Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-04-18

Indeed" said. d" it is sadly tagged"
Ragged, is it?" cried he, scornful-
/ "; "then I'll finish it over your lub-
berly back
mo, you WON'T" roared out voice
from behind the long boat. The cap
tain rushed in the direction OF the
sound, but he failed to discover the
speaker.
"Who was that ?" he cried, in storm
of wrath, adding, "Let me know who
it is, and I'll thrash him within an inch
of his life."
Twill you? hah! bah! hah!' was the
mocking reply, d. piping seemingly
| from the maintop.
1t was broad daylight when this took
place. so every one could see that no
one was up there. was as much start
led and mystifed by the occurrence as
was the captain; but neither he nor l,
nor any Of the crew to whom he APP
pealed, could throw light thereon. But
whoever or whatever uttered the words,
my purpose was served, as was Ches-
ter's, on previous occasion. The irate
captain went below filled more with
fear than rage, throwing behind him,
as he stepped upon the cabin ladder,
the ropes end which had so vexed him.
Sailors in general are superstitious
beings. Whatever cannot be easily
made out or accounted for on natural
principles, is laid to the account OF
the supernatural. Our captain was no
better in this respect than his crew, for
he was as illiterate as they, except in
the matter of navigation, and as rough
and untutored. He evidently believed
that his ship was haunted, and that q
spirit from the vast deep had mind to
torment him by its interferences. His
fears were increased not many days af-
ter. On retiring to rest, at the end of
his evenings watch, his slumbers were
disturbed by loud and fearful cry,
which seemed to enter the cabin by the
side-light, which was left open for ven
tilation. The cry was heard by the
second officer, who was on the quarter
deck, and by Chester, who was at the
wheel neither of whom could throw
light upon the incident to the captain,
who had rushed on to the deck in state
of terror, and demanded in vain for the
production of the offender.
From that day il was clear to all that
Captain Phillips was tormented by ap-
prehensions of coming disaster. An
idea was fixed in his mind that his ship
was visited by a spirit from the invisible
world, which preferred to make itself
heard rather than seen. And this idea
was strengthened by the fact, that when
he was on deck, and became angry at
the conduct of any of the men, especial
ly when his anger was made manifest in
oaths and blows-the unseen but ever
vigilant visitor, from afar, would
perched apparently on the top of the
mainmast-utter the insolent laugh or
the dolorous warning. On these occa-
sions the poor man would rush off to
his cabin, with blanched cheek and tot
tering limb, and there abide until the
gale in his mortal sensibilities should
subside.
That it was angry with no one else
but the captain was clear, from the fact
that it never took notice of the conduct
of any other person. The mate or the
boatswain might act as they liked, or
the men might jibe and call each other ;
no matter-the voice was not heard
neither laugh nor moan fell upon our
ears. But most of those who lived in
the forecastle were far from being hap
Ply many of them shared the fears Of
the skipper; and saw that they would
much rather have braved his wrath than
to be tormented as they were by the
"voices of the night" or the "day."
Myself and Chester were exceptions.
What his opinion was, he would not
say !. he met all my questions by
adroit evasions. AS for myself, I had
no explanation to give.
Thus matters went on until we were
within ten days sail of the islands. All
the while our poor captain had been
kept from tyranny. by his fears of the
voice; but now, exasperated by some
fault in seamanship on the part of Ches-
ter, and being the worse for liquor, he
hurled a belayiug-pin at him, which
struck him on the head. Clapping
both hands thereon, with a yell he
rushed into the forecastle. It was evil
dent the skipper expected to hear the
voice, for he looked nervously aloft;
but when all was silent in that direc-
ton his courage returned, and he de-
sired the second officer to call Chester
back to the deck. Getting no answer
to his call, the mate went below, when
he found the poor fellow delirious.
Returning to the deck, he reported
/, him to be in dangerous condition.
This filled the captain with fear. He
ordered that every attention should be
paid him, which was done. That night
it became necessary to have all hands
On deck to reef, and while we were on
the yards an awful cry, like that of a
maniac, arose from the bows of the ves-
sci. and next moment several of us
saw human form on the rail near the
fore swifter, and then loud splash was
heard in the water under our lee.
The captain and chief officers who
were on deck rushed to the side. A
hat was seen for moment bobbing on
the crest of wave; the maniacal scream
was repeated, when Captain Phillips,
) himself uttering cry, fell senseless
on the deck. The mate then hailed US
who were on the topsail yard: "Come
down from aloft clear away the small
boat y We thought he was as near be-
side himself as was the captain; and so
he was for the moment, for when we