standing beside 'im said he would sooner I was boiled. I believe they
'ad words about it, but I was feeling too upset to take much notice.

"'Looking miserable won't bring 'er back to life agin,' ses the skipper,
looking up at me and shaking his 'ead. 'You'd better go down to my cabin
and get yourself a drop o' whisky; there's a bottle on the table. You'll
want all your wits about you when the police come. And wotever you do
don't say nothing to criminate yourself.'

"'We'll do the criminating for 'im all right,' ses the cook.

"'If I was the pore gal I'd haunt 'im,' ses the ordinary seaman; 'every
night of 'is life I'd stand afore 'im dripping with water and moaning.'

"'P'r'aps she will,' ses the cook; 'let's 'ope so, at any rate.'

"I didn't answer 'em; I was too dead-beat. Besides which, I've got a
'orror of ghosts, and the idea of being on the wharf alone of a night
arter such a thing was a'most too much for me. I went on board the
Lizzie and Annie, and down in the cabin I found a bottle o' whisky, as
the skipper 'ad said. I sat down on the locker and 'ad a glass, and then
I sat worrying and wondering wot was to be the end of it all.

"The whisky warmed me up a bit, and I 'ad just taken up the bottle to
'elp myself agin when I 'eard a faint sort o' sound in the skipper's
state-room. I put the bottle down and listened, but everything seemed
deathly still. I took it up agin, and 'ad just poured out a drop o'
whisky when I distinctly 'eard a hissing noise and then a little moan.

"For a moment I sat turned to stone. Then I put the bottle down quiet,