Wandering Ghosts

man I had seen on the previous night, who was now dead, drowned, tossing about in the long swell, two or three hundred miles astern. His face rose very distinctly before me as I

tily threw on my dressing-gown and went in search of Robert, the steward of my passage. I was very angry, I re

is against the regulations? Don't you know that if the ship heeled and the water began to come in, te

d turned pale, and then began to shut the ro

answer me?" I

-going to stop hany longer on board o' this vessel, sir; I ain't, indeed. But if I was you, sir, I'd just clear out and go and sleep with the sur

t, and found it

ion as a A1 steward that in 'arf an hour it will be open again;

screw and the loope

obert, I will give you a sovereign

nk ye, sir. Good-night, sir. Pleasant reepose,

ount for his negligence by a silly story, intended to frighten me, and I disbelieved him. Th

erienced when I thought of the drowned man who had been my chum; but I was no longer sleepy, and I lay awake for some time, occasionally glancing at the porthole, which I could just see from where I lay, and which, in the darkness, looked like a faintly luminous soup-plate suspended in blackness. I believe I must have lain there for an hour, and, as I remember, I was just dozing into sleep when I was rous

hat I remember very well feeling astonishment rather than fear when I discovered it. I at once closed the plate again, and screwed down the loop nut with all my strength. It was very dark in the state-room. I reflected that the port had certainly been opened within an hour after Robert had at first shut it in my presence, and I determined to watch it, and

nstinctively to look-though I could, of course, see nothing in the darkness-I heard a very faint groan. I sprang across the state-roo

, as it seemed to me, heavy and wet, yet endowed with a sort of supernatural strength. I reeled across the state-room, and in an instant the door opened and the thing rushed out. I had not had time to be frightened, and quickly recovering myself, I sprang through the door and gave chase at the top of my speed, but I was too late. Ten yards before me I could see-I am sure I saw it-a dark shadow moving in the

t sea-water, as it had when I had waked on the previous evening. It required my utmost strength to go in, and grope among my things for a box of wax lights. As I lighted a railway reading lantern which I always carry in case I want to read after the lamps are out

ned the place very carefully. It was perfectly dry. But the porthole was open again. With a sort of dull bewilderment of horror I closed it and screwed it down, and thrusting my heavy stick through the brass loop, wrenched it with all my might, till the thick metal began to bend under the pressure. Then I hooked

to get out into the early, pure sunshine, and to smell the breeze from the blue water, so different from the noisome, stagnant odour of my state-room. Inst

quietly, but looking at

t," said I. "There is someth

rather triumphantly. "You have had a bad night, eh? S

"But I would like to

e life before. I dwelt particularly on the phenomenon of the porthole, which was a fact to which I could testify, even if the rest had been an illusion. I had

the detailed account of the state of the porthole. "I do not doubt it in the lea

one night," I said. "Help me to

m of something else if you

?" I

I am going to leave this

l not help me

my business to keep my wits about me-not t

as I spoke I remembered very well the horrible sensation of the supernatural w

e asked. "No; you have not. Well, you say you will find an explan

ou, a man of science, mean to tell me

nd, if they could, I would not

tor was evidently not inclined for such an experiment. He said he was a surgeon, and that in case any accident occurred on board he must be always in readiness. He could not afford to have his nerves unsettled. Perhaps he was quite right, but I am inclined to think that his precaution was prompted by his inclination. On enquiry, he

It is my belief that we can find out between us. There may be some fellow skulking on board, who steals a passage by

dding cleared out of the upper berth, and we examined the place thoroughly to see if there was a board loose anywhere, or a panel which could be opened or pushed aside. We tried the planks everywhere, tapped the flooring, unscrewed the fittings of the lower be

hing, sir?" he asked

him the promised sovereign. The carpenter did his work silently

r-inch screws through the door of this cabin. There's no good never came o' this cabin yet, sir, and that's all about it. Ther

for one night

a precious bad job," repeated the workman, put

going to the end of the strange business. I abstained from Welsh rarebits and grog that evening, and did not even join in the custom