'Among us,' she answered, with a motion of her hand that comprehended the two boatmen and myself, 'we shall be able to do all you require.'
He made a sort of salaam to her, and said, looking at Abraham: 'Who keep de watch?'
'Whose watch on deck is it?' I asked.
'The starboard's—moine,' answered Abraham, with an uneasy shuffling of his feet.
'Allee right, Mr. Vise; allee right! It is veree fine night. I go now to sleep,' said Nakier; and he went in his sliding, spirit-like fashion to the cuddy-door, and vanished in the blackness on the quarter-deck.
The four of us stood grouped at the head of that little table, staring at one another. Now that the coloured crew were gone, a sense of the unreality of what had happened possessed me. It was like starting from a nightmare, with the reason in one slowly dominating the horror raised by the hideous phantasmagoria of sleep.
'We must not seem to be standing here as though we were planning and plotting,' exclaimed Helga. 'Dark figures out in that shadow there are watching us.'
'That's right enough, miss,' said Abraham; 'but what's to be done?'
'Here stands a man,' cried Jacob hotly, striking his breast, 'as dorn't mean for to be carried to the Cape in a bloomin' wessel full o' bloody savages; and that's speaking straight!'
'Hush!' cried I. 'Soften those leather lungs of yours, will you?'