d
the sentry who got the start of me, and off we set, scampering away like
rats with a terrier at their tails, till we gained the upper step of the
cockpit ladder. We then stopped and listened. There were steps
thundering along the deck. They came to the very foot of the ladder.
Presently we heard something mounting them slowly. The sentry moved on.
So did I, but looking round I saw as surely as I sit here, the head of
old Dick Carcass's ghost rising slowly above the deck.

"We did not stop to see more of him, but walked away for'ard. Again we
stopped, when there he was, standing on the deck--eight feet high he
looked at least--rubbing his eyes, which glared out at us like balls of
fire.

"We made for the fore-ladder, and there thought to get out of its way by
moving aft as fast as our legs could carry us. Presently, as I looked
over my shoulder, I saw the ghost come up the ladder on to the
forecastle. The men there saw him too, for they scuttled away on either
side, and left him to walk alone. For five minutes or more he kept
pacing up and down the deck, just as he was accustomed to do when he was
alive. By this time the men were crowding aft, the sentry among them,
when the lieutenant of the watch, thinking maybe there was going to be a
mutiny, or something of that sort, sings out and axes what we were
about.

"`Sir,' answers the sentry, who was bold enough now; `there's the ghost
of Mr Carcass a walking the fo'c'stle.'

"`The ghost of Mr Carcass be hanged! he is quiet enough in his cabin,
poor man. What are all you fools thinking about?' says the lieutenant.
`Be off for'ard with you.'

"`He is there, sir! he is there! It is the bo'sun's ghost,' we all sung
out, one after the other, none of us feeling inclined to go near him.

"`Blockheads!' cried the lieutenant, beginning to get angry.

"`It is him, sir; it is him,' cried others. `He's got on the hat and
monkey jacket he always wears.'

"The lieutenant now became very angry, and ordering us out of the way,
boldly steps forward. When, however, he gets abreast of the barge, he
stops, for there he sees as clearly as we did the bo'sun's tall figure
pacing the deck, with his hands behind his back, looking for all the
world just as he had done when he was alive.

"Now the lieutenant was as brave a man as ever stepped, but he did not
like it, that was clear; still he felt that go on he must, and so on he
went until he got up to the foremast, and then