I was meditating gloomily on this subject, when I heard a shrill whistle, and then a series of awful noises, at the sound of which every man below left whatever he was at, and rushed on deck. I had read too many accounts of shipwrecks not to know that the deck is the place to make for, so I bolted with the rest, and caught sight of Alister flying in the same direction as we were. When we got up I looked about me as well as I could, but I saw no rocks or vessels in collision with us. The waves were not breaking over us, but four or five men standing on the
bulwarks were pulling things like monstrous grubs out of a sort of trough, and chucking them with more or less accuracy at the heads of the sailors who gathered round.
“What is it, Alister?” I asked.
“It’s just the serving out of the hammocks that they sleep in,” Alister replied. “I’m thinking we’ll not be entitled to them.”
“What’s that fellow yelling about?”
“He’s crying to them to respond to their names and numbers. Whisht, man! till I hear his unchristian lingo and see if he cries on us.”
But in a few minutes the crowd had dispersed, and the hammock-servers with them, and Alister and I were left alone. I felt foolish, and I suppose looked so, for Alister burst out laughing and said—“Hech, laddie! it’s a small matter. We’ll find a corner to sleep in. And let me tell ye I’ve tried getting into a hammock myself, and ——”
“Hi! you lads!”
In no small confusion at having been found idle and together, we started to salute the third mate, who pointed to a sailor behind him, and said—“Follow Francis, and he’ll give you hammocks and blankets, and show you how to swing and stow them.”
We both exclaimed—“Thank you, sir!” with such warmth that as he returned our renewed salu