Page:Morley roberts--Blue Peter--sea yarns.djvu/104

88 Greig stared at him curiously.

"Don't hang in the wind like that!" he said sharply. "What is it?"

Plump burst out with what it was, and told Greig in a fine flow of words what the second mate had said.

"By crimes!" said Greig. "By all that's holy!"

He walked the deck for a minute, and then came back and stood close to his mate.

"Have you seen this man?"

"No, sir." "Did Mr. Dodman believe him?"

"Dodman isn't a fool, sir. No doubt it seemed to him that the man had heard the tale of the captain's disappearance, and, having been on the drink, he took it into his head that he is Brogger."

Greig turned his back to the mate and stared to windward.

"It's delirium tremens, of course," he said. "That's plain. I'll see him after breakfast, unless he's sober and comes to his senses."

He went below.

"Crawl down now, and for a ghost!" said Greig. "If I do, I'll be damned!"