Quoin stood out, and spoke for the crowd.
The Skipper sung out to the Second Mate:
"Where's Jessop with that other lantern?" I heard him shout.
Out at the yard-arm there came a splutter of a match, and then, straightaway, a great spurt of fire as the flare took light.
"Come down out of that! Do you damned well hear me?"
"Come in off there, Plummer!" sung out the Second Mate. "Get down with the others!"
"You'll have to put him down on the deck by the lower bunk," replied the Skipper.
"What could they do, anyway?" I said, despondently. "As things are going, we'll all be dead before another week is over, at this rate."