It makes me creepy all over to think of. And sometimes the folly of Captain Johns would appear clothed in a sort of weird utilitarianism. How useful it would be if the spirits of the departed could be induced to take a practical interest in the affairs of the living! What a help, say, to the police, for instance, in the detection of crime! The number of murders, at any rate, would be considerably reduced, he guessed with an air of great sagacity. Then he would give way to grotesque discouragement.
Where was the use of trying to communicate with people that had no faith, and more likely than not would scorn the offered information? Spirits had their feelings. They were all feelings in a way. But he was surprised at the forbearance shown towards murderers by their victims. That was the sort of apparition that no guilty man would dare to pooh-pooh. And perhaps the undiscovered murderers - whether believing or not - were haunted. They wouldn’t be likely to boast about it, would they?
‘Nor myself,’ he pursued, in a sort of vindictive, malevolent whine, ‘if anybody murdered me I would not let him forget it. I would wither him up - I would terrify him to death.’
The idea of his skipper’s ghost terrifying anyone was so ludicrous that the black mate, little disposed to mirth as he was, could not help giving vent to a weary laugh. And this laugh, the only acknowledgment of a long and earnest discourse, offended Captain Johns.
‘What’s there to laugh at in this conceited manner, Mr Burner?’ he snarled. ‘Supernatural visitations have terrified better men than you. Don’t you allow me enough soul to make a ghost of?’
I think it was the nasty tone that caused Burner to stop short and turnabout.
‘I shouldn’t wonder,’ went on the angry fanatic of spiritism, ‘if you weren’t one of them people that take no more account of a man than if he were a beast. You would be capable, I don’t doubt, to deny the possession of an immortal soul to your own father.’
And then Burner, being bored beyond endurance, and also exasperated by the private worry, lost his self-possession.
He walked up suddenly to Captain Johns, and, stooping a little to look close into his face, said, in a low, even tone:
‘You don’t know what a man like me is capable of.’
Captain Johns threw his head back, but was too astonished to budge. Bunter resumed his walk; and for a long time his measured footsteps and the low wash of the water alongside were the only sounds which troubled the silence brooding over the great waters. Then Captain Johns cleared his throat uneasily, and, after sidling away towards the companionway for greater safety, plucked up enough courage to retreat under an act of authority:
‘Raise the starboard clew of the mainsail, and lay the yards dead square, Mr Bunter. Don't you see the wind is nearly right aft?'
Bunter at once answered ‘Ay, ay, sir,’ though there was not the slightest necessity to touch the yards, and the wind was well out on the quarter. While he was executing the order Captain Johns hung on the companion-steps, growling to himself: ‘Walk this poop like an admiral and don’t even notice when the yards want trimming!’ - loud enough for the helmsman to overhear. Then he sank slowly backwards out of the man’s sight; and when he reached the bottom of the stairs he stood still and thought.
‘He’s an awful ruffian, with all his gentlemanly airs. No more gentleman mates for me. ’
Two nights afterwards he was slumbering peacefully in his berth, when a heavy thumping just above his head (a well-understood signal that he was wanted on deck) made him leap out of bed, broad awake in a moment.
‘What’s up?’ he muttered, running out barefooted. On passing through the cabin he glanced at the clock. It was the middle watch. ‘What on earth can the mate want me for?’ he thought.
Bolting out of the companion, he found a clear, dewy moonlit night and a strong, steady breeze. He looked around wildly. There was no one on the poop except the helmsman, who addressed him at once.
‘It was me, sir. I let go the wheel for a second to stamp over your head. I am afraid there’s something wrong with the mate. ’
‘Where’s he got to?’ asked the captain sharply.
The man, who was obviously nervous, said:
‘The last I saw of him was as he fell down the port poop-ladder.’
‘Fell down the poop-ladder! What did he do that for? What made him?’
‘I don’t know, sir. He was walking the port side. Then just as he turned towards me to come aft. . .’
‘You saw him?’ interrupted the captain.
‘I did. I was looking at him. And I heard the crash, too -something awful. Like the mainmast going overboard. It was as if something had struck him.’
Captain Johns became very uneasy and alarmed.
‘Come,’ he said sharply. ‘Did anybody strike him? What did you see?’
‘Nothing, sir, so help me! There was nothing to see. He just gave a little sort of hallo! threw his hands before him, and over he went - crash. I couldn’t hear anything more, so I just let go the wheel for a second to call you up.’
‘You’re scared!’ said Captain Johns.
‘I am, sir, straight!’
Captain Johns stared at him. The silence of his ship driving on her way seemed to contain a danger - a mystery. He was reluctant to go and look for his mate himself, in the shadows of the main-deck, so quiet, so still.
All he did was to advance to the break of the poop, and call for the watch. As the sleepy men came trooping aft* he shouted to them fiercely:
‘Look at the foot of the port poop-ladder, some of you! See the mate lying there?’
Their startled exclamations told him immediately that they did see him. Somebody even screeched out emotionally:
‘He’s dead!’
Mr Bunter was laid in his bunk and when the lamp in his room was lit he looked indeed as if he were dead, but it was obvious also that he was breathing yet. The steward had been roused out, the second mate called and sent on deck to look after the ship, and for an hour or so Captain Johns devoted himself silently to the restoring of consciousness. Mr Bunter at last opened his eyes, but he could not speak. He was dazed and inert. The steward bandaged a nasty scalp-wound while Captain Johns held an additional light. They had to cut away a lot of Mr Bunter’s jet-black hair to make a good dressing. This done, and after gazing for a while at their patient, the two left the cabin.
‘A rum go, this, steward,’ said Captain Johns in the passage.
‘Yessir.’
'A sober man that’s right in his head does not fall down a poop-ladder like a sack of potatoes. The ship’s as steady as a church.'
‘Yessir. Fit of some kind, I shouldn’t wonder.’
'Well, I should. He doesn’t look as if he were subject to fits and giddiness. Why, the man’s in the prime of life. I wouldn’t have another kind of mate - not if I knew it. You don’t think he has a private store of liquor, do you, eh? He seemed to me a bit strange in his manner several times lately. Off his feed, too, a bit, I noticed. ’
‘Well, sir, if he ever had a bottle or two of grog in his cabin, that must have gone a long time ago. I saw him throw some broken glass overboard after the last gale we had; but that didn’t amount to anything. Anyway, sir, you couldn’t call Mr Burner a drinking man.’
‘No,’ conceded the captain, reflectively. And the steward, locking the pantry door, tried to escape out of the passage, thinking he could manage to snatch another hour of sleep before it was time for him to turn out for the day.