g, sir?' says the Third. 'Aye,' I said.
'Shut your injection a little. We're off the Goodwins, I suppose.'
Everything was all right, so I climbed up to look. The Old Man was out
on deck and they were heaving the lead. Every minute the siren gave a
mournful whoop and the slow thump of the propeller made me miserable. I
leaned over the side, thinking of my brother and his aeroplane. For the
life of me I couldn't be sure it wasn't all a dream. The thin whine of
the siren sounded very like his cry of '_Charley!_' I heard the Old Man
bark something, heard the tinkling of the telegraph and the siren
bellowed again. We were going full speed astern! Just as I turned away
from the bulwarks I saw a green light, the starboard light of a coaster,
rush past. I could hear some one shouting through a megaphone on the
bridge. She must have been awful close--went past our stern with an inch
to spare as we swung. And then all was quiet again as the engines
stopped and went ahead dead slow. I went down and got my overcoat and a
pipe. The Second was putting on his clothes. 'Ah, you may as well,' I
said. 'It's thick all right,' I like a man that don't have to be called.

"All night we crawled along. You see, the Straits of Dover are very like
Piccadilly Circus. You never know who you may run against in a fog, it's
so crowded and the company is so mixed. About breakfast time the Old Man
judged by soundings he was abeam of Dungeness and we went half-speed.
The fog lifted about Beachy Head.

"So you see, the fact and the fiction was so mixed up in my mind that by
the time we got into the Western Ocean I didn't feel sure which was
which. The Second Mate never said a word more about green lights, for if
he allowed there was an aeroplane about on the middle watch the Skipper
would naturally ask him why he didn't see it. And then what mixed things
in my mind still more was my picking up the Fourth's magazine in the
mess-room one day and reading that yarn. I was going to tell you about
this; but merely to show you how my brother impressed me that I dreamt
about him at sea. But now--it seems I didn't dream it after all.

"I'm not surprised," went on Mr. Carville, after a slight pause to stir
up the ash in his pipe with a pen-knife, "not surprised. My brother had
it in him always. Quite apart from any personal feeling I might have for
him or against, I was always prepared, so to say, to see him doing
something big. His trouble with his season-ticket