of the mess towards Mick again; but he came up
to the scratch as `smilingly' as he did in his fight with the mulatto at
Barbados.

"Bedad," said he unflinchingly, "the banshees, sure, the saints
presairve the good people from harmin' us! Can take virry good care ov
thimselves; but, faith, if ye'd ivver sane wun, ye'd spake more
rispictfully ov thim, sure!"

"Tell us," inquired Joblins, the `green hand,' you may recollect, who
went on deck to fetch his second lot of grog with a spud-net and who,
though he had been made a bit sharper since then by the chaff and jokes
of his messmates, was still not by any means bright, "did yer ever see
one o' them ghostesses?"

"Hev Oi ivver sane wun?" repeated Mick, in a tone of intense scorn.
"Begorrah, Oi hev sane hoondreds!"

"Lor'!" exclaimed the simpleton, evidently impressed by this bold
assertion of my chum, "tell us, mate, wot they's like."

This was enough for Mick.

"Ye won't be froightened, sure," he began, in a very solemn tone, the
more to impress the anxious listener, "if Oi'm afther tillin' ye the
whole thruth, now?"

"Frightened! No," replied Joblins defiantly, but looking nervous all
the same. "I ain't so soon frightened as that, Mick!"

"All roight, me joker," said Mick. "Oi ownly thort ez how Oi'd not take
ye onywheres, ye know; but, faith, ez Oi say ye're so brave a chap,
Oi'll now carry on an' till ye all about a raal banshee Oi saw t'other
noight."

Joblins moved uneasily on his seat.

"What!" he cried. "Yer doan't mean aboard this yere ship?"

"Ay, faith," said Mick coolly; "it wor aboord this virry ship,
begorrah!"

"Lor'!" stammered out `greeny,' whose face we could see was quite pale
from the light of the ship's lantern near, it having got dark now on the
lower deck through the closing in of the evening early, we being still
in tropical latitudes. "I thort them things only came on land."

"That's where you're wrong, Joblins," put in Harris, his old tormentor,
backing up Mick most effectively in his attempt at taking a rise out of
the yokel. "Spirits aboard ship is pertic'lerly partial to water, as
every one knows!"

Passing by this ironical allusion of Harris to the current belief of all
hands anent the watering of the men's grog by the steward, which was
received with much favour by those standing round, Mick went on as
gravely as a judge.

"Yis, sor, it wor aboord this viry ship thet Oi sayd me last spirrit,
sure," said he. "Lit