"How could a man feel a thing like that?"  At his age was he developing
nerves and insane fancies?  At any rate, the sensation was strong,
compelling.  Making no sound, he turned and stared into the darkness on
all sides.  He saw no one.

Suddenly, startling him so that his taut muscles jumped involuntarily,
came an excited shout from Nigger Ben.

"Ha'nts, Cap'n Barlow!  Oh, my Gawd, save me now!  Looky dar!  Looky
dar!  It's a lady g-g-ghost!  Oh, my Gawd, save me now!"

Kendric ran back.  Nigger Ben was clutching wildly at Barlow's arm.

"You superstitious old fool," growled Barlow.  "It's only that piece of
torn sail flappin' that Charlie was goin' to sew.  Can't you see?  I
thought you weren't afraid of the _New Moon's_ ha'nts, anyway."

Nigger Ben shifted his big feet uneasily and little by little crept
forward to look at the flapping bit of sail cloth.  Slowly his courage
returned to him.  He hadn't been afraid at all, he declared, but just
sort of shook up, seeing the thing all of a sudden that way.  Kendric
passed on as though nothing had happened, as he reasoned perhaps
nothing had.  But just the same, he made his second quiet search, in the
end finding nothing.  But as he went back to his place up deck he
turned the matter over and over in mind stubbornly.  Coincidences were
all right enough, but reasonable explanations lay back of them.  If a
man could only see just where the explanation lay.

He sought to reason logically; if in truth someone had been standing
looking at him, if Nigger Ben had seen something other than the
flapping canvas, then that someone or something had gone aboard the
_New Moon_ at San Diego and had made the entire cruise with them.  That
could hardly have been done without Barlow's knowledge.  Two points
struck him then.  First, Barlow had demanded who Zoraida Castelmar was;
had not Barlow even learned the name of the girl of the pearls?
Second, it recurred to him that Barlow had followed her to the hotel in
the border town, had even had a word with her, since he had brought
Kendric a message.  Why had Barlow gone to the hotel at all?  His
explanation at the time had been reasonable enough; he had said that he
had gone to get a room.  But now Kendric remembered how Barlow, on that

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