, behind the curtains, and then sat down
and pondered over their strange experience. At last he pulled his
boots and coat off, and was preparing to get into bed, when it
occurred to him that he had not examined the wardrobe; so he jumped
up, opened the door, stood gazing at the inside, closed the door,
went to the bed, shook his mate into consciousness, and speaking in a
loud whisper, he said--

"Jim, for God's sake get up!"

"What for?" said Jim.

"Because there's a dead 'un in the wardrobe," replied Shortlegs.

"A what?" asked Mr. Leigh.

"A corpse," responded his companion.

"Go on, don't talk such rot!"

"Very well, look for yourself," said the boatswain, who again opened
the door, and exposed the dead body to view. James Leigh turned pallid
and almost inarticulate. He could only touch his friend on the
shoulder, and utter--

"My God, where are we? What shall we do with the corpse?"

Visions of being had up for murder had seized him. But he was quickly
pulled up by his more discreet shipmate, who told him to cease
speaking, allow the dead 'un to remain where he was, keep their boots
off, open the window quietly, see how far it was to drop or to lower
themselves down with the bedclothes. This being done, they found the
plan of escape impracticable without being "nabbed," so they took the
bold resolve of going out as they had come in, with their boots on.
Before they had got half-way down the stairs they heard suppressed
conversation. It was evident they were detected.

"Use your knuckle-duster, Jim, if necessary, and charge them with
murder," whispered Shortlegs.

"You leave that to me, Shorty; I'm going to get out of this."

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, the room door, which was
ajar, opened, and the man who showed them upstairs stood before them.
He was in his sleeping clothes. They requested him to open the outer
door and let them out, as they did not desire to remain any longer in
the house. He asked why they were leaving comfortable lodgings on
such a night. Jim being the spokesman, said they didn't like sleeping
with corpses, and raising his voice with nervous courage, declared
that if the door was not immediately opened he would stand a good
chance of being put in the wardrobe where the other poor devil was.
The wretched bully, shivering with passion and sudden fear, made a
grab at Jim, and in an instant he was lying on the floor, and the two
sailors opened the door and stepped ou