golden head appeared above the mass of foam he yelled in
encouragement.

By this time the small boat was launched and the colored man and Jack
were pulling toward him. Mark succeeded in reaching Nellie as she was
going down the second time. He grabbed her long locks and managed to
keep her up until the little craft was alongside of him.

"Git in quick, 'fore dem whales eat yo' up!" cried Washington.

He hauled the unconscious child in first, and then Jack gave Mark a
hand. As if by magic all the whales had disappeared and the sea was
quiet again. In a few minutes the rescuers and the rescued one went back
again on the _Porpoise_, where Professor Henderson soon brought Nellie
around again. Beyond the shock and wetting neither she nor Mark was
harmed.

It was Jack's watch on deck that night. He had the tour from eight until
twelve o'clock and when, about ten, every one but himself had retired,
he took his position in the door of the conning tower and prepared to
pass the time as best he could.

The ship was moving along at half speed, and, as the automatic steering
attachment was working Jack had little to do. He sat looking at the
stars that twinkled in the sky, the blazing Southern Cross showing among
the constellations, when he heard a slight noise near the companionway.

He looked in that direction and, to his horror, he saw the ghostly white
shape that had, on previous occasions, caused him and the others fright.

At first the boy resolved to shut himself up in the tower and wait until
the uncanny thing had disappeared. Then his courage came back and he
thought he would try to solve the mystery.

He argued that if the weird white object was human and could witness his
movements the best thing to do would be to try and creep upon it
unobserved. On the contrary, if the ghost was some natural phenomenon,
or a supernatural agent, all he could do would be of no avail.

So he decided the best thing to do would be to crawl upon the thing,
keeping as near to the deck as possible and trying to hide himself. With
this in view he put on a long rain coat that hung in the conning tower,
and then, like a snake, commenced to wiggle his way toward the middle of
the platform where the white object still stood.

Nearer and nearer to it Jack came. His heart was beating fast and he was
much frightened, but he nerved himself to continue. As he came closer he
could see that the object looked more and more like a man, completely