The party thought the captain was working something on them, and they commenced to joke worse than ever, and it was still a dead calm.
“We are going to have a big blow,” said the captain. “I wish we were in the inlet.”
“Oh, come off, cap.”
At this moment the quack, quack, was heard again.
All the men began to feel a little uncomfortable. They were intelligent men, but the circumstance was certainly very odd, and it was still more startling when a voice from over the top of the mast appeared to call down and say:
“Ask the bluefish what he has to say.”
The party looked in each other’ faces. In dead earnest, of course, all hands believed some trick was being worked on them, and yet it was certainly a very weird trick—and it did not seem possible that it could be worked. One of the party said, however:
“Let’s obey orders; we’ll ask the bluefish what he has to say.”
“Who’ll ask him?”
“I will,” said the gentleman.