CHAPTER XXXIX.

A GHOST APPEARS TO JUDITH.

The ships were now both repaired as well as they could be at sea. Passed Midshipman Bestor was placed upon the _Sea Scourge_ with a prize crew, and ordered to sail when the _Xyphias_ should, and if possible, to keep her always in view, or if he should lose sight of her, to shape for Cape Town and meet her there. The prisoners were then divided, half of them being sent back to the _Sea Scourge_.

By eight bells every preparation was completed for sailing. But there was no wind. A dead calm still prevailed. All that night and the next day it continued. But on the ensuing morning, just before dawn, Lieutenant Ethel was awakened, and notified that the wind was rising.

He sprang up and hurried on deck, where he found the men all alert, and in the highest spirits. And soon both ships were bounding on their course.

From this day everything went on smoothly; wind and weather favored them; the ships kept in consort, and no unpleasant event occurred to mar the prosperity of the voyage.

Justin, under Britomarte’s fostering care, rapidly improved. It was strange to see with what a motherly tenderness and solicitude this young girl guarded and guided the sick man who was at least ten or twelve years her elder. She would not permit him to overexert himself in any way; she forestalled all his needs; she walked with him, sang to him, and amused his waking hours or soothed him to repose.

Poor Justin! this was a great joy and a great trial to him. He idolized her, but he was forbidden to tell her so. He was in raptures and he was in despair. He considered himself the happiest man alive, and he wished himself at the bottom of the sea.

Notwithstand which he got well so fast under Britomarte’s fostering care, that on the seventh day from his sailing his name was stricken from the sick list.

Captain Yetsom also improved very rapidly under the skillful treatment of the surgeon.

On the tenth day, at night, every one was awakened by the lusty cry:

“Land ho!”

And on the morning of the eleventh, coming on deck, they found themselves anchored in Table Bay.

Here the captain announced that they should remain for twenty-four hours, as he had to see the American consul, and parole a portion of his prisoners.

Under these circumstances, Justin and Britomarte, taking Judith with them, went into Cape Town, and spent the day with their hospitable friends, the Burneys, at Silver Tree Villa.

In the meantime Captain Yetsom, who had now resumed command of his ship, went on shore, and made arrangements with the American consul there concerning the prisoners of the _Sea Scourge_, who he proposed should be paroled and put ashore at Cape Town. This measure, when made known to the prisoners, was met by different individuals in different ways. Some among them who were vagrants belonging to no particular country, such as might be picked up at any seaport to serve under any flag, were willing enough to be turned loose at Cape Town, where they would be sure to find employment.

Others, chiefly American and Irish, rather than be left in a foreign port, were willing to take the oath of allegiance to their own or their adopted government, and to ship as seamen on board the _Xyphias_, which, by reason of the large number killed and wounded, was now short handed.

Others again were neither willing to remain at Cape Town nor to take service on the _Xyphias_, and they earnestly exclaimed against the enormity of Captain Yetsom’s cruelty in turning them loose upon a foreign shore.

Captain Yetsom, when he good naturedly condescended to notice these grumbling remonstrances, answered them in a few words: “Military, or rather naval necessity!” The _Xyphias_, going on her cruise after more privateers, could not be encumbered with prisoners—could not be converted into a floating gaol; and the prisoners could not be trusted on the _Sea Scourge_, which was to be sent home.

So these malcontents were left with the others.

The prisoners thus disposed of, Captain Yetsom turned his attention to other and equally important matters.

He relieved Passed Midshipman Bestor of his charge, and ordered Lieutenant Ethel to take command of the prize to take her home to New York. He reinforced the crew of the prize with some of the best seamen from the _Xyphias_, and he wrote his dispatches to the Secretary of the Navy, describing the capture of the privateer, praising the conduct of his officers and crew, especially recommending Lieutenant Ethel for promotion.

Britomarte, Justin and Judith were to go home on the prize. So on the afternoon of that day all their luggage was transferred from the cabin of the _Xyphias_ to the quarters prepared for them on the _Sea Scourge_. But they themselves, yielding no less to their own inclinations than to the solicitations of the captain, determined to remain with their friends on the man-of-war all that night, and up to the hour of sailing the next morning.

Very early the next morning all was cheerful bustle on both ships, making ready to sail.

Lieutenant Ethel came on board the _Xyphias_ to receive his captain’s last orders, and then immediately returned to the _Sea Scourge_.

But not until the last hour, when the sails were set and the anchor was weighed, did Britomarte and Justin take a last leave of Captain Yetsom and his officers, and amid many mutual good wishes leave the deck of the _Xyphias_ for the yawl boat that was to take them to the _Sea Scourge_.

When all was ready for sailing, the two vessels fired their signal guns and stood out to sea, the _Xyphias_ shaping her course to the northeast, and the _Sea Scourge_ to the northwest.

Britomarte, Justin and Judith stood in the stern of the _Sea Scourge_, leaning over the taffrail, and watching the _Xyphias_ as long as she continued in sight.

On board the _Xyphias_ the doctor and the chaplain stood in a similar position watching them. At intervals Captain Yetsom appeared with the other two, and waved his hat to his friends on the _Sea Scourge_, and was answered by the waving handkerchiefs of our party.

And this was kept up long after they failed to distinguish each other’s faces, and until the ships themselves were out of each other’s sight.

One evening, about the fifth day from that on which they left the Cape, Lieutenant Ethel, Justin, Britomarte and a young midshipman were seated around the cabin table engaged in a rubber of whist, when they were all startled by piercing shrieks, followed immediately by the form of the girl, who came pitching, tumbling and rolling down the companion ladder, and fell upon the cabin floor.

All the company around the table sprang up simultaneously. And Justin rushed to Judith and raised her up, while Britomarte eagerly inquired what the matter was.

“Oh, it’s the ghost! the ghost!” gasped Judith, beside herself with terror.

“What ghost, girl? Are you mad?” said Justin.

“Oh, the ghost iv me swateheart, sure!” sobbed Judith, white and shaking in her panic.

“Nonsense,” laughed Justin; “ghost, indeed! I’d like to see one, for once. What does a ghost look like, Judith?”

“Och, a raw head and bloody bones it was! Ow-oo! Ow-ootch!” she screamed, covering up her face and falling into spasms.

“Give her some brandy,” suggested the young midshipman.

And Lieutenant Ethel called the steward, and had a glass of brandy brought immediately and poured down her throat. It seemed to do her good. They set her back in an armchair, and Britomarte said:

“Now, Judith, tell us what alarms you so.”

“Lorrd bless ye, ain’t I afther telling yez? It was the ghost, sure—the ghost iv me gay Tom, as was dhrowned in the dape say more’n two wears ago!”

“The ghost of Foretop Tom! Judith, you were dreaming!”

“Faix, I wish it was a dhrame itself. But I was wide awake, sure, sitting at the head iv the ladher there, and gazing at a great star, and wondering how far it was off, and what it would be like if one could take howld iv it. And sure I got tired iv that, and I riz up, so I did, and seeing there was none iv thim bastes iv saymen about, I thought I’d take a turn on the deck. And sure I hadn’t walked tin steps afore, happening to rise my head, there I saw the ghost iv me gay Tom standing right foreninst me own two looking eyes. Ow-oo! Ow-ootch!”

“Hush, Judith; don’t scream so. Tell me what he looked like,” said Miss Conyers, convinced in her own mind that the girl had been dreaming.

“Troth, ain’t I afther telling yez before? Sure a raw head and bloody bones he was! Thin as a skillippin! pale as a spicter! and tall as the mainmast, wid a white linen cloth bound round his head, and his right fut tied up in a rag! and his left arm in a sling! and he a-laning on a crutch!”

“Judith, it was one of the convalescent wounded men you saw.”

“Divil a bit! It was the ghost iv me own Foretop Tom. Sure wouldn’t I know it when I saw it standing there forninst me own two looking eyes! And didn’t I like to die wid the fright? And didn’t I wish the ship would open and let me down into the say?”

“Did it speak to you, Judith?” laughed Justin.

“Spake to me? Lorrd help ye! do you think I was going to wait there for it to spake to me? No, I ran down into the cabin here as fast as me hales would bring me!”

“What do you think the ghost wanted of you, Judith?” inquired Lieutenant Ethel.

This was an unlucky question for Judith’s equanimity. It set her speculating in horrors.

“What it wanted iv me, is it? Ah, Lorrd kape us, who can tell! Maybe to warn me iv another shipwreck, whin we would all be dhrowned. Or another say fight, whin we should all be murthered. Or at laste of me own death itself. Sure a ghost nivir appears for nothing.”

“Never,” said Lieutenant Ethel, mischievously.

“Ow-oo! Ow-ootch!” screamed Judith, falling into fresh spasms.

And it became necessary to give her more brandy. And then Miss Conyers coaxed her off into her stateroom and made her go to bed, and sat with her until, under the influence of the brandy she had taken, Judith fell asleep.

“What could have frightened her so?” inquired Miss Conyers, as she came out into the cabin.

“It was as you suggested, either a dream of the figure of one of our convalescent wounded men, I suppose,” said young Ethel.

And this explanation seemed so plausible that it was adopted by all.

“You have very little good of your attendant, I fear, Miss Conyers. Since I have known her she has certainly been more trouble than use,” said the lieutenant.

Britomarte laughed and answered:

“That is because since you have known her she has been in circumstances to draw out all the faults of her character. No one is perfect. But Judith would be a treasure if it were not for her absurd fears—fears of everything—beasts, guns, ghosts—what not.”

Saying which Miss Conyers sat down to the table and they finished the rubber of whist.

Next morning, under the influence of the cheerful sunlight, Judith herself was half inclined to laugh at her own superstitious terrors of the preceding night, and to admit that she might have been dreaming or deceived by an accidental likeness. But when evening came again she kept closely in the cabin, and nothing would induce her to leave it.

On the next afternoon, being the third day from the first appearance of the mysterious visitor, Miss Conyers left Judith engaged in tidying the cabin, and went up on deck to sit and read. She had not been there more than ten minutes when, with piercing shrieks and streaming hair and wild eyes, Judith came flying toward her and dropped at her feet, and buried her face in her lap.

“In the name of Heaven, Judith, what is the matter now? Are you really going mad?” exclaimed Britomarte.

“It appeared to me again! It appeared to me again!” screamed the girl.

“What?”

“The ghost! It looked in at me through the cabin windys! It had its head tied up in a cloth again and its arm in a sling! I know its come to warn me in me death! I know it has!”

“Judith! you will drive me out of my wits if you go on so. Be quiet,” said Miss Conyers, sternly.

“Ow-oo! Ow-ootch!” screamed Judith, clasping Britomarte firmly, and burying her head in her lap.

Miss Conyers beckoned a cabin boy who was passing by, and sent him to ask Mr. Rosenthal to come to her.

And when Justin obeyed the summons, Britomarte pointed to Judith and said, laughing:

“She has seen the ghost again, and is senseless and helpless with terror. Assist me to take her down into the cabin.”

With an impatient shrug of his shoulders, Justin complied with the request. And they took Judith down and laid her on the berth of her stateroom.

“It is worse than useless to be dosing this girl with brandy. We shall teach her to drink. Go and bring me a glass of cold water,” said Miss Conyers.

And when Justin brought it she made Judith swallow it all.

“What can ail the girl, Justin? Is she losing her reason, do you think?” impatiently inquired Britomarte.

“I think she labors under an optical illusion, incident upon an abnormal condition of the nervous system. She has an excessively nervous temperament, which has been severely tried in the last fortnight,” answered Justin.

“Then I must try to have patience with her,” smiled Britomarte.

But Judith did not get over her panic till the next morning, and then several days passed without a re-appearance of the ghost or the illusion.

At length one evening when the moon was bright, Miss Conyers, instead of going down into her cabin, sat in the stern enjoying the beauty of the night; and presently feeling chilly, she told Judith to go to her stateroom and fetch a shawl.

The girl started to obey; but the next minute uttered a terrific shriek.

Miss Conyers sprang to her feet; and there, not three yards from her, stood Judith, struck, statue-still, with terror, gazing upon—what?

A figure just as she had described the apparition to be—thin as a skeleton, pale as a spectre; and if not as tall as the mainmast, certainly looking preternaturally tall from being so preternaturally lean; his head was bound up in a white cloth, his foot tied up in a rag, his arm in a sling, and himself leaning on a crutch;—the ghost of that Foretop Tom who had been drowned more than two years ago.

An icy chill of superstitious horror, that all her will and intellect could not prevent, shot through the veins of Britomarte Conyers.

But the next instant she had governed this feeling; and saying to herself, “I will find out what this means,” she walked straight up to the figure and laid her hand on its shoulder.