dived below the water, disappearing from our view for a few
seconds that seemed interminable as we waited.

"I hope he hasn't come to grief," said Captain Miles anxiously. "So
many things have been carried away and jumbled up in a mass there
forwards, that the poor fellow might get fixed in and be drowned,
without the chance of saving himself."

But his alarm was quite unnecessary, Jake rising above the water in
another moment and scrambling up into the main rigging, in a very
hurried manner, as if something was pursuing him.

His face as he turned it towards us was almost green | with fright, and
we could hear his teeth chattering | with fear and cold combined.

"Well," sang out Captain Miles, "I'm glad to see you out of that hole
alive. But, what's the matter, my man? have you got the axe?"

"N-n-n-no, Mass' Cap'en," stuttered Jake, making his way aft again along
the bulwarks, "got no axe nor nuffin'. Dere am duppy or de debbil in de
fo'c's'le. Bress de Lor', dis pore niggah only sabe him life an'--dat
all!"

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

A GLEAM OF HOPE.

"You one big fool!" Cuffee, the cook, screamed out at hearing Jake's
startling announcement, which made us all laugh in spite of our anxiety.
"How can duppy come in de daylight, hey? You only see yer own black
face in water, an' tink um debbil."

"Duppy," I may explain, is the negro's common name for what they call a
ghost, or anything uncanny.

However, paying no attention to his brother darkey's reasoning as to the
impossibility of such a nocturnal visitor appearing under the searching
rays of the sun, Jake stoutly maintained his own opinion.

"Dere was sumfin' white dere, I swar," he said, as soon as he had
secured his footing on the bulwarks again, well out of the water. "I
see sumfin' white an' cold, an' he grab me by um leg."

"That must have been poor Briggs's body floating about in the
fo'c's'le," observed Captain Miles. "I forgot to tell him of it before
he dived down. Hi, Jake," he added speaking out louder, "you needn't be
afraid. I know what it was you saw."

"D'ye, massa?" said Jake somewhat distrustfully, as if only half
believing this. "Golly, it um berry mysteferious. I'se tink--; but,
Jerrybosalum, look dar, Mass' Cap'en, look dar!" he suddenly exclaimed,
his voice again changing to a tone of intense horror, while he looked
the picture of abject terror, his eyeballs rolling and his teeth
chattering as before. "Duppy come catche