And so it had, vanishing as mysteriously as it had come, and leaving only a black void in front of them. Even that steady groaning had stopped, proving conclusively that it had had to do with the appearance of the spectre.
Jack laughed, to the utter astonishment of the rest.
“I don’t see anything funny about this business,” complained Nick.
“Well, p’raps you fellers will quit quizzing me after that experience!” said Josh, with just a little ring of triumph in his unsteady voice.
“And will you please stop shaking that way?” remarked George. “For you make the boat rock the worst kind. It was bad enough seeing that blessed thing, without taking a header overboard right now.”
“Jack, what makes you laugh?” asked quiet Herb, who knew that the other would not have acted in the way he did unless with good and sufficient cause.
“Do you really want to know?” asked Jack, quietly.
Somehow the fact that one of their number did not seem to be affected by the panic that had swept over the rest began to make George and Jimmie ashamed.
“Sure we do, Jack,” remarked the latter, eagerly.
“I was laughing because it was so funny to see how our fine ghost bobbed out of sight the very instant I called to Jimmie to hand me my Marlin,” said Jack.