has stayed here has said to me
they've seed 'em, particklerly in the old part o' the buildin', but they
seems to be quite harmless, and never hurts any one as lets 'em alone.
I never seed 'em myself, an' there's cer'nly not more nor half-a-dozen
on 'em--hallo!--'

"At that moment, shipmates, a strong gust o' cold air came rushin' down
the passage we was in, and blow'd out the candle. `Ah! it's gone out,'
said the landlord; `just wait here a moment, and I'll light it;' and
with that he shuffled off, and left me in the blackest and most thickest
darkness I ever wos in in all my life. I didn't dare to move, for I
didn't know the channels, d'ye see, and might ha' run myself aground or
against the rocks in no time. The wind came moanin' down the passage;
as if all the six ghosts the landlord mentioned, and a dozen or two o'
their friends besides, was a-dyin' of stommick-complaint. I'm not easy
frightened, lads, but my knees did feel as if the bones in 'em had
turned to water, and my hair began to git up on end, for I felt it
risin'. Suddenly I saw somethin' comin' along the passage towards me--"

"That's the ghost, _now_," interrupted Gurney, in a tremulous whisper.

Rokens paused, and regarded his fat shipmate with a look of contemptuous
pity; then turning to the others, he said--

"It wos _the landlord_, a-comin' back with the candle. He begged pardon
for leavin' me in the dark so long, and led the way to a room at the far
end o' the passage. It was a big, old-fashioned room, with a
treemendius high ceiling, and no furniture, 'cept one chair, one small
table, and a low camp-bed in a corner. `Here's your room,' says the
landlord; `it's well-aired. I may as well mention that the latch of the
door ain't just the thing. It sometimes blows open with a bang, but
when you know it may happen, you can be on the look-out for it, you
know, and so you'll not be taken by surprise. Good-night.' With that
the fellow set the candle down on the small table at the bedside, and
left me to my cogitations. I heerd his footsteps echoin' as he went
clankin' along the passages; then they died away, an' I was alone.

"Now, I tell ye wot it is, shipmates; I've bin in miny a fix, but I
niver wos in sich a fix as that. The room was empty and big; so big
that the candle could only light up about a quarter of it, leavin' the
rest in gloom. There was one or two old picturs on the walls; one on
'em a portrait of a old admiral, with a b