"What do you say, Marston?" asked John, who was enjoying the society of his friends very much. "I have not seen that lonely old Eltonhead house since I was a schoolboy, and I should like to see it again, especially if we could visit it `by the glimpses of the moon' to-night, since it has now, and has had for some time, I believe, the reputation of being haunted. I hardly think that they would feel uneasy at home on account of my continued absence, as I merely said in my note that I was going to visit a friend on board of his vessel." "If you are agreed, let us stay," replied Marston. "I should like to revisit the old house myself, especially as you say, to "`Visit it by the pale moonlight.'" "And, if you gentlemen desire it," said Captain Dempster, "I will have some hammocks swung this evening in the old manor house. We will pass the night there, and will thus--to take a liberty with Sir Walter Scott's verse--dare "`To brave the witches in their den, The spirits in their hall.'" This proposition being very agreeable to both Coe and Marston, they consented to continue as Captain Dempster's guests until the morning. The three young men remained upon deck to enjoy the glorious day and the beautiful and rapidly shifting scenes presented to their view, as the schooner skirted, within a few hundred yards of the beach, the northern shore of Patuxent Roads--a sheet of water which is, in fact (as I have before mentioned, I think), a gulf or widening of the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Clearwater river. While the three friends were gaily chatting, inspired by the cheering influence of their surroundings, Mr Bowsprit walked up to the commander of the craft. "Captain Dempster," he said, "I think those sailors in the hold and forecastle will be getting into a state of mutiny soon, if we don't let them come out upon deck. They say that their quarters are too close." "Tell them," replied the skipper, "they can come up as soon as they please; we are now fairly out of the Clearwater--at least, out of sight of Drum Point Harbour." The sheet of water called Patuxent Roads is by some considered to be a part of the Clearwater river.