hand-bell tinkled urgently under the poop-deck. . . .

I found my two officers waiting for me near the supper table, in
the lighted cuddy. We sat down at once, and as I helped the chief
mate, I said:

"Are you aware that there is a ship anchored inside the islands? I
saw her mastheads above the ridge as the sun went down."

He raised sharply his simple face, overcharged by a terrible growth
of whisker, and emitted his usual ejaculations: "Bless my soul,
sir! You don't say so!"

My second mate was a round-cheeked, silent young man, grave beyond
his years, I thought; but as our eyes happened to meet I detected a
slight quiver on his lips. I looked down at once. It was not my
part to encourage sneering on board my ship. It must be said, too,
that I knew very little of my officers. In consequence of certain
events of no particular significance, except to myself, I had been
appointed to the command only a fortnight before. Neither did I
know much of the hands forward. All these people had been together
for eighteen months or so, and my position was that of the only
stranger on board. I mention this because it has some bearing on
what is to follow. But what I felt most was my being a stranger to
the ship; and if all the truth must be told, I was somewhat of a
stranger to myself. The youngest man on board (barring the second
mate), and untried as yet by a position of the fullest
responsibility, I was willing to take the adequacy of the others
for granted. They had simply to be equal to their tasks; but I
wondered how far I should turn out faithful to that ideal