inute before. "Not another `ghost-
ship,' I hope!"

"No, sir," growled the boatswain rather savagely. "It bean't no ghost-
ship this time, though _she_ ain't far off, I knows, to my thinkin'!"

He added the last words as if speaking to himself, but I heard him, and
his remark stopped my mirth instanter.

"What is it, bo'sun, that you _do_ see, then?" cried the skipper
impatiently; "that is, if you see anything at all beyond some vision of
your own imagination!"

"I ain't dreaming," hailed back old Masters, not quite catching what he
said. "I sees summit as plain as possible out to win'ard. Aye, it be
a-driftin' down athawt our hawser, too, cap'en. Why, hullo! I'm
blessed. Boat ahoy!"

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

IN THE NICK OF TIME.

"A boat!" exclaimed Captain Applegarth, his jesting manner changing
instantly to one of earnest attention. "Where away?"

"On our starboard beam, sir," sang out Masters from the foretop. "About
two points off, I fancies, sir."

"I can't see her," said the skipper, looking in the direction the
boatswain had indicated. "I thought she was close-to from your hailing
her."

"She's further away now than I thought, sir!" shouted old Masters in
reply to this, after having another squirm over the topsail yard. "I'm
blessed, though, if I ain't lost her, with the ship's head bobbing all
round the compass. No; there she be ag'in, sir. No--yes--yes. There
she is, about a mile or so off, sir, I'm thinkin'."

"By George, Masters, you think too much, I think!" the skipper retorted
angrily. "You don't seem to know what you're saying, and I believe
you've gone off your chump since you saw that `ghost-ship,' as you
called it! Go aloft, Haldane, and see what you can make of this blessed
boat he says he sighted!"

I was already in the weather shrouds before the skipper gave me this
order, and in another minute I was on the top beside the boatswain, who
pointed out silently to me a little black speck in the distance
apparently dancing about amid the waves, which were beginning to curl
before an approaching breeze that was evidently springing up from the
westwards. Fortunately, I had a pair of binoculars in my jacket pocket,
and I immediately levelled the glasses at the object in view.

"Well, Haldane!" at last sang out the skipper impatiently from the end
of the bridge, where he still stood, looking up at me with his chin
cocked in the air. "What do you make it out to be, eh, my lad