Then having looked steadily at the wall behind him, and rapped it with his knuckles, he sat down, still throwing an occasional apprehensive glance over his shoulder.

"I've got a touch of the jumps," he remarked apologetically to his employer.

"I likes to _know_ as there ain't no one behind me." "You should give up this shocking habit of drinking," Mr.Girdlestone said seriously.

"It is a waste of the best gifts with which Providence has endowed us.

You are the worse for it both in this world and in the next." Captain Hamilton Miggs did not seem to be at all impressed by this very sensible piece of advice.