"Perhaps not," Tammy answered. "But if you could get him to believe it, he might explain the whole business to the Skipper, and then something might be done. It's not safe as it is." "He'd only get jeered at again," I said, rather hopelessly. "No," said Tammy. "Not after what's happened tonight." "Perhaps not," I replied, doubtfully. And just then the Second Mate came back on to the poop, and Tammy cleared away from the wheel-box, leaving me with a worrying feeling that I ought to do something. VII _The Coming of the Mist and That Which It Ushered_ We buried Williams at midday. Poor beggar! It had been so sudden. All day the men were awed and gloomy, and there was a lot of talk about there being a Jonah aboard. If they'd only known what Tammy and I, and perhaps the Second Mate, knew! And then the next thing came--the mist. I cannot remember now, whether it was on the day we buried Williams that we first saw it, or the day after. When first I noticed it, like everybody else aboard, I took it to be some form of haze, due to the heat of the sun; for it was broad daylight when the thing came. The wind had died away to a light breeze, and I was working at the main rigging, along with Plummer, putting on seizings. "Looks as if 'twere middlin' 'ot," he remarked. "Yes," I said; and, for the time, took no further notice. Presently he spoke again: "It's gettin' quite 'azy!" and his tone showed he was surprised. I glanced up, quickly. At first, I could see nothing. Then, I saw what he meant. The air had a wavy, strange, unnatural appearance; something like the heated air over the top of an engine's funnel, that you can often see when no smoke is coming out. "Must be the heat," I said. "Though I don't remember ever seeing anything just like it before." "Nor me," Plummer agreed. It could not have been a minute later when I looked up again, and was astonished to find that the whole ship was surrounded by a thinnish haze that quite hid the horizon. "By Jove! Plummer," I said. "How queer!" "Yes," he said, looking round. "I never seen anythin' like it before-- not in these parts." "Heat wouldn't do that!" I said. "N--no," he said, doubtfully. We went on with our work again--occasionally exchanging an odd word or two. Presently, after a little time of silence, I bent forward and asked him to pass me up the spike. He stooped and picked it up from the deck, where it had tumbled. As he held it out to me, I saw the stolid expression on his face, change suddenly to a look of complete surprise. He opened his mouth. "By gum!" he said. "It's gone." I turned quickly, and looked. And so it had--the whole sea showing clear and bright, right away to the horizon. I stared at Plummer, and he stared at me. "Well, I'm blowed!" he exclaimed.