It was two or three hours before the report reached the captain's ears; and I may remark that very often on shipboard a story may be circulating for days and weeks among the men of the crew, and the captain know nothing about it. As soon as Captain Dawson--I believe I haven't told you before the name of our commander--heard about the ghost, he proceeded to take active measures concerning him. All hands were called; the men were ordered to stand up in line, and then the captain began at one end of it and questioned each man successively. "Did you see any ghost last night?" he said to the first. "No, sir, I did not," was the laconic reply. "Did you see any ghost last night?" Captain Dawson asked, addressing the second man. "No, sir, I did not." In this way he questioned each man until he came to the ninth or tenth, I forget which, one of the two men whom the British officer was about to take away at the time we were intercepted, as I have told in a previous chapter. When the question was asked, the man raised his hand to his head in form of a salute, and replied,-- "I don't know, sir, but I thought I did." "Well, tell me what it was that you thought you saw." CHAPTER VII. THE GHOSTS AND HOW THEY WERE LAID.--ADMIRAL HOSIER'S GHOST.--THE WARWICK AGAIN.--ENCOUNTERING AN ALGERIAN PIRATE. "Well, sir," replied the sailor, "I was standing near the mainmast about a quarter of an hour or so after eight bells (midnight), in the larboard watch. I was looking for'ard at the time, and saw something white, in the shape of a man, come in over the weather-side of the ship, just abaft of the foremast, and then there was another, and another. I was that frightened I can't say how many of them there was, but there was more'n two or three of 'em, sir. They was in the shape of men, and they just went along without stopping to look at anybody. Seemed to me it must be the Warwick had gone to the bottom and they'd come to tell us about it." "If they'd come to tell us about it," said the captain, "why didn't they stop and do so?" "Oh, ghosts never stop to talk with nobody," said the sailor; "leastways, I never knew a ghost what did." "You seem to be familiar with them by the way you talk," said Captain Dawson. "Well, yes, sir; I hain't seen many ghosts myself, sir, but a good many of my friends has seen lots of 'em, and has told me all about 'em." "You haven't seen any ghosts on this ship before, have you?" the captain asked. "No, sir, I hain't seen no ghost before last night, and I'm not altogether sure that they was the ghosts of Mr. Johnson and the sailors; but that's what I thought."