Liane saw
something."
"Nobody questions that," Phinuit yawned. "What one does question is
whether she saw a man or a figment of her imagination--some effect of
the shadows that momentarily suggested a man."
"Shadows do play queer tricks at night, at sea," Monk agreed. "I
remember once--"
"Then let us look the ground over and see if we can make that
explanation acceptable to our own intelligences," Lanyard cut in.
"No harm in that."
Phinuit fetched a pocket flash-lamp, and the three reconnoitred
exhaustively the quarters of the deck in which the apparition had
manifested itself to the woman. By no strain of credulity could the
imagination be made to accept the effect of shadows at the designated
spot as the shape of somebody standing there. On the other hand, when
Phinuit obligingly posed himself between the mouth of the companionway
and the skylight, it had to be admitted that the glow from either side
provided fairly good cover for one who might wish to linger there,
observing and unobserved.
"Still, I don't believe she saw anything," Monk persisted--"a phantom
Popinot, if anything.
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