He had not made up his mind to say just these words when he was discovered; but they came to him, and they answered his purpose as well as any thing else. Capt. Bendig was startled by the voice from this unexpected quarter; and he rose a good deal more hastily than he had stooped, for he was somewhat stiff in his joints. He even retreated towards the door of the cabin. Possibly he believed in ghosts; for he was an ignorant man, and had been at sea all his life. He may have thought it was some departed spirit he had abused in the flesh while he was the mate of a ship, returning to “spook” him for his cruelty. Certainly he was frightened; and Wade was satisfied that his presence had not been suspected, as he thought before, till he spoke. The captain may have expected to find a jug of whiskey which the cook or the steward had concealed there; but he evidently did not calculate upon finding a human being in his particular sanctum. “What’s under that berth, Pollish?” asked the captain; and his trepidation was apparent in his tones. “I don’t know, sir,” replied the steward promptly. “Did you hear a voice?” continued Capt. Bendig. “I did, sir, very distinctly,” answered Pollish, who seemed to be disturbed by the sound that had come from under the berth. “It must be the Devil. But the Devil wouldn’t hide himself under the captain’s berth on board of the ‘Moonlight.’ He has too many friends on board to put up with any such accommodations.” Pollish meant that the captain was one of them, but he was not so imprudent as to say so. If the steward had been disturbed by the voice, he was not alarmed. “Who is stowed away under that berth?” demanded Capt. Bendig, as soon as he realized that the captain of a vessel should not be frightened at any thing. “I don’t know, sir: I haven’t seen anybody about the yacht but those that belong in her,” replied Pollish, who possibly realized that the blame was to fall upon him for every thing that was wrong. “Have you or Beafbon hid one of your friends in there? If you have, you will wish you were boarding with the fellow you spoke about just now,” added Capt. Bendig. “I haven’t any friend to hide; and, if I had, what should I put him in there for, when I could find a better place in the fo’castle?” “Well, we will soon know who it is,” continued the skipper, approaching the berth again with the light. “Is this the coat you want?” repeated Wade, as he sprang out into the room. CHAPTER XXII. CAPT. BENDIG’S PROMISE.