When I stepped out on deck I found that the character of the weather had changed during the three hours or so that I had spent in the cuddy. The young moon had, of course, set some time before; the sky had grown overcast and seemed to be threatening rain; the clouds were sweeping up from about south-south-west, and a light breeze, that seemed likely to freshen, was blowing from that direction, driving great masses of chill, wet fog along before it of so dense a character that it was scarcely possible to make out the foremast from the head of the poop-ladder. Altogether it threatened to be a distinctly unpleasant night for the unfortunate men whose duty it would be to keep a look-out through the hours of darkness. Carter, in a thick pilot-cloth jacket, was walking to and fro on the poop, with a short pipe stuck in the corner of his mouth, when I joined him.
“Hullo, Carter,” I said, “this is a change of weather with a vengeance! When did it happen?”
“Why,” answered Carter, “the fog closed in upon us just after sunset, the same as it has done every night since we’ve been here; but the breeze has only sprung up within the last half-hour. Looks as though ’twas going to freshen too.”
“So I think,” said I. “How is it coming? Broad off the starboard bow, isn’t it?”
“Yes; about that,” agreed Carter.
“And the tide is rising, is it not?” I continued, the freshening breeze having suggested an idea to me which I in turn wished to suggest to my companion.
“Ay, risin’ fast,” answered he. “It’ll be high-water about midnight, I reckon.”
“Just so,” I agreed. The idea which I wished to suggest to him had clearly not yet dawned upon him—although it ought to have done so without any need of a hint from me,—so, without further beating about the bush, I said:
“Now, don’t you think, Carter, that, with this nice little breeze blowing from precisely the right direction, it would be quite worth while to loose and set the square canvas and—”
“Throw it all aback,” he cut in as at last he caught my idea. “Why, of course I do, Mr Grenvile, and thank’e for the hint. It’d be a precious sight more helpful than the kedge, and I’ll have it done at once.” And he started to go forward to call the men.