heavily.

Adams's nerve was completely gone, and, being now thoroughly awake,
I joined him in the crow's-nest. Nothing could convince him that
he had been the victim of a nervous hallucination. He stuck to his
story firmly.

"It was on the forecastle-head first," he maintained. "I saw it
gleaming."

"Gleaming?"

"Sort of shining," he explained. "It came up over the rail, and
at first it stood up tall, like a white post."

"You didn't say before that it was white."

"It was shining," he said slowly, trying to put his idea into
words. "Maybe not exactly white, but light-colored. It stood
still for so long, I thought I must be mistaken--that it was a
light on the rigging. Then I got to thinking that there wasn't
no place for a light to come from just there."

That was true enough.

"First it was as tall as a man, or taller maybe," he went on.
"Then it seemed about half that high and still in the same place.
Then it got lower still, and it took to crawling along on its
belly. It was then I yelled."