He slowly returned to the bridge and told the mate what he had seen.
"You're sure he was alive?" asked the latter.
"Well, he was makin' a noise like a motor-'bus climbin' a hill," answered Smith.
At eight bells that morning Mr. Dykes, in quite a different frame of mind to that of a couple of hours ago, sent the bos'n to muster all hands on deck. The men tumbled out sullenly, muttering among themselves in a manner which seemed to justify the mate's recent warning to the Captain.
Suddenly one of them gave a cry.
In the clear, grey morning light, they beheld, hanging from one of the derricks, the lifeless body of Jasper Skelt. His hands and feet were tightly bound with cords, and he was suspended from the boom by a rope round his neck.
Judging from the men's faces as they stared at the ghastly spectacle, Calamity's "appeal" was not likely to prove a vain one.