+It's Jem Dadd come back to us.  Jem Dadd got another man's body, as he
+always said he would."
+
+"Rot!" said Roberts, trying to speak bravely, but he got up, and, with
+the others, huddled together at the end of the fo'c's'le, and stared in a
+bewildered fashion at the sodden face and short, squat figure of our
+visitor.  For his part, having finished his meal, he pushed his plate
+from him, and, leaning back on the locker, looked at the empty bunks.
+
+Roberts caught his eye, and, with a nod and a wave of his hand, indicated
+the bunks.  The fellow rose from the locker, and, amid a breathless
+silence, climbed into one of them--Jem Dadd's!
+
+He slept in the dead sailor's bed that night, the only man in the
+fo'c's'le who did sleep properly, and turned out heavily and lumpishly in
+the morning for breakfast.
+
+The skipper had him on deck after the meal, but could make nothing of
+him.  To all his questions he replied in the strange tongue of the night
+before, and, though our fellows had been to many ports, and knew a word
+or two of several languages, none of them recognized it.  The skipper
+gave it up at last, and, left to himself, he stared about him for some
+time, regardless of our interest in his movements, and then, leaning
+heavily against the side of the ship, stayed there so long that we
+thought he must have fallen asleep.
+
+"He's half-dead now!" whispered Roberts.
+
+"Hush!" said Bill, "mebbe he's been in the water a week or two, and can't
+quite make it out.  See how he's looking at it now."
+
+He stayed on deck all day in the sun, but, as night came on, returned to
+the warmth of the fo'c's'le.  The food we gave him remained untouched,
+and he took little or no notice of us, though I fancied that he saw the
+fear we had of him.  He slept again in the dead man's bunk, and when
+morning came still lay there.
+
+Until dinner-time, nobody interfered with him, and then Roberts, pushed
+forward by the others, approached him with some food.  He motioned, it
+away with a dirty, bloated hand, and, making signs for water, drank it
+eagerly.
+
+For two days he stayed there quietly, the black eyes always open, the
+stubby fingers always on the move.  On the third morning Bill, who had
+conquered his fear sufficiently to give him water occasionally, called
+softly to us.
+
+"Come and look at him," said he.  "What's the matter with him?"
+
+"He's dying!" said the cook, with a shudder.
+
+"He can't be going to die yet!" said Bill, blankly.
+
+As he spoke the man's eyes seemed to get softer and more life-like, and
+he looked at us piteously and helplessly.  From face to face he gazed in
+mute inquiry, and then, striking his chest feebly with his fist, uttered
+two words.
+
+We looked at each other blankly, and he repeated them eagerly, and again
+touched his chest.
+
+"It's his name," said the cook, and we all repeated them.
+
+He smiled in an exhausted fashion, and then, rallying his energies, held
+up a forefinger; as we stared at this new riddle, he lowered it, and held
+up all four fingers, doubled.
+
+"Come away," quavered the cook; "he's putting a spell on us."
+
+We drew back at that, and back farther still, as he repeated the motions.
+Then Bill's face cleared suddenly, and he stepped towards him.
+
+"He means his wife and younkers!" he shouted eagerly.  "This ain't no Jem
+Dadd!"
+
+It was good then to see how our fellows drew round the dying sailor, and
+strove to cheer him.  Bill, to show he understood the finger business,
+nodded cheerily, and held his hand at four different heights from the
+floor.  The last was very low, so low that the man set his lips together,
+and strove to turn his heavy head from us.
+
+"Poor devil!" said Bill, "he wants us to tell his wife and children
+what's become of him.  He must ha' been dying when he come aboard.  What
+was his name, again?"
+
+But the name was not easy to English lips, and we had already forgotten
+it.
+
+"Ask him again," said the cook, "and write it down.  Who's got a pen?"
+
+He went to look for one as Bill turned to the sailor to get him to repeat
+it.  Then he turned round again, and eyed us blankly, for, by this time,
+the owner had himself forgotten it.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Over The Side, by W.W. Jacobs
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11186 ***