more frightened than hurt, and the helmsman, Jim Chowder, who, in lieu
of having his arm broken, as he had at first cried out, had only a
slight bullet graze through the fleshy part of it; so, considering the
skipper fired off no less than five shots out of the six which his
revolver contained, it was a wonder more were not grievously wounded, if
not killed, when he ran a-muck like that!

When Hiram Bangs and I met in the galley, shortly after the row was
over, we both compared notes, the American saying that he'd been roused
up from sleep, not by the noise of the shooting or rampaging about the
deck, but by the sound of Sam's voice singing in the hold, and he knew
at once that some mischief was going to happen, "ez it allers did when
he heerd the durned ghostess afore!"

I declare he made me feel more alarmed by this remark than all that had
previously occurred, and I had to raise my eyes to assure myself that
Sam's banjo was yet hanging in its accustomed place over the door of the
galley, before I could go on with my task of getting the men's early
coffee ready, to serve out as soon as the watch was changed, `eight
bells' having been struck shortly before.

Tom Bullover, though, when presently he lounged up forward, and I told
him what Hiram said, only laughed.

"It's all stuff and nonsense, Charley," he chuckled out; "you an' Hiram
'll be the death of me some day, with your yarns o' ghostesses an' such
like. The skipper didn't see no sperrit as you thinks when he got mad
this mornin'; it's all that cussed rum he took because he got round Cape
Horn. Guess, as our mate here says, the rum `got round' him!"

Hiram laughed, too, at this.

"Heave ahead an' carry on, old hoss," he said; "I reckon ye won't riz my
dander, fur what I tells Cholly I knows for true, an' nuthin' 'll turn
me agen it. Why, Tom, when I wer down Chicopee way--"

"Avast there, mate, an' give us some coffee," cried Tom, interrupting
him at this point, and some others of the crew coming up at the moment,
the conversation was not renewed, which I was not sorry for, Hiram's
talk about ghosts not being very cheerful.

During the day, as I've said, Captain Snaggs got better, and came on
deck again, looking like himself, but very pale. His face, however,
seemed to have become wonderfully thinner in such a short space of time,
so thin indeed that he appeared to be all nose and beard, the two
meeting each other in the middle, like a pair of nut-c