THE LADY OF THE BARGE

AND OTHER STORIES

By W. W. Jacobs




THREE AT TABLE


The talk in the coffee-room had been of ghosts and apparitions, and
nearly everybody present had contributed his mite to the stock of
information upon a hazy and somewhat thread-bare subject. Opinions
ranged from rank incredulity to childlike faith, one believer going so
far as to denounce unbelief as impious, with a reference to the Witch of
Endor, which was somewhat marred by being complicated in an inexplicable
fashion with the story of Jonah.

"Talking of Jonah," he said solemnly, with a happy disregard of the fact
that he had declined to answer several eager questions put to him on the
subject, "look at the strange tales sailors tell us."

"I wouldn't advise you to believe all those," said a bluff, clean-shaven
man, who had been listening without speaking much. "You see when a
sailor gets ashore he's expected to have something to tell, and his
friends would be rather disappointed if he had not."

"It's a well-known fact," interrupted the first speaker firmly, "that