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"Shall we get down to the Nore to-night, pilot ?" said the captain.

"Why, sir, I'm in hopes we shall; we have still nearly three hours daylight; and now that we are clear of the Hope, we shall lay fairly down Sea Reach; and if the wind will only freshen a little (and it looks very like it), we shall be able to stem the first of the flood, at all events."

I ought to observe, that Bramble, as soon as he had passed any shoal or danger, pointed it out to me: he said,

"I tell it to you, because you can't be told too often. You won't recollect much that I tell you, I dare say; I don't expect it; but you may recollect a little, and every little helps."

The tide had flowed more than an hour when we passed the Nore light and came to an anchor.

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"We were

What lights are those ?" inquired I. "That's Sheerness," replied Bramble. talking of the French and Danes coming up the river. Why, Tom, it is not much more than one hundred and fifty years ago when the Dutch flect came up to Sheerness, destroyed the batteries and landed troops there; howsomever, as I said of the French and the other chaps, they won't do so again in a hurry."

As soon as they had veered out sufficient cable, Bramble accepted the invitation of the captain to go down in the cabin, when I went and joined the men, who were getting their supper forwards. I was soor on good terms with them; and after supper, as it was cold, they went down to the fore peak, got out some beer and grog, and we sat round in a circle, with the

bottles and mugs and a farthing candle in the centre. Being right in the eyes of her, as it is termed, we could plainly hear the water slapping against the bends outside of her, as it was divided by the keelson, and borne away by the strong flood tide. It was a melancholy sound; I had never heard it before; and during a pause, as I listened to it, one of the men observed, Queer sound, boy, ain't it? You'd think that the water was lapping in right among us. But noises aboard ship don't sound as they do on shore; I don't know why." No more did I at that time; the fact is. that nothing conveys sound better than wood, and every slight noise is magnified, in consequence, on board of a vessel.

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"I recollect when I was on a Mediterranean voyage how we were frightened with noises, sure enough," observed one of the men.

"Come, that's right, Dick, give us a yarn," said the others.

"Yes," replied Dick, "and it's a true yarn too, and all about a ghost."

"Well, stop a moment," said one of the men," and let us top this glim a bit before you begin; for it seemed to get dimmer the moment you talked about a ghost." Dick waited till a little more light was ob tained, and then commenced.

"I had shipped on board of a vessel bound to Smyrna, now about seven years ago. We had gone down to Portsmouth, where we waited for one of the partners of the house by which we had been freighted, and who was going out as passenger. We were a man short, and the captain went on shore to get one from

the crimps, whom he knew very well, and the fellows promised to send one on board the next morning. Well, sure enough a wherry came off with him just before break of day, and he and his traps were taken on board; but it was not perceived, at the time, what he had in his arms under his grego; and what do you think it proved to be at daylight? Why-a large black tom cat."

"What, a black one ?"

"Yes, as black as the enemy himself. The fellow came down forward with it, and so says I, 'Why, messmate, you're not going to take that animal to sea with us ?'

"'Yes, I am,' said he very surlily; 'it's an old friend of mine, and I never parts with him.'

"Well,' says I, 'you'll find the difference when the captain hears on it, I can tell you; and, for the matter of that, I won't promise you that it will be very safe if it comes near me, when I've a handspike in my hand.'

"I tell you what,' says he, it ain't the taking of a cat on board what brings mischief; but it's turning one out of a ship, what occasions ill-luck. No cat ever sunk a ship till the animal was hove overboard, and sunk first itself, and then it does drag the ship down after it.'

"Well, one of the boys who did not care about such things, for he was young and ignorant, put his hand to the cat's head to stroke it, and the cat bit him right through the fingers, at which the boy gave a loud cry.

"Now, that will teach you to leave my cat alone, said the man; he won't come near nobody but me,

and he bites everybody else, so I give you fair warning.'

"And sure enough the brute, which was about as big as two common cats, was just as savage as a tiger. When the first mate called the man on deck, the fellow left his cat behind him in the fore peak, just as if it were now here; and it got into a dark corner, growling and humping its back, with its eyes flashing fire at every one of us as we came anigh it. 'Oh !' says we, 'this here won't never do; wait till the captain comes on board, that's all.' Well, the hatches were off, and we were busy re-stowing the upper tier of the cargo which we had thrown in very carelessly in our hurry to get down the river; just putting the bales in order (it wasn't breaking bulk, you see); and we were at it all day. At last, towards evening, the captain comes on board with the gentleman passenger; a mighty timorsome sort of young chap he appeared for to be, and had never before set his foot upon the plank of a vessel. So, as soon as the captain was on deck, we all broke off our work and went to him to tell him about this cat; and the captain he gets into a great rage as soon as he hears on it, and orders the man to send his cat on shore, or else he'd throw it overboard. Well, the man, who was a sulky, saucy sort of chap, and no seaman, I've a notion, gives cheek, and says he won't send his cat on shore for no man; whereupon the captain orders the cat to be caught, that he might send it in the boat; but nobody dared to catch it, for it was so fierce to everybody but its master: the second mate tried, and he got a devil of a bite, and came up from the fore peak without the cat, looking very blue indeed; and

then the first mate went down, and he tried; but the cat flew at him, and he came up as white as a sheet; and then the cat became so savage that it stood at the foot of the ladder, all ready to attack whoever should come down; and the man laughed heartily, and told us to fetch the cat. 'Well,' says the first mate, 'I can't touch the cat, but I can you, you beggar; and I will, too, if it costs me twenty pounds;' so he ups with a handspike and knocks the fellow down senseless on the deck, and there he laid; and it sarved him right.

"Well, then the captain thought to shoot the cat, for it was for all the world like a wild beast, and one proposed one thing and one another; at last Jim, the cabin boy, comes forward with some brimstone matches in a pan, and he lights them and lowers them down into the fore peak by a rope yarn, to smother it out; and so it did sure enough, for all of a sudden the cat made a spring up to the deck, and then we all chased it here and there until at last it got out to the end of the flying jib-boom; and then Jim, the cabin boy, followed it out with a handspike, and poked at it as hard as he could, until at last it lost its hold, and down it went into the water, and Jim and the handspike went along with it; for Jim, in his last poke at the cat, lost his balance so away they went together. Well, there was a great hurry in manning the boat, and picking up poor Jim and the handspike; but the cat we saw no more, for it was just dark at the time. Well, when it was all over, we began to think what we had done; and as soon as we had put on the hatches and secured the hold, we went down below into the fore peak, where the smell of brimstone did not make us feel

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