He went off grumbling and telling me to be careful, and I put my pipe out and walked up and down the wharf thinking.  On’y a month afore I ’ad lent Sam fifteen shillings on a gold watch and chain wot he said an uncle ’ad left ’im.  I wasn’t wearing it because ’e said ’is uncle wouldn’t like it, but I ’ad it in my pocket, and I took it out under one of the lamps and wondered wot I ought to do.

My fust idea was to take it to Mrs. Bullet, and then, all of a sudden, the thought struck me:  “Suppose he ’adn’t come by it honest?”

I walked up and down agin, thinking.  If he ’adn’t, and it was found out, it would blacken his good name and break ’is pore wife’s ’art.  That’s the way I looked at it, and for his sake and ’er sake I determined to stick to it.

I felt ’appier in my mind when I ’ad decided on that, and I went round to the Bear’s Head and ’ad a pint.  Arter that I ’ad another, and then I come back to the wharf and put the watch and chain on and went on with my work.

Every time I looked down at the chain on my waistcoat it reminded me of Sam.  I looked on to the river and thought of ’im going down on the ebb.  Then I got a sort o’ lonesome feeling standing on the end of the jetty all alone, and I went back to the Bear’s Head and ’ad another pint.

They didn’t find the body, and I was a’most forgetting about Sam when one evening, as I was sitting on a box waiting to get my breath back to ’ave another go at sweeping, Joe Peel, Sam’s mate, came on to the wharf to see me.

He came in a mysterious sort o’ way that I didn’t like:  looking be’ind ’im as though he was afraid of being follered, and speaking in a whisper as if ’e was afraid of being heard.  He wasn’t a man I liked, and I was glad that the watch and chain was stowed safe away in my trowsis-pocket.

“I’ve ’ad a shock, watchman,” he ses.

“Oh!” I ses.

“A shock wot’s shook me all up,” he ses, working up a shiver.  “I’ve seen something wot I thought people never could see, and wot I never want to see agin.  I’ve seen Sam!”

I thought a bit afore I spoke.  “Why, I thought he was drownded,” I ses.

“So ’e is,” ses Joe.  “When I say I’ve seen ’im I mean that I ’ave seen his ghost!”

He began to shiver agin, all over.

“Wot was it like?” I ses, very calm.

“Like Sam,” he ses, rather short.

“When was it?” I ses.

“Last night at a quarter to twelve,” he ses.  “It was standing at my front door waiting for me.”

“And ’ave you been shivering like that ever since?” I ses.

“Worse than that,” ses Joe, looking at me very ’ard.  “It’s wearing off now.  The ghost gave me a message for you.”

I put my ’and in my trowsis-pocket and looked at ’im.  Then I walked very slow, towards the gate.

“It gave me a message for you,” ses Joe, walking beside me. “’We was always pals, Joe,’” it ses, “’you and me, and I want you to pay up fifteen bob for me wot I borrowed off of Bill the watchman.  I can’t rest until it’s paid,’ it ses.  So here’s the fifteen bob, watchman.”