"Damn my
eyes, if you ar'n't worse scared than when the Ingian
stood over you in the jolly boat."
"Scared, ay, to be sure I am; and so would you be scared
too, if you'd a see'd what I did. May I never touch the
point at Portsmouth, if I a'n't seen her ghost."
"Where?--whose ghost?--what ghost?--what do you mean,
Jack?" exclaimed several of the startled men in the same
breath, while the superstitious dread so common to mariners
drew them still closer in the group that encircled their
companion.
"Well, then, as I am a miserable sinner," returned the
man, impressively, and in a low tone, "I see'd in the
bows of the canoe,--and the hand that steered it was not
made of flesh and blood like ours,--what do you think?--
the ghost of---"
Captain de Haldimar heard no more. At a single bound he
had gained the ship's side. He strained his eyes anxiously
over the gangway in search of the canoe, but it was gone.
A death-like silence throughout the deck followed the
communication of the sailor, and in that pause the sound
of the receding boat could be heard, not urged, as it
had approached, by one paddle, but by two.
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