guess a faint flash of phosphorescent light, which seemed to issue
suddenly from the naked body of a man, flickered in the sleeping
water with the elusive, silent play of summer lightning in a night
sky. With a gasp I saw revealed to my stare a pair of feet, the
long legs, a broad livid back immersed right up to the neck in a
greenish cadaverous glow. One hand, awash, clutched the bottom
rung of the ladder. He was complete but for the head. A headless
corpse! The cigar dropped out of my gaping mouth with a tiny plop
and a short hiss quite audible in the absolute stillness of all
things under heaven. At that I suppose he raised up his face, a
dimly pale oval in the shadow of the ship's side. But even then I
could only barely make out down there the shape of his black-haired
head. However, it was enough for the horrid, frost-bound sensation
which had gripped me about the chest to pass off. The moment of
vain exclamations was past, too. I only climbed on the spare spar
and leaned over the rail as far as I could, to bring my eyes nearer
to that mystery floating alongside.

As he hung by the ladder, like a resting swimmer, the sea-lightning
played about his limbs at every stir; and he appeared in it
ghastly, silvery, fish-like. He remained as mute as a fish, too.
He made no motion to get out of the water, either. It was
inconceivable that he should not attempt to come on board, and
strangely troubling to suspect that perhaps he did not want to.
And my first words were prompted by just that troubled incertitude.

"What's the matter?" I asked in my ordinary tone, speaking down to
the face upturned exactly under mine.

"Cramp," it answered, no louder. Then slightly anxious, "I say, no