At last, on a night, as I crouched beside a gun on the 'tween-decks I espied of a sudden a shape, dim and impalpable-seeming in the gloom, that flitted silently past me and up the ladder to the deck above. Up started I, knife in hand, but in my haste I stumbled over some obstacle and fell; but up the ladder I sprang in pursuit, out into moonlight, and hastening forward came face to face with Adam.
"Ha-rogue!" I cried, and sprang at him with up lifted knife; but as I came he stepped aside (incredibly quick) and thrusting out a foot tripped me sprawling.
"Easy, shipmate, easy!" says he, thrusting a pistol under my nose. "Lord love you, Martin, what would you now?"
"So you'll follow me, will you!" I panted. "You'll creep and crawl and spy on me, will you?"
"Neither one nor t'other, Martin."
"'Twas you climbed the gangway but now!"
"Not I, Martin, not I." And as I scowled up at him I knew he spoke truth, and a new fear seized me.
"And you saw no one, Adam? Nothing--no shape that flitted up the ladder hitherwards and no sound to it?"
"Never a thing, Martin, save yourself."
"Why then," says I, clasping my temples, "why then--I'm mad!"
"How so, comrade?"
"Because I'm followed--I'm watched--spied upon sleeping and waking!"
"Aye, but how d'ye know?" he questioned, stooping to peer at me.
"I feel it--I've known it for days past, and to-night I saw it. I'm haunted, I tell you!"
"Who by, shipmate?"
"Aye!" I cried. "Who is it--what? 'Tis a thing that flits i' the dark and with never a sound, that watches and listens. It mounted the ladder yonder scarce a moment since plain to my sight--"
"Yet I saw nothing, Martin. And not a soul stirring, save the watch forward, the steersman aft, and myself."
"Why then I'm verily mad!" says I.
"Not you, shipmate, not you. 'Tis nought but the solitude and darkness, they take many a man that way, so ha' done with 'em, Martin! My lady's offer of employ yet holdeth good, so 'list with me as master's mate, say but the word and--"
"No!" says I, fiercely. "Come what may I take no service under an accursed Brandon!" Saying which I got me to my feet and presently back to the haunted dark.
Thus the days dragged by all unmarked by me (that took no more heed of time) for my fevered restlessness gave place to a heaviness, a growing inertia that gripped me, mind and body; thus when not lost in troubled sleep I would lie motionless, staring dully at the dim flame of the lanthorn or blinking sightless on the dark.