DISAGREEABLE VISITORS. 65

« But, sah, dey’s in de fo’peak! I’s done gone heerd
’em, sah! De debbil mus’ be on dis yere craf’!”

«Tt won't take me long to persuade you that he is, and
has gotten hold of you,” Ben said, angrily. “If you can’t
do anything better than to run around getting frightened,
go into the galley and stay there.”

«But I done heerd ’em talkin’, sah, an’ dem ghostes
soun’s des like dese yere yaller fellers.”

«Now see here, uncle, will you get away and hold your
tongue about such things, or shall I have to fire you bodily
forward where you belong?”

Ben displayed so much anger the old man evidently
thought that, between the enraged captain and the ghosts,
the latter would be likely to do him the least injury, there-
fore he obeyed; but in a very unwilling manner, shaking
his head gravely as he muttered something about the way
in which the alleged ghosts could be heard talking.

“T hope you’re not frightened by what that foolish old
darkey has told,’ Ben said, as he turned and faced the
young girl. “Of course both you and I know how ridicu-
lous such yarns are, and yet there is no place where one
can hear as many as on shipboard.”

“Tt is not that I am at all afraid of old Eliphalet’s
ghosts,’ Miss Dunham replied, readily; «but I am begin-
ning to think he really did hear them.”

“Do you believe in such things?” Ben asked, in
surprise.

“T believe it is possible that he really heard people talk-
ing in the forepeak, and think the matter should be in-