The catastrophe was still unreal to me, and the world a
dream-world. Indeed, I retain scarcely any recollections of the
traffic of that day, or of the days that followed it until we reached
Port Said.
Two things only made any striking appeal to my dulled intelligence at
that time. These were: the aloof attitude of Dr. Stacey, who seemed
carefully to avoid me; and a curious circumstance which the second
officer mentioned in conversation one evening as we strolled up and
down the main deck together.
"Either I was fast asleep at my post, Dr. Petrie," he said, "or last
night, in the middle watch, someone or something came over the side of
the ship just aft the bridge, slipped across the deck, and
disappeared."
I stared at him wonderingly.
"Do you mean something that came up out of the sea?" I said.
"Nothing could very well have come up out of the sea," he replied,
smiling slightly, "so that it must have come up from the deck below."
"Was it a man?"
"It looked like a man, and a fairly tall one, but he came and was gone
like a fish, and I saw no more of him up to the time I was relieved.
To tell you the truth, I did not report it because I thought I must
have been dozing; it's a dead slow watch, and the navigation on this
part of the run is child's play."
I was on the point of telling him what I had seen myself, two evenings
before, but for some reason I refrained from doing so, although I
think, had I confided in him, he would have abandoned the idea that
what he had seen was phantasmal; for the pair of us could not very
well have been dreaming.
Pages:
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285