"I did, I waited, and listened with all my ears, and I heard nothing but the thumping of the engines, and the tramping of the officer on watch overhead. I was about to turn on my heel with rather an angry remark, when he arrested me with a livid face, and said,—
"'There it is!' and sure enough there it was—a low, deep, hollow groan, and no mistake about it, a groan as if wrung from some one in mortal agony, some one suffering lingering and excruciating torture.—I looked at the purser, big beads of perspiration were standing on his forehead, and he looked hard at me. 'I heard it all last night,' he said in a husky whisper, 'but I was afraid to speak. I hunted to-day high and low, and sounded every hole and corner, but there is nothing to be found!' Then he ceased speaking, there it was again, louder, more painful than ever; it certainly came from some place below the floor, and on the starboard side. We both knelt down, and hammered, and knocked, and called, and laid our ears to the boards, but it was of no use,—there was silence.
"'Perhaps it was some one snoring,' I suggested, 'or it might be a dog?'
"'No,' returned the purser, who was still on his knees, 'it's a human voice, and the groans of a dying man, as sure as I'm a live one!'
"I remained in the cabin for half an hour, and though we overhauled the whole concern, we heard nothing more, so I fetched up for my own bunk, and turned in and went to sleep.
"The next day the purser said he heard the moans very faintly, as if they were now getting weaker and weaker, and after this entirely ceased. For a good spell everything went along without a hitch, we had A 1 weather, and made first-class runs. But one evening, in the twilight, I noticed a great commotion in the saloon, I heard high talking—a woman's voice! One of the lady passengers was the centre of a crowd, and was making some angry complaint to the captain.
"'It's the young man in the boots again!' she said. 'And it's really too bad. Why is he allowed in this part of the ship, what are the stewards about? It is insufferable to be persecuted in this manner! Every evening, at this hour, he comes to the door of the saloon and beckons to me, or to any one who is near, but he never seems to catch any one's eyes but mine! It's really disgraceful that the steerage passengers should be allowed among us in this way.'
"The saloon stewards were all called up and rigidly cross-examined by the captain, but they all most positively declared that no stranger had been seen by them, nor was there any steerage passenger on board that at all answered the lady's description.
"'Of course, that's nonsense!' she exclaimed indignantly. 'He comes to the bar for spirits on the sly—and very sly he is—for I've gone to the door to see what he wanted, and he has always contrived to slip away.'
"An extra sharp lookout was accordingly kept by the captain's orders, but the head steward privately informed me with a grin 'that there was no such person as a tall young man in a blue jumper, with long boots, on the ship's books,' and we both came to the conclusion that the lady was decidedly wanting in her top gear.