The woman had found a revolver in a table drawer in the room in which she had been locked, and now she kept the mate of the Kincaid at bay with the weapon.
Grimly the fingers tightened upon the mate's throat.
"That's so," confirmed the second
mate, suddenly, in his slightly hoarse voice.
Her
mate had slowly relaxed from his crouch and was watching her.
And here, sure enough, is my
mate Bill, with a spy-glass under his arm, bless his old 'art, to be sure.
The
mate, or commander, brought six men with him in his boat; but these poor wretches looked like skeletons, and were so weak that they could hardly sit to their oars.
The
mate mused on: 'And of course you haven't known the ship as she used to be.
Rushed on deck, and ran against
mate. Tells me he heard cry and ran, but no sign of man on watch.
I guv the
mate his course, an' the bearun' o' the Askthar Light astern.
He was certainly not more than thirty, and the elderly
mate, with a murmur to me of "That's my old man," proceeded to give instances of the natural unhandiness of the ship in a sort of deprecatory tone, as if to say, "You mustn't think I bear a grudge against her for that."
Sometimes, even now, in my old age, I have bad dreams in which I hear that
mate yell, Yah!
At his side raced his shaggy
mate, only a trifle smaller than he and no whit less savage.
