uth;
and I'm sure Charley and Hiram here can judge for theirselves, from what
they saw not long ago!"

"Bully for ye!" cried Hiram, confirming Tom Bullover's reference to
himself. "Why, ye durned nigger, ye wer a'most yeller with frit jest
now, when ye kinder thought ye seed one o' them blessed ghostesses thet
Tom wer a-talkin' on!"

This effectually shut up Sam; and my friend the carpenter then went on
with his account of the phenomenon we had seen.

"I knew," said he, "that the darkey would be up here this arternoon, for
I showed him the cave myself this mornin', afore any of you beggars
aboard the ship were up or stirring. I thought it would be just a good
place for him to hide in, besides preventing the skipper and that brute
Flinders, or any of the other hands, from coming spying round and
interfering with our diskevery, which, as you know--I means you Charley
and Hiram--we wished for to keep to ourselves."

"Ay, bo," assented Hiram approvingly; "true enuff; ye acted rightly,
shipmet."

"So I tells Sam to rig hisself up here as comf'ably as he could; and if
he should hear any footsteps comin' nigh the place he was to strike up a
tune on his banjo and frighten them away, makin' any inquisitive folk
think the place was haunted by the same old ghost they knew aboard the
ship."

"What a capital idea!" said I; "how did you come to think of it?"

"I thought of more than that, Charley," replied Tom, with a broad grin.
"It wasn't long arter I brought Sam here that I thought of makin' the
second ghost out of the proper black man belonging to the cave, that Jan
Steenbock had told us on, and which you, Hiram, said you wouldn't be
frightened at nohow."

"Stow thet," growled Hiram, shaking his fist at Tom. "Carry on with yer
yarn, an' don't mind me, old stick-in-the-mud!"

"I'm carryin' on, if you'll only let a feller tell his story in his own
way. You know we agreed to come up here together this arternoon, and
make a reg'ler up-and-down search for the buried treasure; and you told
me, you rec'lect, to bring a port fire, such as we had aboard, for to
light up the place."

"Thet's right enuff," said Hiram, "thet's right enuff; but, durn it all,
heave ahead, bo! Heave ahead!"

"Well then," continued Tom, "I gets this blessed jigmaree of a port fire
from the ship; and, having done my spell at digging out the dock, my
gang finishing work at four bells, I com'd up here afore you and
Charley. It were then that I