'I am here—I will be with you!' I shouted, and, without pausing further to attire myself, dropped from my bunk and made with outstretched hands for the door, which I felt for and opened.
It was pitch dark in this passage betwixt the cabins, without even the dim gleam the porthole in the berth offered to the eye to rest on.
'Where are you, Abraham?' I cried.
'Here, sir!' he exclaimed, almost in my ear, and, lifting my hand, I touched him.
'The crew's up!' he cried. 'They've killed the mate, and by this time, I allow, the Capt'n's done for.'
'Where's Jacob?'
'Gor' He only knows, sir!'
'Are you armed? Do you grip anything?'
'Nothen, nothen. I run without stopping to arm myself. I'll tell ye about it—but it's awful to be a-talking in this here blackness with murder happening close by.'
He still panted as from heavy recent exertion, and his voice faltered as though he were sinking from a wound.