ow," replied the other sadly. "There has been a sad accident in the
stoke-hole!"

Old Masters, whose ears had been wide open to the conversation, here
nudged me with his elbow as I stood beside him, and at the same time
giving forth a grunt of deep and heartfelt significance.

"I knowed summet 'ud happen," he whispered in a sepulchral voice that
sounded all the more gruesome from the attendant circumstances, the
shrieking wind tearing through the riggings, the melancholy wash of the
waves alongside, the moaning and groaning of the poor old barquey's
timbers as if she were in grievous pain, while at that very moment the
bell under the break of the fo'c's'le struck eight bells slowly, as if
tolling for a passing soul. "_You_ seed the ghost-ship, Mr Haldane,
the same as me, for _I_ saw it, that I did!"

CHAPTER SEVEN.

DISASTER ON DISASTER.

"Accident in the stoke-hold!" repeated the skipper, who of course did
not overhear the old boatswain's aside to me. "Accident in the stoke-
hold!" again repeated the skipper; "anybody hurt?"

"Yes, sir," replied the first mate in the same grave tone of voice.
"Mr Stokes and two of the firemen."

"Seriously?"

"Not all, sir," said the other, glancing round as if looking for some
one specially. "The chief engineer has one of his arms broken and a few
scratches, but the firemen are both injured, and one so badly hurt that
I fear he won't get over it, for his ribs have been crushed in and his
lower extremities seem paralysed!"

"Good heavens!" exclaimed the skipper. "How did the accident happen?"

"They were searching under the stoke-hold plates to get out some cotton
waste that had got entangled about the rosebox of the suctions, which,
as we found out, prevented the bilge-pumps from acting, when, all in a
moment, just when all the stray dunnage had been cleared out, the ship
gave a lurch and the plates buckled up, catching the lot of them, Mr
Stokes and all, in a sort of rat trap. Mr Stokes tumbled forwards on
his face in the water and was nearly drowned before Stoddart and I could
pull him out, the poor old chap was so heavy to lift, and he nearly
squashed Blanchard, the stoker, by falling on top of him as we were
trying to raise him up, cutting his head open besides, against the fire
bars. Poor Jackson, however, the other fireman, was gripped tight
between two of the plates and it was all we could do to release him,
Stoddart having to use a jack-saw to force the