could not
tell.

I raised myself on my elbow and listened intently, but heard nothing
more, and reflecting that, even if what I had heard was more than fancy,
I was helpless, shut in on every hand by impenetrable fog, to render
aid; I could do no more than utter a fervent hope, amounting to a
prayer, that no poor soul had strayed into the water on such a night. It
is easy, too, when roused out of a doze, to imagine one has only
_fancied_ a thing, and I had soon persuaded myself that what I had
heard was no more than the shriek of a syren or cry of a disturbed
sea-gull, and sank once more into a doze, which this time merged into
that solid sleep which comes to those who have had a long day in
sea-air.

Somewhere in that vague period we are apt to call "the middle of the
night," and which may mean any time between our falling asleep and
daybreak, I dreamt that I was in bed in my London lodgings, that a chum
of mine had come in to arouse me, and to do so had gently kicked the
bedpost, sending a jarring sensation up my spine.

At first I was merely angry, and only stirred in my sleep; but he did it
again, and I awoke, intending to administer a scathing rebuke to the
disturber of my peace.

But I awoke on board the _Thelma_, and realised, with a feeling akin to
alarm, that the sensation of "jarring" had been real, and the knocking
which caused it came from something or _some one outside the boat_.

At first I could hardly believe my senses, and raised myself on my
elbow, my whole being strained as it were into the one faculty for
listening.

Again, this time close to my head, against the starboard bulkhead, came
the sound, like two gentle "thuds" on the planking, causing a distinct
tremor to thrill through the yacht.

I cannot imagine any more "eerie" sensation than to go to sleep as I had
done, with a profound sense of isolation and loneliness, cut off from
humanity by a waste of fog and darkness and far-stretching water, and to
be awakened in the dead of night by the startling knowledge that outside
there, in that very loneliness, only divided from my little cabin by a
thin planking--was _something_--and that something not shouting as any
human being would shout at such a time--but _knocking_--as if wishing to
be let in to warmth and comfort, out of the chill and darkness.

Can I be blamed if my suddenly aroused and somewhat bemused senses
played tricks with me, and my startled imagination began to conjure up
th