"And the officers and the Skipper?" I asked.
"Fresh uns," he said, and got out of his bunk; for eight bells was
striking.
IV
_The Fooling with the Sail_
It was on the Friday night, that the Second Mate had the watch aloft
looking for the man up the main; and for the next five days little else
was talked about; though, with the exception of Williams, Tammy and
myself, no one seemed to think of treating the matter seriously. Perhaps
I should not exclude Quoin, who still persisted, on every occasion, that
there was a stowaway aboard. As for the Second Mate, I have very little
doubt _now_, but that he was beginning to realise there was something
deeper and less understandable than he had at first dreamed of. Yet, all
the same, I know he had to keep his guesses and half-formed opinions
pretty well to himself; for the Old Man and the First Mate chaffed him
unmercifully about his "bogy." This, I got from Tammy, who had heard
them both ragging him during the second dog-watch the following day.
There was another thing Tammy told me, that showed how the Second Mate
bothered about his inability to understand the mysterious appearance and
disappearance of the man he had seen go aloft.
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