ter we had towed in the slaver to the Bights,
having carried away her foremast with a round shot in making her bring
to, and was just going forward to turn in as the next watch came on
deck, when who should hail me but my mate, Gil Saul, coming in from the
bowsprit, where he had been on the look-out--it was him as was my
pardner here when I first started as a shore hand in letting out boats,
but he lost the number of his mess long ago like our old ship the
_Amphitrite_.

"As he came up to me his face was as white as your shirt, and he was
trembling all over as if he was going to have a fit of the fever and
ague.

"`Lor', Gil Saul,' sez I, `what's come over you, mate? are you going on
the sick list, or what?'

"`Hush, Jim,' sez he, quite terror-stricken. `Don't speak like that;
I've seen a ghost, and I knows I shall be a dead man afore the day's
out!'

"With that I burst into a larf.

"`Bless your eyes, Gil,' sez I, `tell that to the marines, my bo'! you
can't get over me on that tack. You won't find any respectable ghosts
leaving dear old England for the sake of this dirty, sweltering west
coast, which no Christian would come to from choice, let alone a ghost!'

"`But, Jim,' he sez, leaning his hand on my arm to detain me as I was
going down below, `this wasn't a h'English ghost as I sees just now. It
was the most outlandish foreign reptile you ever see. A long, big,
black snake like a crocodile, only twice the length of the old corvette;
with a head like a bird, and eyes as big and fiery as our side-lights.
It was a terrible creature, Jim, and its eyes flamed out like lightning,
and it snorted like a horse as it swam by the ship. I've had a warning,
old shipmate, and I'll be a dead man before to-morrow morning, I know!'

"The poor chap shook with fright as he spoke, though he was as brave a
man as we had aboard; so I knew that he had been drinking and was in a
state of delirium tremendibus, or else he was sickening for the African
fever, which those who once have never forget. I therefore tried to
pacify him and explain away his fancy.

"`That's a good un, Gil Saul,' I sez. `Don't you let none of the other
hands hear what you've told me, that you've seen the great sea sarpint,
or you'll never get the end of it.'

"Gil got angry at this, forgetting his fright in his passion at my
doubting his word like.

"`But it was the sea sarpint, I tells you, or its own brother if it
wasn't. Didn't I see it with