"Ah?" said I. "That's what you were, eh? A cab-driver. Takes a mighty mind to be that, eh? Splendid intellectual effort to drive a cab from the Reform Club to the Bank, eh?" I had hoped to wither him. "Oh, I don't know," he answered, suavely. "I'll tell you this, though: I'd rather go from the Club to the Bank on my hansom with me holding the reins than try to do it with Mr. Gladstone or the Prince o' Wiles on the box." "Prince o' Wiles?" I said, with a withering manner. "That's what I said," he retorted. "You would call him Prince of Whales, I suppose--like a Yank, a blooming Yank--because you think Britannia rules the waves." I had to laugh; and then a plan of conciliation suggested itself. I would jolly him, as my political friends have it. "Have a drink?" I asked. "No, thanks; I don't indulge," he replied. "Let me offer you a cigar." I accepted, and he extracted a very fair-looking weed from his box, which he handed me. I tried to bite off the end, succeeding only in biting my tongue, whereat the presence roared with laughter. "What's the joke now?" I queried, irritated. "You," he answered. "The idea of any one's being fool enough to try to bite off the end of a spook cigar strikes me as funny." From that moment all thought of conciliation vanished, and I resorted to abuse. "You are a low-born thing!" I shouted. "And if you don't get out of here right away I'll break every bone in your body." "Very well," he answered, coolly, scribbling on a pad close at hand. "There's the address." "What address?" I asked. "Of the cemetery where those bones you are going to break are to be found. You go in by the side gate, and ask any of the grave-diggers where--" "You infernal scoundrel!" I shrieked, "this is my room. I have bought and paid for it, and I intend to have it. Do you hear?" His response was merely the clapping of his hands together, and in a stage-whisper, leaning towards me, he said: "Bravo! Bravo! You are great. I think you could do Lear. Say those last words again, will you?" His calmness was too much for me, and I lost all control of myself. Picking up the water-bottle, I hurled it at him with all the force at my command. It crashed through him and struck the mirror over the wash-stand, and as the shattered glass fell with a loud noise to the floor the door to my state-room opened, and the captain of the ship, flanked by the room steward and the doctor, stood at the opening. "What's all this about?" said the captain, addressing me. "I have engaged this room for myself alone," I said, trembling in my rage, "and I object to that person's presence." Here I pointed at the intruder. "What person's presence?" demanded the captain, looking at the spot where the haunting thing sat grinning indecently.