ed than ever.

The mate went below again also, but he wasn't laughing. We sensed that
the news worried Fitzgibbon, and that strengthened our conviction.
Blackjack Fitzgibbon had cause for worry. So we thought. Wasn't it
he, as well as Swope, who mishandled the boy to his death?

That ended the scene aft. Oscar relieved the wheel; he had to. Lynch
put the rest of us to work again, and during the balance of the watch
we saw ghosts in every corner.

When we went below at eight bells, we held a grand talk in the foc'sle,
a parliament that practically all hands attended. Aye, we were quite
convinced that the ghost was abroad. Oscar stuck to his yarn, and
embellished it, and left no room in our minds for doubt. Newman
laughed at us, and denied the presence of a spook on the poop; that
done he turned in and slept. But his evidence didn't shake our belief.
Oscar gave too many particulars.

The compass had not been shuttered when he went aft to relieve the
wheel, and he had seen Nils standing in the light. He couldn't be
mistaken. "Yust as plain like a picture." He knew him by his boyish
stature, by his beardless features, by his clothes. He was wearing his
Scotch-plaid coat and red tam-o'-shanter; Oscar couldn't be mistaken in
them, because he had helped Nils pick them out in a Glasgow slops shop
"last ship." Didn't his mates remember those togs?

His mates remembered them. So did the rest of us. That coat and cap
had hung on the wall opposite Nils' bunk all during his illness. He
was very proud of these colorful garments. Of course, we told each
other, he would appear in them after death. And, of course, he was
bound to come back. Didn't murdered men always come back? So we
assured each other; and the older men began spinning yarns about other
ghosts in other ships. Aye, we talked so much we were afraid to turn
in. Captain Swope's words about the ghost crew in the _Golden Bough_
impressed us mightily. We told each other that many men must have died
cruel deaths in this notorious hooker; very likely Nils' spirit was but
one of many. Some of the lads recalled mysteries of the night that
they had encountered in this ship, shadowy things melting into
darkness, strange noises, and the like; and always they had seen or
heard these things aft, around the break of the poop or beneath the
boat skids--in just about the spot where Nils had been beaten up, first
by the skipper and then by the mate. Aye, Nil