in
the same mind about that watch and chain as you was the other day?"

He didn't seem to be able to speak at fust, but arter a time 'e gives a
gasp. "Woes the game?" he ses.

"Wot I want to know is, if I give you that watch and chain for fifteen
bob, will that keep the ghost from 'anging round my wharf agin?" I ses.

"Why, o' course," he ses, staring; "but you ain't been seeing it agin,
'ave you?"

"I've not, and I don't want to," I ses. "If it wants you to 'ave the
watch and chain, give me the fifteen bob, and it's yours."

He looked at me for a moment as if he couldn't believe 'is eyesight, and
then 'e puts his 'and into 'is trowsis-pocket and pulls out one shilling
and fourpence, 'arf a clay-pipe, and a bit o' lead-pencil.

"That's all I've got with me," he ses. "I'll owe you the rest. You
ought to ha' took the fifteen bob when I 'ad it."

There was no 'elp for it, and arter making 'im swear to give me the rest
o' the money when 'e got it, and that I shouldn't see the ghost agin, I
'anded the things over to 'im and came away. He came to the door to see
me off, and if ever a man looked puzzled, 'e did. Pleased at the same
time.

It was a load off of my mind. My con-science told me I'd done right, and
arter sending a little boy with a note to Ted Dennis to tell 'im not to
come any more, I felt 'appier than I 'ad done for a long time. When I
got to the wharf that evening it seemed like a diff'rent place, and I was
whistling and smiling over my work quite in my old way, when the young
policeman passed.

"Hullo !" he ses. "'Ave you seen the ghost agin?"

"I 'ave not," I ses, drawing myself up. "'Ave you?"

"No," he ses.

"We missed it."

"Missed it?" I ses, staring at 'im.

"Yes," he ses, nodding. "The day arter you came out screaming, and
cuddling me like a frightened baby, it shipped as A.B. on the barque
Ocean King, for Valparaiso. We missed it by a few hours. Next time you
see a ghost, knock it down fust and go and cuddle the police arterwards."

William Wymark Jacobs (September 8, 1863 September 1, 1943), was an English author of short stories and novels. He is now best remembered for his macabre tales The Monkeys Paw (published 1902) and The Toll House (in the collection of short stories The Lady of the Barge). However the majority of his output was humorous in tone. His favourite subjects were marine life: men who go down to the sea in ships of moderate tonnage said Punch, reviewing his first collection of stories, Many Cargoes, which achieved great popular success on its publication in 1896.

William Wymark Jacobs (September 8, 1863 September 1, 1943), was an English author of short stories and novels. He is now best remembered for his macabre tales The Monkeys Paw (published 1902) and The Toll House (in the collection of short stories The Lady of the Barge). However the majority of his output was humorous in tone. His favourite subjects were marine life: men who go down to the sea in ships of moderate tonnage said Punch, reviewing his first collection of stories, Many Cargoes, which achieved great popular success on its publication in 1896.

William Wymark Jacobs (September 8, 1863 September 1, 1943), was an English author of short stories and novels. He is now best remembered for his macabre tales The Monkeys Paw (published 1902) and The Toll House (in the collection of short stories The Lady of the Barge). However the majority of his output was humorous in tone. His favourite subjects were marine life: men who go down to the sea in ships of moderate tonnage said Punch, reviewing his first collection of stories, Many Cargoes, which achieved great popular success on its publication in 1896.