room, and a figure in white appeared before him, and he heard, amid
rattling of chains and groans, the words, "Out of this! out of this! out
of this!"

"Get out of this indeed! I'll see you at the bottom of the Red Sea
first!" exclaimed the fat lieutenant, "I've done my duty; and so if you
are a ghost I don't fear you; and if you are not, just wait a bit, and
I'll give you such a drubbing that it will be a long time before you
venture again to awake a naval officer out of his first sleep."

Whether or not the ghost understood this address it is difficult to say;
but at all events, as the gallant officer began to get out of his cot,
an operation he could not very rapidly perform, it vanished from his
sight, so he drew in his stout legs again, rolled himself up, and under
the impression that he was suffering from nightmare from having taken
too much lobster at supper, was in two minutes fast asleep, to be
awakened again in a minute by the loud report of a pistol, which made
him start up and look about him in earnest, not to see anything,
however, for it was nearly dark, as a faint glimmer of starlight alone
came through the long, narrow, and only window in the room.

What befel the other inmates of the Tower on that memorable night must
be narrated in another chapter.

CHAPTER SIX.

MR. LUDLOW DISTURBED--MAGGIE SCUTTLE AND BLIND PETER--MARGERY
DISAPPEARS.

How the slumbers of several of the inmates of the old Tower of Stormount
Bay were disturbed has already been described. The ghosts, if ghosts
they were--for that may be doubted--were of a daring character, for they
ventured to appear even to Mr Ludlow. He was awakened by a groan close
to his head, a chain clanked, and a deep voice uttered the words, "Out
of this! out of this! out of this!"

Though broad awake by this time he made no answer, but endeavoured to
pierce through the gloom with his eyes to ascertain who was in the room.
A minute or more passed by, and he also suspected that he had been
dreaming; at the same time he quietly stretched out his hand to take
hold of a pistol which he had placed on a chair by his bedside--a
dangerous, and in most instances very useless practice. He kept his
finger on the trigger, peering into the dark in the hope of seeing the
person who was attempting, he suspected, to play off some trick on him.
His hand began to ache with holding the pistol in an uncomfortable
position. Suddenly a bright light flashed in his fa