"Kept jumping back and forth over my head, whooping and grinning. I got mad, and struck at it with a stick. Jerked stick from my hand and beat me over the back with it. I grabbed at the tarnal ghost, and if I could have got a grip on it I'd downed it. Couldn't hold it; got scared." "No wonder," said Toney. "Any man would have been scared with this great ugly bugaboo whooping and yelling, and jumping backward and forward over his head, and beating him with his own cane." "Ran for the boat. Ghost followed me. Priest had come ashore in the boat with a bottle of holy water in his pocket. He flung it in the critter's face, when it gave a whoop and vamosed." "You infernal thieves!" said the cook, coming forward with a large butcher's knife in his hand and confronting the sailors, "what have you done with my hog?" "Didn't touch your hog," said Old Nick. "Don't be lying there," said the ireful cook. "You have stolen that hog and hid it in the forecastle. Not a taste of lobscouse will you lubbers get until you give up my hog. I'll cut off your rations, you blasted rogues! I'd like to see one of you get any duff for his dinner on Sundays, after this." The sailors were alarmed, for the cook is the great man on shipboard. They humbly protested their innocence, but were sternly denounced as liars and thieves who had stolen the porker, intended for the passengers' dinner, and hidden it in the forecastle. As the cook was brandishing his knife, and growing more violent in his denunciations, he was startled by hearing loud squeals overhead. The sounds were like the shrill cries of a large hog which was having a knife plunged into his throat. "Great thunder!" exclaimed Tom. The cook and the sailors gazed upward with looks of amazement. There was a reiteration of loud squeals. The cook dropped his knife and ran into his galley. The sailors fled with precipitation, until they reached the quarter-deck. Tom Seddon stood gazing upward, while Toney whispered to the Professor. "Yes," said the Professor, "a faculty occasionally exercised. It must be a profound secret." "Shall I tell Tom?" "Whisper it to him, and warn him to be reticent." Toney whispered to Tom, who nodded his head and seemed to comprehend. "You lying lubbers!" said the mate, coming forward, followed by the sailors. "Telling your yarns about a hog in the----" Here there was a succession of loud squeals from the masthead. The hog seemed to be in great agony. The sailors fled to the stern, and the mate rushed into the captain's cabin. The captain came forward. The squeals were louder and more prolonged. The mate trembled and turned pale. "What is it?" said the captain. "The cook killed a hog and hung it alongside his galley, and the devil has carried it up there!" said the mate, pointing to the masthead. "The devil is in the habit of getting into hogs," said Toney. "He once got into a whole herd of swine," said Tom. "There is Scripture for that," said the mate.