"An' what did you say?" "Nothing. I came forrard." "Why didn't you bloomin' well harsk him if he weren't doin' ther imaginin' trick when he sent us chasin' hup ther main, hafter that bogyman of his?" "I never thought of it," I told him. "Well, yer ought ter have." He paused, and sat up in his bunk, and asked for a match. As I passed him my box, Quoin looked up from his game. "It might 'ave been a stowaway, yer know. Yer carn't say as it's ever been proved as it wasn't." Stubbins passed the box back to me, and went on without noticing Quoin's remark: "Told you to go an' have a snooze, did he? I don't hunderstand what he's bluffin' at." "How do you mean, bluffing?" I asked. He nodded his head, sagely. "It's my hidea he knows you saw that light, just as bloomin' well as I do." Plummer looked up from his game, at this speech; but said nothing. "Then _you_ don't doubt that I really saw it?" I asked, with a certain surprise. "Not me," he remarked, with assurance. "You hain't likely ter make that kind of mistake three times runnin'." "No," I said. "I _know_ I saw the light, right enough; but"--I hesitated a moment--"it's blessed queer." "It _is_ blessed queer!" he agreed. "It's damned queer! An' there's a lot of other damn queer things happenin' aboard this packet lately." He was silent for a few seconds. Then he spoke suddenly: "It's not nat'ral, I'm damned sure of that much." He took a couple of draws at his pipe, and in the momentary silence, I caught Jaskett's voice, above us. He was hailing the poop. "Red light on the starboard quarter, Sir," I heard him sing out. "There you are," I said with a jerk of my head. "That's about where that packet I spotted, ought to be by now. She couldn't cross our bows, so she up helm, and let us pass, and now she's hauled up again and gone under our stern." I got up from the chest, and went to the door, the other three following. As we stepped out on deck, I heard the Second Mate shouting out, away aft, to know the whereabouts of the light. "By Jove! Stubbins," I said. "I believe the blessed thing's gone again." We ran to the starboard side, in a body, and looked over; but there was no sign of a light in the darkness astern. "I carn't say as _I_ see any light," said Quoin. Plummer said nothing. I looked up at the fo'cas'le head. There, I could faintly distinguish the outlines of Jaskett. He was standing by the starboard rail, with his hands up, shading his eyes, evidently staring towards the place where he had last seen the light. "Where's she got to, Jaskett?" I called out. "I can't say, mate," he answered. "It's the most 'ellishly funny thing I've ever comed across. She were there as plain as me 'att one minnit, an' ther next she were gone--clean gone." I turned to Plummer. "What do you think about it, _now_?" I asked him. "Well," he said. "I'll admit I thought at first 'twere somethin' an' nothin'. I thought yer was mistaken; but it seems yer did see somethin'."