The petty officer was plainly frightened. He turned with rolling eyes and a pasty countenance to the two boys.
"What you seen?" demanded Ikey, likewise disturbed by the petty officer's appearance.
"No—nothin'," murmured the frightened Seven Knott. "But—but it's a ghost."
"What's a ghost?" demanded the boys together, and although they did not believe in ghosts, they could not help being shaken a bit by Seven Knott's earnestness.
"It's what I heard," whispered the older man, still trembling.
"Oi, oi!" exclaimed Ikey Rosenmeyer suddenly. "Was it a clock ticking?"
"That's it! That's what it sounded like. But there's no clock there," the boatswain's mate said. "I couldn't find anything. It's all about you—in the air! I tell you it's a ghost, a ghost-clock. 'The death watch.' They say you hear it on board a ship when she's doomed to sink. Something bad is going to happen to the Kennebunk," finished Seven Knott earnestly.
"Crickey!" cried Frenchy under his breath. "Something bad just happened to that German U-boat. Maybe this death watch you talk about was counting out the submarine, not the battleship."
But Hertig was not to be easily pacified. He was superstitious anyway. He believed that he could not be drowned himself, for instance, because he had been born with a caul over his face.
Frenchy went into the room, presumably to listen for the "tick-tock" sound; but actually to find his knife. He came out with the latter in his pocket; but he also showed a rather pale face and he had not much to say until Seven Knott went away.