Old Masters turned his face towards me as the fleeting vision became swallowed up in the darkness that now obscured the sky to the westwards, and I saw that he looked horror-struck, staring into space spell-bound.
As for me, I cannot express what I felt, because I am unable to describe it fully.
“There, there!” I exclaimed, clutching Captain Applegarth’s arm in nervous horror. “There she is again!”
But the skipper, although startled by the sudden appearance of the mysterious vessel in the first instance, as his ejaculation on catching sight of her showed, evidently did not regard her in the same light as the boatswain and myself.
“Why, Haldane, what’s the matter with you, my lad?” he said in a joking way, “You seem all of a tremble; and, by George, you grip tight!”
“I beg your pardon, sir, I’m sure,” I stammered out, trying to pull myself together as I released his arm. “But—but—did you—did you—see her, sir?”
“See that ship just now? Yes, of course I did. I suppose she sighted us lying here like a log and wanted us to report her or something, though why they lit that flare-up over her stern I am sure I can’t imagine. They couldn’t expect us to read her name at that distance. She must have been close on five miles off!”
“But, sir,” I cried out quickly. “She’s the same!”
“The same what, Haldane?”
“Why, the ship in distress, sir, that I sighted at sunset on Friday night just before our breakdown.”