"Sorry to have been obliged to disturb you, Mr Delamere," he said, "but something's happened that I thought you ought to know about." "Yes?" I remarked interrogatively. "Well, what was it, Henderson?" "Well, it's like this here, sir," he replied. "We've been becalmed this last hour or more, durin' which the schooner have been boxin' the compass, while it's been that close and muggy that one don't seem to have been able to get air enough to breathe. And the closeness made me feel so drowsy that, to prevent myself from droppin' off to sleep, I've been obliged to keep on my feet, pacing fore and aft atween the main cabin skylight and the main riggin'. The watch have coiled theirselves away somewheres, and I don't doubt but what they're snatchin' a cat-nap--and I haven't troubled to disturb 'em, sir, for the lookout on the fo'c's'le is keepin' his eyes skinned. "Well, a few minutes ago--it may be five, or it may be ten--I'd just swung round to walk aft from the main riggin' when, as my eyes travelled away out here over the port quarter, I got the notion into my head that there was somethin' goin' on down there, for it seemed to me that I'd got a glimpse--out of the corner of my eye, as it might be--of a small sparkin', like--like--well, hang me if I know what it was like, unless it might be twenty or thirty pistols or muskets all being fired close after one another." "Ah!" I ejaculated. "And did you hear any sound, Henderson--anything like that of distant firing, for instance?" "No, Mr Delamere; not a sound, sir," answered the gunner. "But then," he continued, "that ain't very surprisin' when you comes to think of it, for just listen to what's goin' on aboard here--the old hooker ain't so very noisy, I'll allow; still, what with the rustlin' of the canvas overhead, the patter of the reef-points, the creakin' of the jaws o' the mainboom, the clank o' the wheel-chains, and the wash and gurgle of the water alongside with the roll of her, there's not much chance of pickin' up sounds comin' from a distance, is there, sir?" "No, that is true, there is not," I admitted. "Did you see, or hear, anything else, Henderson?" I asked. "No, sir; never another thing," answered the gunner. "And I'd like ye to understand, Mr Delamere, that I wouldn't care actually to stand up in court and swear that I really saw what I told ye; for, as I explained, I only caught the thing out o' the tail-end of my eye, as it might be, and then 'twas gone again, and I saw nothin' more. But the impression that I really had seen something was so strong that I felt it was my duty to report it." "Of course; you did perfectly right," I agreed; "particularly in view of the task that has been given us to do. Did the lookout see anything of this appearance of flashes?"