was on, and the door was closed.

On gaining the after-part of the vessel, Allan walked straight to the
stern, and looked out to sea over the taffrail. No such thing as a
boat was in view anywhere on the quiet, moon-brightened waters. Knowing
Midwinter's sight to be better than his own, he called out, "Come up
here, and see if there's a fisherman within hail of us." Hearing no
reply, he looked back. Midwinter had followed him as far as the cabin,
and had stopped there. He called again in a louder voice, and beckoned
impatiently. Midwinter had heard the call, for he looked up, but still
he never stirred from his place. There he stood, as if he had reached
the utmost limits of the ship and could go no further.

Allan went back and joined him. It was not easy to discover what he was
looking at, for he kept his face turned away from the moonlight; but it
seemed as if his eyes were fixed, with a strange expression of inquiry,
on the cabin door. "What is there to look at there?" Allan asked.
"Let's see if it's locked." As he took a step forward to open the door,
Midwinter's hand seized him suddenly by the coat collar and forced him
back. The moment after, the hand relaxed without losing its grasp, and
trembled violently, like the hand of a man completely unnerved.

"Am I to consider myself in custody?" asked Allan, half astonished and
half amused. "Why in the name of wonder do you keep staring at the cabin
door? Any suspicious noises below? It's no use disturbing the rats--if
that's what you mean--we haven't got a dog with us. Men? Living men they
can't be; for they would have heard us and come on deck. Dead men? Quite
impossible! No ship's crew could be drowned in a land-locked place like
this, unless the vessel broke up under them--and here's the vessel
as steady as a church to speak for herself. Man alive, how your hand
trembles! What is there to scare you in that rotten old cabin? What are
you shaking and shivering about? Any company of the supernatural sort on
board? Mercy preserve us! (as the old women say) do you see a ghost?"

"_I see two_!" answered the other, driven headlong into speech and
action by a maddening temptation to reveal the truth. "Two!" he
repeated, his breath bursting from him in deep, heavy gasps, as he tried
vainly to force back the horrible words. "The ghost of a man like you,
drowning in the cabin! And the ghost of a man like me, turning the lock
of the door on him!"

Once more young Armadale