Was I in a dream? Was this a pantomime shipwreck? Then it occurred to
me that the captain was so sure of being ultimately able to help
himself that he preferred from motives of economy to decline
assistance which would involve a heavy salvage claim.
My self-possessed young man came along again in the course of his
peregrinations, the girl whom he called Lottie still on his arm. He
stopped for a chat.
"Most curious thing!" he began.
"What now?"
"Well, I found out about the collision."
"How did it occur?"
"In this way. The captain was on duty on the bridge, with the
steersman at the wheel. It was thickish weather then, much thicker
than it is now--in fact, there'll soon be no breeze left, and look at
the stars! Suddenly the lookout man shouted that there was a sail on
the weather bow, and it must have been pretty close, too. The captain
ordered the man at the wheel to put the boat to port--I don't know the
exact phraseology of the thing--so that we could pass the other ship
on our starboard side. Instead of doing that, the triple idiot shoved
us to starboard as hard as he could, and before the captain could do
anything, we were struck on the port paddle. The steersman had sent us
right into the other ship. If he had wanted specially to land us into
a good smash-up, he could scarcely have done it better. A good thing
we got caught on the paddle; otherwise we should have been cut clean
in two. As it was, the other boat recoiled and fell away."
"Was she damaged?"
"Probably not."
"How does the man at the wheel explain his action?"
"Well, that's the curious part. I was just coming to that. Naturally
he's in a great state of terror just now, but he can just talk. He
swears that when the captain gave his order a third person ran up the
steps leading to the bridge, and so frightened him that he was sort of
dazed, and did exactly the wrong thing."
"A queer tale!"
"I should think so. But he sticks to it. He even says that this highly
mysterious third person made him do the wrong thing. But that's
absolute tommy-rot."
"The man must be mad."
"I should have said he had been drunk, but there doesn't seem to be
any trace of that. Anyhow, he sees visions, and I maintain that the
Chatham and Dover people oughtn't to have their boats steered by men
who see visions, eh?"
"I agree with you. I suppose we aren't now in any real danger?"
"I should hardly think so. We might have been. It was pure luck that
we happened to get struck on the paddle-box, and also it was pure luck
that the sea has gone down so rapidly. With a list like this, a really
lively cross-sea would soon have settled us."