It was at that moment we were startled by a cry of 'Below there!'
'Whoy, it's Jacob!' roared Abraham, and stepping backwards and looking straight up, he shouted, 'Jacob, ahoy! Where are ye, mate?'
'Up in the maintop, pretty nigh dead,' came down the leather-lunged response from the silence up above.
'Thank God you're alive!' cried Abraham. 'It's all roight now—it's all roight now.'
'Who's agoing to make me believe it?' cried Jacob.
I stared up, and fancied I could just perceive the black knob of his head projected over the rim of the top.
'You can come down, Jacob,' I cried. 'All danger, I hope, is over.'
'Danger over?' he bawled. 'Whoy, they've killed the mate and chucked him overboard, and if I hadn't taken to my heels and jumped aloft they'd have killed me.'
'No, no—not true; not true, sah!' shrieked Nakier. 'Come down, Jacob! It is allee right!'
'Where's the Captain?' cried Jacob.