ive crew, to take the morning watch. We glided slowly on over
the dark waters, the breeze falling gradually, till it was almost a
calm. Jerry and I were walking the deck together, talking of the
strange sights we had lately seen, when, happening for a moment to be
silent, a cry, or it might have been a shriek, struck my ears, as if
wafted from a distance across the water.

"Did you hear it, Jerry?" I asked.

"Yes; did you? What can it be?" he answered. "Ah! there's another--it
cannot be fancy."

"No; I heard it distinctly," I remarked. "There is some mischief going
forward, I fear. What is to be done?" Again that faint, wailing cry of
distress reached our ears.

"You don't believe in ghosts, do you?" said Jerry. "If there were such
things, I should fancy that those cries were uttered by them, and
nothing else."

"Nonsense, Jerry," said I, half vexed with him, for I saw that he was
inclined to give way to superstition. "If those sounds are not the
effect of fancy, they must proceed from some human beings in distress;
but what can be the matter is more than I can say." We found, on going
forward, that Ben Yool had heard the cries, and was still listening,
wondering what caused them. They had also reached the ears of the
native seamen. They declared that they must be caused by the spirits of
the storm roaming over the water, and that we should have a heavy gale
before long. Again a shriek reached us, louder and more thrilling than
before.

"Oh, this is dreadful!" I exclaimed. "There must be some foul mischief
going on somewhere not far off. We must call up Mr Brand, and see what
steps he will think fit to take." I went and roused him up, and told
him of the strange sounds we had heard. Both he and the doctor were
soon on deck. At first he laughed at our description of the sounds we
had heard; but after he had listened a little time, another long,
deep-drawn wail came wafted across the ocean.

"That is the cry of some one in mortal fear or agony," he remarked.
"There is another!" It was a sharp, loud cry, or rather shriek.

"The calmness of the sea and the peculiar state of the atmosphere would
enable a sound to travel from a long distance," observed McRitchie. "It
may come from a spot a mile, or even two miles off."

"We must try and find out the direction, and go to the help of the poor
people, whoever they are," exclaimed Mr Brand.

"How is that to be done?" asked the doctor. "Our cockl