'Call Tom Hartley aft,' exclaimed the captain.
The name was bawled by the boatswain, and repeated in echoes like distant laughter aloft. Then a man stepped out of the huddle of figures in the shadow of the galley and came through the moonlight, followed by four or five who halted at the gangway.
'What's this you've seen, Hartley?' said Captain Burke.
'I was at the scuttle butt with the dipper in my hand, when, turning my head to look forrard, I see the shadow of a man with the glimmer of a face upon it standing near the foremast. I took a step, thinking it was one of the men, and lost it.'
'How d'ye mean, lost it?' said the captain.
'It sort of went out, sir.'
'Take a lantern and search the ship forward, bo'sun,' said the captain.
The three of them went forward, but I heard the first man tell the boatswain that the way to see the stranger that had come aboard was not by showing a light.
'What's the meaning of it?' said Mrs. Burke.